No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Abstract
Amakudari has been identified as fundamental to interinstitutional cooperation and a number of empirical studies have uncovered the extent and changes in different types of amakudari movements. However, there is a need for mapping different amakudari paths and specifying the nature and structure of these networks. Without such a thorough examination, it is difficult to fully comprehend the degree of overall integration between government and business and their changes over time. In this article, we treat several features of amakudari networks and suggest a more structural and resilient character to Japan's political economy. First, we identify and measure the main paths of the amakudari networks. Second, we specify the nature and extent of homogeneity of these networks and the extent of ministries' participation in the different paths of the amakudari network. Third, we discuss how these networks have changed over the past several decades. However, before we present these analyses we will briefly discuss the development of the literature on amakudari.
... Subgovernments or iron triangles had sat at the heart of Japan's economy since World War Two. These subgovernments involved close relationships between politicians of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), government officials, notably from the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and industry (Colignon and Usui, 2001). The close relationship between government and industry was facilitated by the movement of officials from the bureaucracy to political office, the public sector and private enterprises, a process known as amakudari. ...
The International Atomic Energy Agency asserts that the regulation of the safety of civil nuclear power requires national regulatory agencies to be effectively independent. However, in the early years of national civil nuclear power programs national nuclear industries were dominated by iron triangles or subgovernments of powerful actors with an interest in promoting the industry. The creation of an independent safety regulator requires a radical restructuring of the national governance framework. Windows of opportunity or critical junctures for such reform occur only occasionally. This paper examines the cases of France, Japan, and India to identify the factors that determine the degree of success in attempts to break the power of nuclear iron triangles or subgovernments and create an effectively independent regulator. This analysis shows a serious nuclear accident can create the opportunity to dismantle an iron triangle. The extent and speed with which reforms can be implemented depend greatly on pre‐existing and prevailing conditions. Key determinants include the power structures and attitudes toward nuclear power in elite politics, the degree of engagement of civil society, and pressures from international organizations. Of these, the first, elite politics, appears to be the most important in these three cases.
... A theme of the Japanese nuclear studies discusses the politics associated with Japan's "iron triangle", and shed light on an institutional practice of amakudari. Amakudari, translated as descent from heaven, provides interinstitutional networks and a mechanism for Japan's "iron triangle" (Colignon & Usui, 2001). This practice exists to channel retired bureaucrats to senior executive positions in the corporates they once regulated (Fam, Xiong, Xiong, Yong, & Ng, 2014;Kingston, 2013). ...
Nuclear power has remained a hugely controversial energy technology since the 1970s and became particularly so after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. Engaging citizens in making energy decisions have thus become an increasingly important governing approach to post‐Fukushima energy transitions in many countries. Deliberative participatory processes and learning through social interactions have been increasingly regarded as critical elements of effective public engagement. Yet, little is known about who learns what, how they learn, and what impacts learning has on nuclear governance. Even less is known about the contextual factors influencing social learning. Advancing the literature on nuclear governance, deliberative participation, and social learning, this paper proposes a learning‐oriented framework to evaluate the outcomes of deliberative participation in the context of nuclear governance. We apply this framework in a case study of a national deliberative poll (DP) on energy conducted in Japan in 2012. We critically examine the extent to which and how social learning occurs under the influence of pre‐existing government‐industry‐society relations as a key contextual factor. Mainly based on a qualitative analysis of transcribed materials from a two‐day deliberation over the DP involving 285 citizens, this study has three main findings. First, participating citizens of the DP were able to acquire all of the three orders of social learning through deliberative processes in the DP process. Second, the provision of multiple sources of information, access to diverse perspectives, and the availability of plenty of dialogic processes are identified as factors that were found to facilitate advancement toward higher orders of learning. Third, the “nuclear iron triangle”—a pro‐nuclear coalition—appeared to constrain social learning impacts in the wider socio‐political systems of nuclear governance in Japan.
... Our main finding is that the "electricity iron triangle" of the DPP government, utility workers' union and environmental nongovernmental organisations (ENGOs) has been serving as the main regime actor in energy transition (Figure 1). The "electricity iron triangle" is inspired by the iron-triangle concept in Japanese politics (Colignon & Usui, 2001;Kingston, 2012;Lee, 2020;Mah, Siu, Li, & Lam, 2020). An electricity iron triangle, even though it seeks to initiate energy transition policy agendas, and further aims at expanding renewable energy (RE) in the domestic energy mix, is reluctant to advocate fundamental change. ...
