Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T02:40:27.910Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Pendulum Swings: Experiences from the LDP on Democratizing Party Leadership Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2016

YING WANG
YING WANG*
Affiliation:
Waseda University, Japanwangying@y.toki.waseda.jp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Empowering the rank and file members in choosing a party leader has become an increasing trend in parliamentary democracies. This study examines the process of adopting more inclusive methods to choose a party leader in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan. The LDP introduced a national primary to elect a leader in 1978. However, this first attempt to open up the party leadership selection was soon replaced by traditional coalition-making politics. In this regard, the LDP is different from most of the Westminster parties that followed a smooth linear process of transferring more power to the rank and file members. This article identifies a ‘swing-back’ effect between 1980 and 1990 in the democratization process of party leadership selection. Working like a pendulum, the LDP did not resume a primary until 1991. It was in 2003 that a nationwide primary became a regular way. This article argues that the discontinuity of reformist actors caused this uncommon swing-back effect. The reformist split in 1976, the sudden death of Masayoshi Ohira, and Kanemaru mediation in 1984 stalled the reforms. Although one finds a similar trend in democratizing party leadership selection outside Europe, the LDP presented an abnormal inactivity and time-lag differences.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 106 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boucek, Françoise (2012), Factional Politics: How Dominant Parties Implode or Stabilize, London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Carlson, Matthew (2012) ‘Financing Democracy in Japan: The Allocation and Consequences of Government Subsidies to Political Parties’ Party Politics, 18 (3): 391–08.Google Scholar
Carty, R. Kenneth and Donald, Blake E. (1999), ‘The Adoption of Membership Votes for Choosing Party Leaders and Experience of Canadian Parties’, Party Politics, 5 (2): 211–24.Google Scholar
Cross, William and Blais, André (2012a), ‘Who Selects the Party Leader?’, Party Politics, 18 (2): 127–50.Google Scholar
Cross, William and Blais, André (2012b), Politics at the Centre: The Selection and Removal of Party Leaders in the Anglo Parliamentary Democracies, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cross, William and Katz, Richard S. (2013), The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cross, William and Crysler, John (2009), ‘Grassroots Participation and Party Leadership Selection: Examining the British and Canadian Cases’, in Debardeleben, Joan and Pammett, Jon H. (eds.), Activating the Citizen: Dilemmas of Participation in Europe and Canada, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 173–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duverger, Maurice (1976), Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State, London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Ehrhardt, George (2006), ‘Factional Influence on the 2001 LDP Primaries: A Quantitative Analysis’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 7 (1): 59–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukui, Haruhiro (1970), Party in Power: The Japanese Liberal-Democrats and Policy-Making, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fukunaga, Fumio (2006), Ōhira Masayoshi: Sengo Hoshu Towa Nanika (Ōhira Masayoshi: What is the Conservatives in the Postwar Japan), Chūō Kōron Shinsha.Google Scholar
Iwai, Tomoaki (1990) Seiji shikin no kenkyū: rieki yūdō no Nihon-teki seiji fūdo (A Study of Japanese Political Campaign Funds), Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha.Google Scholar
Kabashima, Ikuo and Steel, Gill (2007), ‘How Jun’ichiro Koizumi Seized the Leadership of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 8 (1): 95–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenig, Ofer (2008), ‘Democratization of Party Leadership Selection: Do Wider Selectorates Produce More Competitive Contests?’, Electoral Studies, 28 (2): 240–7.Google Scholar
Kitaoka, Shinichi (1990), Kokusaika jidai no seiji shidō (Political Leadership in a Globalized Age), Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha.Google Scholar
