LDP: Lost Democratic Power…?

Liberal Democratic Party: one-party dominance in a democratic nation state

It is no secret to most of us that Japanese politics can be characterized by single party dominance. The LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) has been in power since 1955, this rule has been interrupted abruptly in 1993, but the ever strong LDP was able to bounce back immediately in 1994. Up to this day, political trends show the continuing dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japanese politics. Analyzing, and explaining the success of the LDP to some extent depend on “opposition failure” factors. In other words, what doesn’t work for the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan), allows the LDP to stay in power. What follows, are some arguments which support the case of the LDP as a party that has dominated Japan for more than 5 decades.

Democracy is defined as…
government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy)

If we look at the case of the Japanese it is quite fit to categorize their brand of democracy as uncommon and to go even further, somewhat unique. Unique in the sense that one party has remained in power and the opposition has been failing in their attempts to gain power in Japanese politics. The point of democracy for me, to a certain level involves competition and homogeneity of position holders. Ethan Schneir in his talk Democracy without Competition in Japan highlighted the peculiarity of the situation of Japanese politics, there is no contention as to the experience and prestige of the LDP, but the unsettling factor presented was the growing unpopularity of the LDP as a party. It is a common analogy that in a democracy, the leading party is also the most popular in terms of appeal towards the people and votes. In Japan, the ruling party is becoming increasingly unpopular and yet it manages to stay in power. Without reading much scholarly materials, one can jump at the conclusion that the answer to this hard question is that the Japanese are just SATISFIED. It can be that plain and simple. As a people they are trained not to stick out against norms and instead, as much as possible just go with the flow.
The opinion preceding this statement obviously does not take into account the electoral system wherein 2 ballots are cast, one is utilized to vote for a party and the other for individual representatives. Statistics show that the LDP as a party does not do well in party elections, but has remained strong in individual candidate elections. The LDP has been hated as a party due to the economic collapse, corruption, and other controversies but fact still remains that after all these years, the LDP has remained to be the most established party in Japan and endorses the most experienced, qualified, and connected candidates. The individual candidates of the LDP can be considered as the bread and butter of the party. Experience in sub-national areas is important people, wouldn’t want to elect novices and inexperienced politicians to champion for their benefits and needs. People would favor incumbents who have been tested through time. LDP candidates vary from successors from prominent political families, and former local office holders. The LDP has been around for so long that opposition parties find it hard to recruit sub-national leaders simply because most candidates come from a long line of loyal members of the LDP.
The strong connection of sub-national candidates with those in power nationally also plays an important role in the decision making of the people. During elections, it is not the most pressing of issues that are tackled, but instead the Japanese are more interested in candidates that can provide a bigger percentage of the benefits given to them. This tendency is called being “clientelistic”, in connection with this is centralization of finances wherein the central government provides most of the funds in local/regional expenditures. This picture then creates a notion that sub-national leaders form alliances with the ruling national party in order to gain support. The pipeline analogy used by Ethan Schneir best describes the logic behind the longetivity of LDP’s rule, he quoted from a member of the Japanese opposition, Most if not all LDP local politicians, go to national politicians for help/support, and these national politicians then attempt to rally proposition in favor of the sub-national leaders to the central government, and this establishes a notion that supporting the rightfully connected candidate allows one to call for better privileges and benefits.
The pipeline analogy offers a way for the opposition to gain power, but it is not a surefire way. Getting the votes of the most autonomous regions is not enough for the DPJ or any other opposition party to topple down an institution like the LDP. The best way to disrupt this one party dominance is to spur change beginning at the national level and then slowly seep through the regional and sub-national levels. It is of course easier said than done, in 2005 political analysts did not expect the sudden rise of votes for the LDP wherein votes from both rural and urban areas favored them. Japan, is not impermeable to changes in the government, but it should be known to many of us today that the long established Liberal Democratic Party shall continue to hold political power in Japan mainly because people have become increasingly apathetic towards their voting rights, and the clientelistic explanation would always point to the tendency of the Japanese to overlook pressing issues and rather rally for the monetary/economic benefits that they can achieve.