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Japanese Democracy and Political Culture: A Comparative Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

T. J. Pempel
T. J. Pempel*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder
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Extract

Japan is an excellent case for the comparative study of the connections between democracy and culture.

—It is a country with a well established system of constitutional democracy with roots in the nineteenth century. Politically, the country has been constitutionally and electorally democratic for the entire period since the end of World War II.

—Democracy in Japan also has strong social and cultural underpinnings. Despite a hierarchical Confucian tradition, the country is largely egalitarian in its educational, economic, and informational systems. The Japanese citizen enjoys a democratic day-to-day existence.

—Because Japan's democracy, like that of all countries, is far from perfect, it is a good case study for examining ideal conceptions of democracy in contrast to practical democratic realities.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 5 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1992

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References

Additional Readings

Krauss, Ellis and Ishida, Takashi, Japanese Democracy (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989). A collection of analytic essays that attempt to evaluate different aspects of Japanese democracy, including the media, local government, opposition parties, education and so forth.Google Scholar
McCormack, Gavan and Sugimoto, Yoshio, Democracy in Contemporary Japan (Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 1986). A selection of critical essays that point out a number of areas in which Japanese democracy falls short of ideals.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. Policy and Politics in Japan: Creative Conservatism (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1982). A textual overview of Japanese politics that examine six cases of public policy formation, all from a comparative perspective.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. Japan: Dilemmas of Success (New York, Foreign Policy Association, 1986). A broad overview of contemporary Japanese culture, politics and economics written for the generalist.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney et al. Elites and the Idea of Equality (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1987). A cross national study of various aspects of elitism and equality that shows among other things a number of ways in which Japan is more democratic in practice than several other important democratic regimes.Google Scholar