제정과정을 통해서 본 明治 市制町村制의 성격

A Critical Analysis of the Enactment Process of the shi-cho-son System of the Meiji Period

This study aimes at clarifying the nature of the shi-cho-son system of the Meiji period by analyzing its enactment process. Sources related to local administration of the Meiji period compiled in the Omori Shoichi Archives and Nakayama Kanrokuro Archives will be widely used. Previous studies on the shi-cho-son system of the Meiji period tended to characterize it as state-centered, centralized and undemocratic. They drew their conclusion largely from the analysis of the final version of the shi--cho-son system. The enactment process of the shi-cho-son system, however, reveals that it was a product of long and heated debates among government officials. There was a group of officials in the central government who strongly advocated that the shi-cho-son should serve only as a component of local administration. They emphasized central government’s tight control over the shi-cho-son as well. There also existed another group of officials who advocated uniqueness and autonomy of local administration. The latter had a strong voice in the enactment process, and their views were reflected in the final version of the shi-cho-son system.