Preparative Constitutionalism

Preparative Constitutionalism or Preparatory Constitutionalism, also known as Preparation of Constitutionalism, refers to attempts by the imperial government of the Qing dynasty of China at implementing top-down constitutional reforms.

The Qing government issued an imperial edict, deciding to imitate the implementation of constitutionalism, but believed that the conditions were not available, so it was necessary to prepare in advance, so it was called "Preparative Constitutionalism".

On September 1, 1906, the Qing court formally declared the Preparative Constitutionalism, thus taking the first step in the history of Chinese constitutionalism and the first step in the reform of the Chinese state system. With the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in October 1911, the process of Preparative Constitutionalism was interrupted and failed completely with the demise of the Qing dynasty in February 1912.