ISBN: 9780300076646

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 influen… More...

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. In Japanese Democracy, Richardson explores power relations 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. Media > Book, [PU: Yale University Press]<

ISBN: 0300076649

This text, an analysis of democracy in Japan, refutes the widely accepted hypothesis that postwar Japan has been a semiauthoritarian and consensual state. Rather, it contends, Japanese po… More...

This text, an analysis of democracy in Japan, refutes the widely accepted hypothesis that postwar Japan has been a semiauthoritarian and consensual state. Rather, it contends, Japanese political life has been fragmented and discordant at all levels - bureaucracy, parties and business and industry. asia,asian,democracy,history,ideologies and doctrines,international and world politics,japan,political science,politics and government,politics and social sciences Democracy, Yale University Press<