The August 30 elections in Japan share many parallels with those held in the United States last November. In both instances, an unpopular ruling party was removed from power. Such parallels are interesting, even when one considers the inherent differences in the political systems of the two economic powers on either side of the Pacific Ocean.
Much like the election in the United States last November, the focus of media outlets across the globe was once more on one election, a change election, in one country, a world power of sorts. In both instances, the victorious party shared a name similar to the other; the party of Barack Obama is the Democratic Party, while that of probable Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is known in English as the Democratic Party of Japan. These unrelated parties are both said to be left-of center in orientation generally, while both also have significant conservative and rather more progressive elements. Thus, one ought to take grand visions of change in Japan with a grain of salt, particularly with Mr. Hatoyama seemingly backing away from controversial statements regarding the cross-Pacific relationship. Meanwhile, the current U.S. administration has seen its credibility with moderates diminish.
Interestingly, in both the Japanese election of August 30, and that of the United States last year, swing constituencies were decisive in the electoral outcome. Much as the perhaps comparably centrist former senator and first lady Hillary Clinton was initially expected to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008, the leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan similarly changed. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the more centrist-to-conservative faction of the DPJ mere months ago was effectively the choice of his party for Prime Minister subject to the even then likely prospect of victory. Mr. Ozawa, like Mrs. Clinton, will be a factor in government policy moving forward.
Similarities were apparent in other ways too between the 2008 U.S. election campaign and that for the Japanese House of Representatives this year. In both instances, the parties dominating the executive branch of their respective governments managed to alienate key allies or strategic partners abroad with certain policies the opposition promised to change. The responses from the Republic of Korea and People’s Republic of China this week were not unlike those of U.S. partners following Mr. Obama’s big win last year.
In Japan as well as in the United States, the generally conservative ruling party was increasingly bogged down in scandal, and even lost ground in earlier areas of strength. Both elections focused more on economic issues than foreign policy, and in both cases, the victorious parties made tax pledges which will be hard to keep when taking into account proposed new spending. Eerily, the more conservative party of defeated Prime Minister Taro Aso offered an electoral platform not all that different from that of the Democrats in his country, again providing a parallel to the U.S. election November last. As the election neared, Taro Aso, like Republicans stateside, used national security as a basis on which to try and rescue a faltering campaign.
In any comparative analysis of these two noteworthy electoral contests, differences are important to note between the respective countries and political systems concerned. The United States of America, constituted as a federal republic, operates under a presidential system of government wherein the national legislature is selected independently of the executive branch of government headed by an official who is both the leader of the government and chief of state. As the was the case in the last two years of the George W. Bush administration, opposing parties can control the separate branches of government at any one time. Japan, similarly to the United Kingdom, is a constitutional monarchy wherein the lower house of the legislature dominates national politics and forms the executive branch of government below the effectively symbolic monarch. Unlike in Britain, the upper house of the legislature in Japan is elected. Incidentally, the House of Councillors in Japan has been under the control of the Democratic Party of Japan since the year that Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 2007.
The contemporary party systems present in the United States and, arguably, most of the industrialized world, are notably different from that of Japan too. Whereas most of the industrialized world have bipartisan or multiparty political systems, Japan was dominated by one political party, the Liberal Democratic Party, from 1955 until this year. Unlike in most other industrialized states, the opposition, soon to be ruling, party in Japan is fairly young, having arisen only in the 1990’s following a ten-month stint of rule by parties other than the LDP early in the decade.
The people of Japan may have sought change in this latest election, but like their American counterparts, they may have replaced one factious, increasingly statist government with another one. There have been high hopes offered for a remaking of the Japanese party system and bureaucracy in the wake of this election. Whether or not a new leader with real challenges ahead will even try to keep tough promises and prove himself to be different is something hard to predict. The people of the United have an answer for this question. The Japanese are awaiting theirs.
Moving forward, interest will presumably grow in Japan to rebuild or reform a defeated party. Presumably, efforts will continue to further engage youth in the political process. Apathy among young adults, in the United States as well as Japan, poses problems for those seeking to reduce taxes or the size and scope of government and regulation. Fortunately, Republicans are making strides to win over younger voters, and have a real opportunity to produce a platform appealing to them, and to a broader cross-section of Americans, from the liberty-minded and those encouraging greater personal responsibility to those seeking better opportunities for business and commerce. Should these efforts succeed, there can be little doubt that parties and movements of similar orientation around the globe will seek to do the same. Nonetheless, the real lesson to take away from the recent Japanese election is that political movements face similar challenges across the world, and can provide inspiration for political efforts elsewhere, even within the United States.
Last 5 posts by James Kane
- In Defense of Michael Steele - July 9th, 2010
- McDonald and Kagan - July 2nd, 2010
- The Petraeus Dilemma. - June 23rd, 2010
- On Paul and Blumenthal - May 22nd, 2010
- Lessons from Arizona - May 12th, 2010
