Japan's political system

One of the themes I will probably return to a lot in this blog is democracy, and the nature of it. A few years ago, I took a course in political systems in in other countries. I decided to do a paper on Japanese politics, partly because you never hear anything about it, and partly because when I looked at it I was fascinated. I was reminded of this class I took recently when I saw the news that the Japanese electorate threw out the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (a Conservative Party) after 55 almost unbroken years in charge of the government.

What struck me was just how much we take for granted - simple things like the seperation of powers, government by cabinet, a bureaucracy that acts as the servant of the government of the day, and most of all - a strong 2-party system. Japan is a strange case of a constitutional democracy where for some reason none of this ever fully and completely developed. The consequences that this had for democracy in Japan were immense and significant.

This is a very long post I wrote over the past few weeks- a little insight into Japan's politics, for the uninformed. If you'd like more info on the latest, I definitely recommend Tobias Harris's blog at www.observingjapan.com - practically the only source of English language commentary on Japan's politics.

Ideology in Japan

In most countries, the choice between left and right centers around the philosophy of government. What should it do, and how big should it be?

In countries with a 2-party system like Australia, New Zealand, and most of western europe, since the 1980's the choice has always been between a party that broadly supports smaller government and a pro-business agenda, and a party that broadly supports a more active role for government in the economy and in society. Before that, both parties were big and Keynesian, but even here in Australia we had significant ideological differences between liberal conservatism and individualism as advanced by the Robert Menzies-led Liberal Party, and the more collectivist and social-democratic Labor party, backed by the union movement.

If your interpretation of a 2-party political system is a choice between a big government socialist/social democratic party on the left and a smaller conservative party on the right, then a quick glance at Japan's political system will likely leave you quite baffled. The party that sits on the right ran the economy via a massive bureaucracy it had fostered and maintained for 55 years, while the party notionally left of the political spectrum is the one most vocal about removing the power of bureaucrats. Fundamentally, this party system reflects the state of Japan's democracy - how despite the observance of a democratic constitution and strong institutions, the development of a two-party system was almost fifty years in the making.

Japan is actually a very good case study of what happens when a democracy is governed by one political party for a very long time with no strong opposition. The bureaucracy becomes entrenched and stacked by party officials and sympathisers, and starts to become corrupted by nefarious influences. When there's no threat to a power base, politicians, bureaucrats and business (or other special interests) start to work hand in hand with each other. No matter how corrupt the system becomes, as long as the system works to deliver jobs and prosperity for a large amount of people, there's no imperative to change it, either from within government, or outside it (via the electorate), especially if there is not a viable alternative.

The LDP - A History

This was the situation in Japan from 1955 until 1993. the Liberal Democratic Party, the party quite literally of big government serving big business, ran the country uninterrupted. The only major alternative, the Socialist Party, were not seen as relevant in a time of spectacular growth. So despite scandal after scandal, the LDP remained entrenched.

In this sense, the Liberal Democratic Party is a product of a bygone age - its ideology and the way it governs harks back more to the Conservative parties of the Keynesian consensus of the 1950's and 1960's, before the neoliberal agenda started to bite in the mid 1970's. It's a strangely archaic system that is very out of step with the way conservatives like to govern in the modern world.

Unlike the Republican Party of Reagan or Thatcher's tories, the LDP never went through a radical small-government reformist zeal in the 1980's. In fact, the source of Japanese economic growth was quite the opposite - an economy built through strong central planning. This was such a strong system that Japan was once referred to as the most successful socialist country in the world, despite being governed by conservatives. This is misleading - in fact, Japan's system was about transferring favour to business, who then delivered high tech jobs and infrastructure to japanese citizens in a bubble economy - more corporatist than socialist. As a result, Japan had fantastic economic infrastucture, like roads and bullet trains, but a terrible social safety net.

When the bubble economy burst, Japan was left with a stagnant economy and a number of social problems. It was at roughly the same time, in the early 1990's, that japan's political state started to develop into a two party system. The so called 1955-system worked spectacularly well for about 35 years, growing the economy but stifling democracy. When it all came to a halt, people began questioning the wisdom of the system. Many members left the LDP and formed new parties, including new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa, reflecting a desire for less cronyism and a smaller government. This led to the loss of the LDP's majority in 1993, and the formation of an 8-party coalition government for a year. The LDP would return to power only a year later, but never learned their lesson.

In the 21st century, Junichiro Koizumi saw that his party was dying a very slow death and he wrested control of the policy agenda. Considered a maverick and a reformist, the Japanese loved him. They saw him as a distinct break from the old stuffy fogies of past. What they didn't realise was that he was busy ramming through a neoliberal agenda.

After he was gone, the LDP moved back to all its old ways. Koizumi's neoliberal reforms like Postal Privatisation and deregulation of labour laws proved to be corrosive after he had gone, contributing to the LDP's final collapse in 2009. But that's only half the story - the other half concerns the development of a strong opposition party. Finally.