Using electricity sector reform as a case study, this paper analyses the energy policy making in Taiwan, by applying the theoretical concept of regime resistance and an electricity iron triangle, aiming to elucidate analytical challenges that sustainability transition studies are facing in East Asia. While most such studies focus on the critical role of industrial incumbents, this paper shifts attention to the resistance of the “electricity iron triangle” of the ruling party, the utility workers' union and anti‐nuclear groups to fundamental transformation. It draws upon secondary data and primary information from interviews, especially governmental officials, environmental groups, journalists, electric utilities and Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) union members. This research contributes to the wider debates on regime resistance towards the phase‐out of nuclear power and on the effectiveness of electricity liberalisation as a means to achieve an effective energy transition.
... The second factor found to be very important in the failure of isomorphic approaches to combating corruption is the 'iron triangle' of politics, bureaucracy, and business elites. The term 'iron triangle' is derived from Japanese politics where the 'power structure is based on an association of bureaucratic, political, and business elites' (Moon and Ingraham 1998;Pfiffner 1987;Colignon and Usui 2001). In the Bangladeshi case, triangular manipulation can be defined as; ...
Institutional isomorphism emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to show how institutions in different countries develop similarities through imitation. Countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong gained massive success by copying successful initiatives from all over the world. Similarly, anti-corruption agencies such as the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption become global models for combating corruption. Donors such as World Bank, Asian Development Bank, suggest many developing countries create agencies like those to combat corruption. Bangladesh is one of the countries that chose those models and formed an anti-corruption commission (ACC) based on isomorphic pressure from international donors. The aim of this paper is to identify the problems of this isomorphic approach to combating corruption in Bangladesh through the ACC. Based on elite interviews with key informants and document analysis, this paper argues that despite the ACC is an excellent initiative, following the global isomorphism of the ACA model has proved somewhat frustrating. Findings suggest that the ineffectiveness of the ACC is mainly related to failures involving both structure and agency as well as problems within the ACC. Results indicate that these failures have created a ‘toothless tiger’ ACA in Bangladesh.
... Such governmental 'support' as well as the direction of the industrial economy also reflect the identification of the 'structurally depressed industries' mentioned above and the clear focus on building a "science-and technologyintensive nation" (kagaku gijutu rikkoku) in 1995. From a political economy perspective, a well-known and extensively discussed phenomenon in this context is the unique constellation of the so-called Iron Triangle, also known as Japan Inc., where politics, bureaucracy (ministries and government agencies) and companies work closely together (Colignon and Usui, 2001;Johnson, 1982;Gilson and Roe, 1993). This impact of the government on urban and regional development has also been much discussed in relation to the developmental state (Hill and Fujita, 2000;Hill and Kim, 2000;Saito, 2003). ...
The shift of manufacturing industry from Japan, the first industrializing nation in East Asia, to neighboring South Korea and China saw the emergence of restructuring problems and policies in traditional industries and regional economies depending on them. Based on a literature review on this topic in East Asia, this paper draws three conclusions. First, the resource endowments of the three countries differ greatly and consequently also the magnitude of restructuring problems. Secondly, governments in all three countries strongly affect restructuring processes, albeit with different policies and at different spatial scales. Thirdly, although many studies have a strong applied, policy-oriented character, recent research, particularly in China, has started to use evolutionary theories and to engage with debates of mainstream economic geography.
... They also claimed, although with questionable evidence, that Japanese interpersonal relations were unique and stronger than in other societies (see Henshall, 1999: 161-162). Others viewed the origin of Japan's economic success as rooted in its political economy, which was characterized by interinstitutional cooperation and included a myriad of formal and informal relationships between bureaucracy, politics (i.e., the Liberal Democratic Party, LDP 22 ) and the private sector, also called the "Iron Triangle" (see, for example, Colignon and Usui, 2001). The Iron Triangle allegedly produced a homogenous outlook and a common orientation on the part of institutional elites based on the belief that interinstitutional cooperation produces the best outcome for all (see Colignon and Usui, 2001: 865-866). ...