Krass, Ellis S. (1996), ‘The Mass Media and Japanese Politics: Effects and Consequences’, in Pharr, Susan J. and Krass, Ellis S. (eds.), Media and Politics in Japan, University of Hawaii Press, pp. 355–72.Google Scholar
LeDuc, Lawrence (2001), ‘Democratizing Party Leadership Selection’, Party Politics, 17 (3): 323–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Chao-Chi (2009), ‘How Koizumi Won’, in Reed, Steven R. and McElwain, Kenneth Mori (eds). Political change in Japan: electoral behavior, party realignment, and the Koizumi reforms. Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, pp. 109–32.Google Scholar
LDP (2006a), Jiyū Minshutō Gojūnenshi (50 Years of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan), Vol.1, Tokyo: The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.Google Scholar
LDP (2006b), Jiyū Minshutō Gojūnenshi (50 Years of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan), Vol. 2, Tokyo: The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.Google Scholar
Michels, Robert (1959), Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, translated by Paul Eden, New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Ohira, Masayoshi (2011), Ohira Masayoshi Zenchosakushu (Collected Writings of Masayoshi Ohira), Vol. 4, Fumio, Fukunaga (ed.), Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Ohira, Masayoshi (2012), Ohira Masayoshi Zenchosakushu (Collected Writings of Masayoshi Ohira), Vol. 6, Fumio, Fukunaga (ed.), Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Otake, Hideo (2003), Nihongata Popyurizumu: Seiji Eno Kitai to Genmetsu (The Japanese Populism: Expectations and Disillusionment), Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha.Google Scholar
Otake, Hideo (2006), Koizumi Jun’ichirō Popyurizumu No Kenkyū: Sono Senryaku to Shuhō (A Study of Koizumi Populism: Its Strategy and Technique), Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha.Google Scholar
Okushima, Sadao (2002), Jimintō Kanjichōshitsu no Sanjūnen (My Thirty Years at the Office of General Secretary of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan), Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Shinsha.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul (2004), Political In Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Pilet, Jean-Benoit and Cross, William (eds.) (2014), Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reed, R. Steven (1984), ‘Factions in the 1978 LDP Presidential Primary’, Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 3 (1): 31–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, R. Steven, Scheiner, Ethan, and Michael, Thies F. (2012), ‘The End of LDP Dominance and the Rise of Party-Oriented Politics in Japan’, The Journal of Japanese Studies, 38 (2): 353–37.Google Scholar
Stockwin, J. A. A. (2003), Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scarrow, Susan (2005), Implementing Intra-party Democracy, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, https://www.ndi.org/files/1951_polpart_scarrow_110105.pdf.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Aiji and Martin, Sherry (2003), ‘The New Independent Voter and the Evolving Japanese Party System’, Asian Perspective, 27 (3): 21–51.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Zen’ichirō (1986), Jimintō No Doramatsurugī: Sōsai Senshutsu to Habatsu (LDP's Dramaturgy: Party President Selection and Factions), Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai.Google Scholar
Taniguchi, Masaki (2007), ‘Changing Media, Changing Politics in Japan’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 8 (1): 147–66.Google Scholar
Tsurutani, Taketsugu (1980), ‘The LDP in Transition? Mass Membership Participation in Party Leadership Selection’, Asian Survey, 20 (8): 844–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uchiyama, Yū (2007), Koizumi Seiken: Patosu No Shushō Wa Nani Wo Kaetanoka (Koizumi Administration: What Did a Pathos Prime Minister Change), Tokyo: Chūō Kōronshinsha.Google Scholar
Uekami, Takayoshi (2013), Seitō seiji to fukin’itsu na senkyo seido: kokusei chihō seiji tōshu senshutsu katei (Party Politics and Japan's Inconsistent Electoral Systems: National Elections, Local Election, and Party Leadership Selection), Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai.Google Scholar
Von dem Berge, Benjamin, Poguntke, Thomas, Obert, Peter, and Tipei, Diana (2013), Measuring Intra-Party Democracy: A Guide for the Content Analysis of Party Statutes with Examples from Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Tsuneo (1958), Habatsu: Hoshutō no kaibō (Factions: An Analysis of a Conservative Party), Tokyo: Kōbundō.Google Scholar