Democracy without competition in Japan : opposition failure in a one-party dominant state / Ethan Scheiner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheiner, Ethan, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jiyū Minshutō.

Democracy--Japan.

Democracy.

Political parties--Japan.

Political parties.

Patronage, Political--Japan.

Patronage, Political.

Patron and client--Japan.

Patron and client.

Dominant-party systems.

Japan--Politics and government--1945-.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 267 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Despite its democratic structure, Japan's government has been dominated by a single party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1955. This book offers an explanation for why, even in the face of great dissatisfaction with the LDP, no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a credible challenger in Japan. Understanding such failure is important for many reasons, from its effect on Japanese economic policy to its implications for what facilitates democratic responsiveness more broadly. The principal explanations for opposition failure in Japan focus on the country's culture and electoral system. This book offers a new interpretation, arguing that a far more plausible explanation rests on the predominance in Japan of clientelism, combined with a centralized government structure and electoral protection for groups that benefit from clientelism. While the central case in the book is Japan, the analysis is also comparative and applies the framework cross-nationally.

Contents:

The importance of party competition and a model of party competition failure

Opposition failure in Japan : background and explanations

Clientelism and its determinants

The impact of clientelism and centralized government financial structure : comparative analysis

Local opposition failure in Japan

National-level opposition failure : the impact of subnational-level weakness

Political economy changes and their impact on party systems : comparative analysis

Parallel party systems : political economy changes and the limits to anti-clientelist appeals in Japan

The problem of organization and coherence in top-down party formation

Conclusion : democracy without competition.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-245) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-15256-9

1-281-04009-6

9786611040093

0-511-33378-1

0-511-33444-3

0-511-33310-2

0-511-56781-2

0-511-61066-1

0-511-33502-4

OCLC:

761647313