... This is partly because the social credibility of bureaucratic management has been reduced due to the long-standing economic slump, the exposure of many bribery scandals, and partly because the scope of regulatory control has been reduced as a result of deregulation. 1 For instance, Pempel (1998: 95) clearly identified amakudari as an "institution". 2 However, some define amakudari in broader terms. For example, Colignon and Usui (2001) argue that the concept should also include the movement of retired officials into other public organizations and political life. Tsutsumi (2000) treats any type of bureaucratic reemployment as amakudari, including academic positions at universities. ...
... Given that concentrated sectoral incomes often translate into skewed lobbying efforts, it is likely that poorly-diversified economies pave the ground for more public-private collusion and unproductive rent-seeking. If sustained over time, this can lead to the emergence of 'iron triangles' between corporations, policymakers, and bureaucracies and skew industrial policies towards particularistic interests: a phenomenon that may severely undermine, some argue, the pluralist balance in capitalist democracies (Colignon and Usui 2001;Lowi 1969;Olson 1982). ...
Despite the introduction of competitive elections and decentralization, Indonesia’s democracy has yet to realize its promise of good government. Public reform efforts have been paralyzed by national political controversies. Meanwhile, corruption and inefficiency remains a rampant problem across many of Indonesia’s decentralized polities. In this paper I advance three interrelated arguments: First, that the coexistence of new democratic rules and entrenched clientelistic structures has given rise to elite-centered governance; second, that local government leadership has had strong effects, for better or worse, on district performance and probity; and third, that the quality of executive leadership is influenced, not only by individual-level characteristics of local mayors, but also by local ‘topographies’ of power – such as the concentration of and the connectivity to socio-economic assets.
วัตถุประสงค์ของบทความนี้คือเพื่อศึกษาวิเคราะห์กรอบความคิดสามเหลี่ยมเหล็กที่ถูกมักใช้อธิบายพลวัตเศรษฐกิจการเมืองของญี่ปุ่น แต่ยังขาดการผนวกมาวิเคราะห์ร่วมกับกระบวนการกำหนดนโยบายต่างประเทศของญี่ปุ่น บทความนี้เลือกเอานโยบายต่างประเทศญี่ปุ่นที่มีต่อการพัฒนาอนุภูมิภาคลุ่มแม่น้ำโขงด้านการขนส่งระหว่างประเทศมาเป็นกรณีศึกษา เนื่องจากอนุภูมิภาคลุ่มแม่น้ำโขงเป็นพื้นที่ที่มีการลงทุนจากบริษัทเอกชนญี่ปุ่นอยู่จำนวนมาก หน่วยงานราชการและเอกชนของญี่ปุ่นได้แสดงความต้องการการพัฒนาการเชื่อมโยงในอนุภูมิภาคลุ่มแม่น้ำโขงไปยังกลไกและหน่วยงานที่เกี่ยวข้องหลายวิธีการ ดังนั้นการศึกษาการแสดงความต้องการ และความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างนักการเมืองพรรคเสรีนิยมประชาธิปไตย (LDP) หน่วยงานราชการ และหน่วยงานธุรกิจจะช่วยทบทวนกรอบความคิดสามเหลี่ยมเหล็กว่ายังมีความสามารถในการอธิบายพลวัตทางเศรษฐกิจการเมืองญี่ปุ่นได้อย่างไร และเป็นการผนวกเอาการวิเคราะห์สามเหลี่ยมเหล็กและการกำหนดนโยบายต่างประเทศญี่ปุ่นเข้าด้วยกัน เพื่อแสดงให้เห็นถึงความเป็นพหุนิยม (pluralism) ของการกำหนดนโยบายต่างประเทศญี่ปุ่น คำถามหลักของบทความนี้คือภายใต้การเปลี่ยนแปลงทางเศรษฐกิจและการเมืองที่กำลังดำเนินอยู่นี้ทำให้ตัวแสดงอื่น ๆ เข้ามามีบทบาทอย่างไรในชุดความสัมพันธ์สามเหลี่ยมเหล็กและ/หรือช่วยผลักดันประเด็นไปสู่การกำหนดนโยบายต่างประเทศอย่างไร บทความนี้แบ่งการนำเสนอออกเป็น 4 หัวข้อหลักด้วยกัน คือ (1) ข้อถกเถียงเรื่องสามเหลี่ยมเหล็กและการเข้าใจนโยบายต่างประเทศญี่ปุ่น (2) การวิเคราะห์บทบาทของตัวแสดงในระบบเศรษฐกิจการเมืองและนโยบายต่างประเทศญี่ปุ่น (3) ญี่ปุ่นกับการพัฒนาการขนส่งระหว่างประเทศในอนุภูมิภาคลุ่มแม่น้ำโขง และ (4) สุดท้ายเป็นบทสรุป
This chapter places my study within the existing literature on political leadership and explains my methodology and leadership model. To this end, this chapter consists of three sections. Section one briefly examines different definitions of political leadership and explains how the concept is operationalised in the chapters that follow. Section two analyses competing approaches to investigating political leadership, including theories emphasising personal, institutional and contextual factors to explain leadership outcomes. Section two also introduces interactionist theories that emphasise the interplay between a leader’s institutional environment, personal resources and situational context in determining their ability to lead. The final section introduces my leadership model that follows the interactionist tradition.
According to the mainstream literature, the concept of democracy coincides with the historical configuration of the liberal-democratic regimes, producing a static image that rests on a minimal, procedural meaning. We instead support the idea of process-oriented democracy, which occurs in the conflicting relationship between citizens and the state. Every process of democratisation is exposed to the risks of a de-democratisation featuring the regression of democratic conditions. We also integrate the concept of democracy of liberal derivation with other meanings that are gaining ground in the face of a crisis of legitimisation of Western liberal regimes. Democracy is also linked to political participation, connected to the two interrelated concepts of citizenship and democratisation; citizens to whom the rights of belonging to a political community are guaranteed, take part in the public life of that community, trying to influence its course. They may only be interested in public affairs, developing mass political attitudes not necessarily translated into direct engagement, or may also actively participate in the political process in the conventional forms of voting or, otherwise, using non-conventional, protest-oriented repertoires of action. The three main actors of collective political participation are “political parties”, “interest groups” and “social movements”. In this chapter, we will dedicate a specific section to interest groups, which are now central in the dynamics of decision-making in contemporary democracies. Every democratisation process always starts from a non-democratic condition. We will observe the main forms of non-democratic state organisation, from traditionalism to totalitarianism, and the various types of authoritarianism and then dedicate the last section to transition regimes, the so-called pseudo-democracies, and post-democracies.
Japans success in the development of nuclear energy cannot be separated from the role of the nuclear village, a pro-nuclear group comprising experts, bureaucrats, politicians and the mass media. The nuclear village created an image of nuclear energy as safe, cheap and reliable. Using this nuclear village was one of the strategies used to construct a perception of the risk of nuclear energy. Thus, the acceptance by Japanese people of nuclear energy is an important factor in their support for economic development. However, the Fukushima nuclear accident changed the publics perception of nuclear energy and the Japanese Government was asked to end the operation of nuclear power plants. The government decided to change energy policy by phasing out nuclear power by the end of year 2030. Conversely, the Fukushima nuclear accident has not impeded the Indonesian Governments plans to build nuclear power plants. Thus, understanding how the Japanese Government managed nuclear risk is expected to raise Indonesian public awareness of such risks.
The origins of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been widely attributed to the work of scholars, and business managers as well, in North America and Western Europe. Inevitably, however, as the economic interaction of individual firms and entire nations has grown over the past several decades — call it globalization — so too has the concept and the practice of CSR spread throughout the world. It is certainly time to explore how CSR is being incorporated into the practice of business management in other regions and other countries. Therefore, in this chapter we will focus on Asia: specifically on Japan, South Korea, India, and China. It is interesting for academicians to understand how CSR is being absorbed and adapted into the business cultures of these four countries. Perhaps of even greater importance, it is vital that business managers know what to expect about the interaction between business and society as well as the government as their commercial activities grow in this burgeoning part of the world.
