Political legitimacy in Japan: a Luhmannian perspective
Andrew Mitchell
- Vol. 14, Iss: 1
TLDR
In this article, the authors explore the question of legitimacy in Japan's political system, especially the ones raised by Karel van Wolferen the 1980s, and whether the current power structure can be considered to hold it.Abstract:
Despite widespread public opinion against many of his policies, Abe Shinzo’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is not only maintaining its electoral success but expanding on it. Furthermore the LDP has been in almost continual power since 1955, making Japan in the eyes of some a de facto one-party state. This paper will explore the question of legitimacy in Japan’s political system, especially the ones raised by Karel van Wolferen the 1980s, and whether the current power structure can be considered to hold it. Through using Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, in particular his concept of political legitimacy, it will be shown that while electoral reforms in 1994 addressed most of the systemic legitimacy issues in Japan’s political system, a potential deficit in the government/opposition coding remains.read more
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On Political Legitimacy
TL;DR: The issue of political legitimacy is the core proposition of political ethics and political philosophy as discussed by the authors, and it is the fundamental impetus for the development of political life and political development It is the basis for the effective combination of country and society, politicians and citizens.
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Contemporary Japanese politics : institutional changes and power shifts
TL;DR: A Note on ConventionsList of Abbreviations and Japanese TermsIntroduction1. Japanese Politics Under the LDP2. The Politics of Institutional Reform3. Institutional Changes and Koizumi's Leadership4. Electoral Changes and Their Impact5. Hatoyama's Antibureaucratic Stance6. Kan's Struggle in the Government and the DPJ7. Institutions and Political LeadershipAppendix 1Appendix 2NotesBibliographyIndex
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References
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Book
The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation
TL;DR: Van Wolferen as mentioned in this paper surveys 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.
Book
Democracy without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State
TL;DR: In this article, an explanation for why no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a credible challenger in Japan has been proposed, arguing that a far more plausible explanation rests on the predominance in Japan of clientelism, combined with a centralized government structure and electoral protection for groups that benefit from client-ism.
Book
Theory of society/2
Niklas Luhmann,Rhodes Barrett +1 more
TL;DR: The second volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was first published in German in 1997 The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication as mentioned in this paper.
Book ChapterDOI
The Cognitive Program of Constructivism and a Reality that Remains Unknown
TL;DR: For instance, it was thought that one would have to find all knowledge on ''convention'' or that knowledge was the result of a kind of ''negotiation'' as mentioned in this paper.