晚清地方自治运动发生在西方思潮传入中国以后,在清政府“新政”时期作为地方政治改革的一项主要内容而进行。地方自治运动是在开明地方阶级和地方士绅以及资产阶级人士的推动和参与下,在全国范围内地方基层进行的一系列的尝试和建设。在地方自治过程中,地方自治与民主政治建设方面发生着密切的关系。许多地方建立自治机构,进行民主选举,尤其是地方士绅的参与使国民出现了参政的热潮,地方公益事业及近代教育的发展是自治运动的最大成果。在民主思想还没充分发展的晚清时代,地方自治运动中关于民主政治的实践有着深刻的含义。 In the late Qing Dynasty, the local autonomy movement took place as a main content of local political reform in the period of Qing government “New Deal ” after Western thought was introduced to China. The local autonomy movement was a series of attempts and constructions carried out by the local grass-roots units across the country under the impetus and participation of enlightened local and local gentry and bourgeois people. In the process of local autonomy, there is a close relationship between local autonomy and the construction of democratic politics. In many places, the establishment of self-government institutions and the democratic election, especially the participation of local gentry, have brought about a boom in the political participation of citizens. The development of local public welfare undertakings and modern education is the biggest achievement of the campaign of self-government. In the late Qing period where democratic thought was not yet fully developed, the practice of democratic politics in the regional autonomy movement had profound meanings.