Japanese Democracy: Power, Coordination, and Performance - Brossura

Richardson, Bradley M.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0300076649 ISBN 13: 9780300076646

Casa editrice: Yale Univ Pr, 1998

Riassunto

In this new analysis of democracy in Japan, Bradley Richardson refutes the widely accepted hypothesis that postwar Japan has been a semiauthoritarian and consensual state, heavily influenced by corporations and led by the government bureaucracy. On the contrary, Richardson's extensive newspaper and documentary research shows that Japanese political life has been extremely fragmented and discordant at all levels--in the bureaucracy, legislatures, parties, and interest groups, and in business and industry. Even the seemingly invulnerable Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which ruled Japan for thirty-eight years, experienced rampant internal conflict. Now, the author contends, despite changes in political alignments since the collapse of the LDP in 1993, politics continues much as before.

In Japanese Democracy, Richardson explores power relationships and demonstrates how Japan's political system is unlike Great Britain's and similar to those of the United States and Italy, where politics is decentralized and decisions are made at many levels. He draws some important conclusions: that Japan's postwar industrial policy has not always been successful, that the country is as much an economic welfare state as it is an economic "miracle," and that the lack of strong leadership has kept Japan from playing a more assertive role in the international arena. As in the United States, private interests hold central policymaking processes hostage, and weak leadership prevails.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

Bradley Richardson is professor of political science at Ohio State University and coauthor of The Japanese Voter, published by Yale University Press.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Yale Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1998
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0300076649
• ISBN 13: 9780300076646
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 352
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile