Democracy Without Competition in Japan

Democracy Without Competition in Japan PDF Author: Ethan Scheiner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521846927
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explains why no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a sustained challenger in Japan.

Democracy Without Competition in Japan

Democracy Without Competition in Japan PDF Author: Ethan Scheiner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521846927
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explains why no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a sustained challenger in Japan.

Popular Democracy in Japan

Popular Democracy in Japan PDF Author: Sherry L. Martin
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801461308
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
Popular Democracy in Japan examines a puzzle in Japanese politics: Why do Japanese women turn out to vote at rates higher than men? On the basis of in-depth fieldwork in various parts of the country, Sherry L. Martin argues that the exclusion of women from a full range of opportunities in public life provokes many of them to seek alternative outlets for self-expression. They have options that include a wide variety of study, hobby, and lifelong learning groups—a feature of Japanese civic life that the Ministry of Education encourages. Women who participate in these alternative spaces for learning tend, Martin finds, to examine the political conditions that have pushed them there. Her research suggests that study group participation increases women’s confidence in using various types of political participation (including voting) to pressure political elites for a more inclusive form of democracy. Considerable overlap between the narratives that emerge from women’s groups and a survey of national public opinion identifies these groups as crucial sites for crafting and circulating public discourses about politics. Martin shows how the interplay between public opinion and institutional change has given rise to bottom-up changes in electoral politics that culminated in the 2009 Democratic Party of Japan victory in the House of Representatives election.

Dynasties and Democracy

Dynasties and Democracy PDF Author: Daniel M. Smith
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503606406
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 501

Get Book Here

Book Description
Although democracy is, in principle, the antithesis of dynastic rule, families with multiple members in elective office continue to be common around the world. In most democracies, the proportion of such "democratic dynasties" declines over time, and rarely exceeds ten percent of all legislators. Japan is a startling exception, with over a quarter of all legislators in recent years being dynastic. In Dynasties and Democracy, Daniel M. Smith sets out to explain when and why dynasties persist in democracies, and why their numbers are only now beginning to wane in Japan—questions that have long perplexed regional experts. Smith introduces a compelling comparative theory to explain variation in the presence of dynasties across democracies and political parties. Drawing on extensive legislator-level data from twelve democracies and detailed candidate-level data from Japan, he examines the inherited advantage that members of dynasties reap throughout their political careers—from candidate selection, to election, to promotion into cabinet. Smith shows how the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for representation, vary significantly with the institutional context of electoral rules and features of party organization. His findings extend far beyond Japan, shedding light on the causes and consequences of dynastic politics for democracies around the world.

Building Democracy in Japan

Building Democracy in Japan PDF Author: Mary Alice Haddad
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107014077
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a grassroots perspective and holistic understanding of Japan's democratization process and what it means for the nation today.

The Beginnings of Political Democracy in Japan

The Beginnings of Political Democracy in Japan PDF Author: Nobutaka Ike
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book Here

Book Description


Rebellion and Democracy in Meiji Japan

Rebellion and Democracy in Meiji Japan PDF Author: Roger W. Bowen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520052307
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description


East Asian Perspectives on Political Legitimacy

East Asian Perspectives on Political Legitimacy PDF Author: Joseph Chan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108107826
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
What makes a government legitimate? Why do people voluntarily comply with laws, even when no one is watching? The idea of political legitimacy captures the fact that people obey when they think governments' actions accord with valid principles. For some, what matters most is the government's performance on security and the economy. For others, only a government that follows democratic principles can be legitimate. Political legitimacy is therefore a two-sided reality that scholars studying the acceptance of governments need to take into account. The diversity and backgrounds of East Asian nations provides a particular challenge when trying to determine the level of political legitimacy of individual governments. This book brings together both political philosophers and political scientists to examine the distinctive forms of political legitimacy that exist in contemporary East Asia. It is essential reading for all academic researchers of East Asian government, politics and comparative politics.

One Hundred Million Philosophers

One Hundred Million Philosophers PDF Author: Adam Bronson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824855361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
After the devastation of World War II, journalists, scholars, and citizens came together to foster a new culture of democracy in Japan. Adam Bronson explores this effort in a path-breaking study of the Institute for the Science of Thought, one of the most influential associations to emerge in the early postwar years. The institute's founders believed that the estrangement of intellectuals from the general public had contributed to the rise of fascism. To address this, they sought to develop a "science of thought" that would reconnect the world of ideas with everyday experience and thus reimagine Japan as a democratic nation, home to one hundred million philosophers. To tell the story of Science of Thought and postwar democracy, Bronson weaves together several strands of Japan's modern history that are often treated separately: the revival of interest in the social sciences and Marxism after the war, the appearance of new social movements that challenged traditional class and gender hierarchies, and the ascendance of a mass middle-class culture. This story is transnational in both connective and comparative senses. Most of the Science of Thought founders were educated in America, and they drew upon a network of American thinkers and institutions for support. They also derived inspiration from other efforts to promote a culture of democracy, ranging from thought reform campaigns in the People's Republic of China to the Mass Observation study of the British working classes. By tracing these sources of inspiration around the world, Bronson reveals the contours of a transnational intellectual milieu. Science of Thought embodied a vision of democratic experimentation that had to be re-articulated repeatedly in response to challenges that arose in connection with geopolitical events and social change, prompting the group's evolution from a small research circle in the 1940s into the standard-bearer for citizen activism in the 1960s. Through this history, Bronson argues that the significance of Science of Thought lay in the way it exemplified democracy in practice. The practical experience of the intellectuals and citizens associated with the group remains relevant to those who continue to grapple with the dilemmas of democracy today.

Japan's Living Politics

Japan's Living Politics PDF Author: Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108804993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a rise of populism and decline of public confidence in many of the formal institutions of democracy. This crisis of democracy has stimulated searches for alternative ways of understanding and enacting politics. Against this background, Tessa Morris-Suzuki explores the long history of informal everyday political action in the Japanese context. Despite its seemingly inflexible and monolithic formal political system, Japan has been the site of many fascinating small-scale experiments in 'informal life politics': grassroots do-it-yourself actions which seek not to lobby governments for change, but to change reality directly, from the bottom up. She explores this neglected history by examining an interlinked series of informal life politics experiments extending from the 1910s to the present day.

Democracy in Post-War Japan

Democracy in Post-War Japan PDF Author: Rikki Kersten
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136160116
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democracy in Post-War Japan assesses the development of democracy through the writings of the brilliant political thinker Maruyama Masao. The author explores the significance of Maruyama's notion of personal and social autonomy and its impact on the development of a distinctively Japanese democratic ideal. This book, based on contemporary documents and on interviews with Maruyama, is the only full-scale analysis of his work and thought to be published in English.