THE DPJ - a history

In 1994 the opposition parties, realising that they had almost blown their first chance at removing the LDP from it's structural monopoly on power, finally realised that they could not be so bitterly divided when the next chance came. Over the next 5-10 years, most of these parties decided to merge into one single party, which gradually became the Democratic Party of Japan as we know it today.

By necessity, the DPJ came to power representing both the destruction of the big corporatist government, as well as a more socially progressive policy agenda, but with the maintenance of many of the protections for things like rural industries, while at the same time being pro free trade and pro domestic consumption. It seems like one gigantic contradiction, and to some extent it is. It's not often that you'll hear a left wing party arguing for some form of smaller government.

So who is the DPJ? What's their ideology and what will they actually do? It has members who used to be socialists, LDP members, trade unionists, centrists, and liberals. Is is social democratic, centrist, third way, liberal, or something else?

I think the answer to the question of what the DPJ's ideology is can be found in it's very name. It is fundamentally, and above all other things, a democratic party. It believes in strengthening and advancing the democratic process in Japan's political system.

This may seem a bit strange, but it reflects the Japanese system perfectly. The DPJ has realised that it's role isn't just to bring in new policy, it also has to reform japan's democratic system - a project left uncompleted due to government by one party for 55 years, and all of the undemocratic structural and secret power centres that resulted from that system. The policymaking process needs to be streamlined and made more open. Basic things that most western countries take for granted, like the depoliticisation of the public service, safeguards against corruption, and government by cabinet need to be introduced into Japan's system almost for the first time. The DPJ is not just rebuilding Japan's economy, they also have to rebuild Japan's democracy - and one thing may not be able to follow without the other. Hence, the DEMOCRATIC party of Japan.

Ideologically, the DPJ could best be placed broadly close to the third way tradition of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, with a rejection of outright socialism, but incorporating influences of progressive small-l liberalism, social democracy (welfare payments for families), a bit of kenyes (removing tolls on roads) and even a bit of neoliberalism (they actually supported postal privatisation in 2005, but tactically voted against it). The DPJ has to reform Japan to their position not by trying to reform small government neoliberalism from right to left, but by reforming big government corporatism into a more moderately sized social democratic government. Japan is very fortunate that this is the case, since a social democratic government can now set the terms, rather than a radical free market government.

I personally think that the DPJ is looking to the Blair government as a model for both policymaking and democracy. The DPJ has done extensive studies of the way cabinet processes work in that country under New Labour and have already sought to replicate many of those structures in the formulation of their new government. I can also see the ideological influences of New Labour sociologist Anthony Giddens in a number of Hatoyama's public comments, especially his concept of "fraternity", which in practice isn't too far removed from the concepts of community advanced by Blair & Giddens.

If the DPJ is successful in its task of reforming Japan's democratic system, this will have repercussions for the LDP as well. They will have to reform their ideology - I personally feel that in the long run, it will embrace the Koizumi agenda and a more free market and small government attitude, especially as they critique the actions of the DPJ in government.
This will be complicated by the global financial crisis, and no doubt the internal policy wranglings and factional battles will take many years to settle down. They can't seriously argue for a return to the big corporatist government of the past, especially when there still exists a gigantic ideological hole in Japanese political spectrum - there currently is no major party in the Diet that promotes small government. In the long run, if Japan wants to be a democracy that mirrors the ideological battles of most other western countries, as well as one that has all the democratic safeguards we are used to, this is the path they will need to go down.

The more I think about Japan's system the more I realised what a precious and slow-developing beast democracy can be. All those neoconservatives who thought you could just click your fingers and have an election and poof! suddenly there's a democracy need to take a look over their shoulder. It took Japan 55 years before they had a full democracy in an industrialised western country.

Hello world.

And I don't mean that in a John Laws way.

This is a political blog I'm starting. I do have another one. I'm not going to say where it is or who I am. For those interested, I'm Australian. I'm relatively politically active. And I'm guessing you can tell what my leanings are by the title of this blog. For now, that'll do.

My other blog was becoming a dumping ground for my political ramblings, and I'm sure my friends would rather that I write about my social life shennanigans, so I decided to start a new space where I can have a spray about whatever's on my mind politically. I'll probably be posting mostly about Domestic Australian (Federal and State) and American politics, but with a smattering of stuff from Britain, Japan, and maybe the odd random country. And there'll be a lot of stuff about political philosophy and my emerging ideas of what democracy should mean.

The first few posts I put up here will probably be things I wrote while I had a spare moment at work. Just for the hell of it, the first thing I put up here will be on Japanese politics. I wrote an essay on Japan's political system a few years ago, and I was intrigued by the news that the recent Japanese election resulted in a big change.

I'll let the post speak for itself. But for now, I hope you enjoy the blog and stay reading.