The New Political Culture and Political Change in Japan

This paper examines the dynamics of the current political change in Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had been considered a permanent government party, lost it majority holding in 1993 and became the opposition party for the first time since 1955. More strikingly, to regain the majority, the LDP made a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which had been the first opposition party representing the opposite ideological camp for half a century. While most of the studies explaining these changes are based on the elitist approach emphasizing the role of the politicians defecting from the LDP, this paper takes a populist position stressing the importance of the change of the political culture of the Japanese public. This paper bases its theoretical position on the new political culture (NPC) perspective which focuses on the changing political attitudes and actions of the publics in many advanced societies. The causes of the changes in political attitudes and actions comes from the social structural changes which include the emergence of unprecedented affluence, change of family structure toward a "slimmer pattern", and changes of industrial structure with the declining significance of agriculture and manufacturing and the rising importance of high-tech and information industries. These social structural changes lead to significant value changes which include the increase of post-materialism and individualism. As a result of these changes in social structure and values, there emerged a change in the political culture of the public which is mainly characterized by (1) less support for ideology-based political organizations; (2) declining significance of social cleavage, especially class, in approaching political issues, and (3) increasing broad civil political. participation among other features. The resultant NPC in turn influences politics in two specific ways; party structure previously based on conventional ideological politics are transformed into parties more attentive to the changing political culture. Secondly, the NPC encourages more efficiency-oriented policies. Based on the NPC perspective, this paper examines the change of political culture of the Japanese. The "Hoshu-Kakushin (conservative-radical)" ideological cleavage, formerly the most important cleavage in approaching politics in Japan, has significantly declined in importance and consequently support for conventional ideological political parties, the LDP and the SDP, has declined significantly. Using World Value Survey data, this thesis undertakes a path analysis from social structural changes to the change of political culture, proving the causal relations that the NPC perspective expects. Finally, this paper examines the influence of the NPC on the political changes in Japan since 1993. It shows that the NPC type demographics were more skeptical towards the conventional politics and political parties in 1992 one year before the election than more traditional groups. As a consequence, the NPC type demographics were more supportive of the candidates from the new parties in the 1993 election. Throughout this paper, the importance of the change in the political culture of the Japanese public is emphasized as a cause of political change in Japan. By proposing a populist approach in explaining the political changes in Japan, where the elitist approach has been a dominant view, this paper will contribute to a more balanced understanding of contemporary Japanese politics. In addition, this paper stresses the importance of the populist approach to Japanese politics, contending that the influence of the Japanese public on political change will continue to increase

90년대 한국 지상파 방송의 신규진입의 경과와 효과분석

학위논문(석사)--서울대학교 대학원 :경제학부 경제학 전공,2001.Maste

Local innovation and amenity-oriented political culture: local government as an entertainment machine

지방자치제의 혁신을 위한 요인으로는 크게 지방정부의 혁신역량과 일반 주민의 혁신역량을 들 수 있는데, 이 연구는 그 중 일반주민의 혁신역량을 논의한 것이다. 이를 위하여 우리는 지역주민의 정치문화의 중요성을 제기하고, 정치문화를 개발지향정치문화, 효율지향정치문화, 그리고 어매니티지향 정치문화로 유형화하여 각각의 특징을 비교하였다. 그러한 비교를 통해, 우리는 지역의 혁신을 위한 주민의 역량으로 어메니티 정치문화를 지향하고 있는 저연령층, 고학력층, 고수익집단, 그리고 전문가 집단들의 중요성을 제기하였다. 또한 어메니티 정치 문화를 지향하는 집단의 유입과 관련하여 엔터테인먼트 기구로서의 지방정부에 대하여 시론적인 논의를 전개하였다. 엔터테인먼트 기구로서의 지방정부는 먼저 관광 및 문화산업을 바탕으로 지역경제를 활성화한다는 것을 의미하지만, 우리는 그것보다도 엔터테인먼트 기구로서의 지방정부가 혁신역량을 가진 집단들의 유입을 촉진하고 그들 집단들에 의해서 지방정부의 혁신이 가능하다는 점을 강조하였다. 우리는 이러한 주장을 증명하기 위하여 한국 종합사회조사와 인구센서스, 그리고 지방정부의 총계자료를 이용하여 저연령층, 고학력층, 고수익집단, 전문가 집단이 어메니티 정치지향적이고 지역경제의 활성화를 가져올 수 있다는 것을 보여주었다. There are two main factors for local innovation: one is the innovative capacity of local governments and the other the innovative capacity of local residents. This paper focuses on the second factor. Regarding the innovative capacity of local residents, we emphasize the importance of political culture. The paper first reviews three political cultures in terms of their local innovation potential: development-oriented political culture, efficiency-oriented political culture, and amenity-oriented political culture. Based on the review, we argue that amenity-oriented groups, such as youth, the highly educated, the rich, and the professionals, are the main groups for local innovation. In turn, the consideration becomes how to attract such innovative groups. The paper next employs a concept of "the entertainment machine" emphasizing leisure and cultural facilities such as parks, opera house, museums, etc. Our logic is that once the entertainment machine attracts amenity-oriented groups into a locality, they catalyze local innovation. Based on a variety of data such as Census and Korean General Social Surveys, we empirically test the hypothesis that the young, the highly educated, the rich, and professionals are more amenity-oriented and that these groups can become carriers of local innovation in Korea.이 논문은 2004년도 한국학술진흥재단의 지원에 의하여 연구되었음(KRF-2004-074-BM0047)