Karel van Wolferen

Bio: Karel van Wolferen is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: State (polity) & Stateless nation. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 4 publications receiving 636 citations.

The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

Abstract: This is a survey of every aspect of Japanese life, political and economic, social and psychological, unravelling the enigma of Japan in the modern world revealing that Japan's amassed wealth has brought little benefit to the ordinary Japanese. The author shows how the docile conformity , near absence of litigation and lack of individualism - characterising Japanese society and culture - originates in political purpose. Japan has the institutions of a parliamentary democracy, yet is effectively a one-party state and the power of the Japanese prime minister is less than that of any other head of government in Asia or the West. Japan is governed to all appearances with no centre of accountable power. Karl van Wolferen has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Japan for some quarter of a century. Last year he won the Dutch equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: Developing a Regional Approach to Global Security: 1. Theories and histories about the structure of contemporary international security 2. Levels: distinguishing the regional from the global 3. Security complexes: a theory of regional security Part II. Asia: 4. South Asia: inching towards internal and external transformation 5. Northeast and southeast Asian security complexes during the Cold War 6. The 1990s and beyond: an emergent east Asian complex Conclusion Part III. The Middle East and Africa: Introduction 7. The Middle East: a perennial conflict formation 8. Sub-saharan Africa: security dynamics in a setting of weak and failed states Conclusions Part IV. The Americas: 9. North America: the sole superpower and its surroundings 10. South America: an under-conflictual anomaly? Conclusion: scenarios for the RSCs of the Americas Part V. The Europes: Introduction: 11. EU-Europe: the European Union and its 'near abroad' 12. The Balkans and Turkey 13. The post-Soviet space: a regional security complex around Russia Conclusion: scenarios for the European supercomplex Part VI. Conclusions: 14. Regions and powers: summing up and looking ahead 15. Reflections on conceptualising international security.

The Impact of Size, Stock Market Listing and Industry Type on Disclosure in the Annual Reports of Japanese Listed Corporations

Abstract: This paper represents a contribution to rigorous testing of Japanese financial reporting and specifically reports on the impact of size, stock market listing and industry type on disclosure, both voluntary and mandatory, in the annual reports of Japanese listed corporations. The topic is of interest because findings in one country may not be applicable to Japan because of its so-called unique business environment and unique culture. It is found that size and listing status are important explanatory variables. In addition, manufacturing corporations were found to disclose significantly more information than other types of Japanese corporations. The interaction between industry type and quotation status was also found to be significant.

Politics, institutions, and welfare spending in industrialized democracies, 1960-82

Abstract: We examine the roles of democratic politics and political institutions in shaping social welfare spending in 18 contemporary capitalist democracies. We explore the social spending consequences of government partisanship, electoral competition and turnout, and the self-interested behaviors of politicians and bureaucrats, as well as such relatively durable facets of political institutions as neocorporatism, state centralization, and traditionalist policy legacies. Pooled time series analyses of welfare effort in 18 nations during the 1960–82 period show that electoral turnout, as well as left and center governments increase welfare effort; that the welfare efforts of governments led by particular types of parties show significant differences and vary notably with the strength of oppositional (and junior coalitional) parties; and that relatively neocorporatist, centralized, and traditionalistic polities are high on welfare effort. Overall, our findings suggest that contrary to many claims, both partisan and nonpartisan facets of democratic politics and political institutions shape contemporary social welfare effort.

The small world of germany and the durability of national networks

Abstract: The globalization offinancial markets and the concomitant restructuring decisions of firms challenge the historical legacy of national systems of governance German corporate ownership patterns and restructuring events in the 1990's are examined here in this light The results show that ownership links among German firms constitute a "small world" that has consequences for understanding mergers and acquisitions Ownership links form closely-knit clusters offirms that are nonetheless highly connected across the network as a whole Restructuring events fall squarely in the center of this structure Despite increasing global competition, the German small world tends to replicate itself To illustrate this robustness, potential disruptions to the observed German network are simulated This simulation shows that the properties of the small world remain intact even when ownership ties are changed These findings suggest that a more global economy in Germany need not lead to the dissolution of the ownership structure, but rather may be associated with a deepening of network ties

Organizational demography in japanese firms: group heterogeneity, individual dissimilarity, and top management team turnover

Abstract: This study demonstrates how demography theory can be extended to non-U.S. settings by developing a comprehensive model of factors that vary across nations and that may moderate the link between dem...