Problems of Democratic Adjustment in Modern Japan

Asia has too long been the province of unfocused 'scholarship'devoid of any recognizable signif or application, contemporary or otherwise. 2 recent books, Democracy and the Party Movement in Prewar Japan, by R. A. Scalapino, & Nationalism in Japan by D. M. Brown, represent a fortunate break with these traditions. The 1st explains the non-emergence of a democratic party system in terms of the structure of Japanese society & the evolution of Japanese capitalism. The 2nd relates Japanese nationalism at various periods with the soc energies it elicited. The authors suggest that the case of Japan is not sui generis, but that important lessons may be learned with respect to the probable course of democracy in other 'late-developing' Asian states from an analysis of Japanese experience. The present reviewer believes that Japanese development shares 3 important characteristics with the modernization of other Asian states: the outlines & goals of the process have been set by cultural aliens; the soc context of industrialization is widely different from that in the West; the rapidity of change prevents the emergence of sizeable new elites & often leaves an oligarchy in power. From these facts 3 conclusions can be drawn: Western standards of democratic performance are unlikely to be attained anywhere in Asia in the near future; an ultimate boradening of elites is possible; &, the US would save itself much moral anguish if it recognized as a basic premise of its foreign policy the fact that there is no 'free world' in Asia. (AA-AIPSA). Adapted from the source document.