For each of these four countries, we will provide an overview of the extent to which CSR has become a part of the academic community and also how it is being practiced and incorporated in everyday management affairs. We will see that there are very significant differences among these countries which lead to the natural question: why? To answer this question, we will use an eight-part analytical framework developed specifically for this purpose. We will look at the history, the dominant religious beliefs, the relevant social customs, the geography, the political structures, the level of economic development, civil society institutions, and the “safety net” of each country. As a result of this analysis, we believe, academicians can learn how CSR is absorbed and spread into commercial affairs, and managers can profit from learning more about what to expect when doing business in this increasingly important region.
Postal reform is a major issue in Japan. Although the Koizumi administration strove to implement many changes, opposition forces both during and following his term diluted the process and the institutional environment has been only marginally realigned. New Zealand’s experience of postal reform, however, shows a marked shift in the institutional environment. This article offers a comparative analysis of the two countries through the lens of institutional economics and suggests that the relative lack of change in Japan might have been due to a failure to disentangle social and commercial concerns.
At the beginning of the 1990s, a massive speculative asset bubble burst in Japan, leaving the nation's banks with an enormous burden of nonperforming loans. Banking crises have become increasingly common across the globe, but what was distinctive about the Japanese case was the unusually long delay before the government intervened to aggressively address the bad debt problem. The postponed response by Japanese authorities to the nation's banking crisis has had enormous political and economic consequences for Japan as well as for the rest of the world. This book helps us understand the nature of the Japanese government's response while also providing important insights into why Japan seems unable to get its financial system back on track 13 years later. The book focuses on the role of policy networks in Japanese finance, showing with nuance and detail how Japan's Finance Ministry was embedded within the political and financial worlds, how that structure was similar to and different from that of its counterparts in other countries, and how the distinctive nature of Japan's institutional arrangements affected the capacity of the government to manage change. The book focuses in particular on two intervening variables that bring about a functional shift in the Finance Ministry's policy networks: domestic political change under coalition government and a dramatic rise in information requirements for effective regulation. As a result of change in these variables, networks that once enhanced policymaking capacity in Japanese finance became "paralyzing networks"--with disastrous results.
This study focuses on the role of corporate political resources in shaping firm strategy in an extension of resource dependence theory. Using a sample of 92 regional banks for the period 1997-2004 in Japan, this paper explores the effect of amakudari (translated as the appointment of former bureaucrats to the boards of directors of private organizations) on the performance and managerial risk-taking of banks. We found that amakudari networks have a negative impact on a bank's profitability in the post-bubble crisis era when firm-specific and other variables are controlled. In addition, the evidence shows that a bank appointing more ex-bureaucrats to its board of directors has a tendency to get involved in more risky lending activities. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study are also found to be robust using the Arellano-Bond GMM estimator.
This book sheds light on the changing nature of contemporary Japan by decoding a range of political, economic and social boundaries. With a focus on the period following the inauguration of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichirō, the book grows out of a recognition that, with the Koizumi administration playing a more proac-tive role internationally and moving ahead with deregulation and the 'structural reform' of the economy domestically, a range of boundaries have been challenged and re-inscribed. Here 'boundaries' refers to the ways in which contemporary Japan is shaped as a separate entity by the inscription and re-inscription of political , economic and social space creating insiders and outsiders, both internationally and domestically. The central argument of the book is that, in order to achieve the twin goals of greater international proactivity and domestic reform, the government and other actors supporting Koizumi's new direction for Japan needed to take action in order to destabilize and reformulate a range of extant boundaries. While boundaries often remain invisible, the aim of this book is to promote an understanding of their significance by uncovering their pivotal role. Decoding Boundaries in Contemporary Japan brings together contributions from leading and emerging scholars from the UK, Japan and the United States. It will appeal to scholars and students of Japan as well as social scientists with an interest in borders and boundaries, and political scientists interested in Asia.
This article discusses the role played by neo-conservative intellectuals during the tenure of Malaysia's fifth prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003-2009). Abdullah's leadership was distinguished by two qualities which arguably qualify it as “neo-conservative,” in
terms of revival of policies from a bygone era and the launching of political reforms within the framework of a conservative regime led by the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party. Using the theoretical experiences of dominant conservative regimes in the Soviet Union, Japan,
China and Taiwan, the present authors are of the view that the policies and approach undertaken by Abdullah constitute a sharp departure from those of his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, for twenty-two years (1981-2003). Particularly eliciting controversy was the trust Abdullah put into a team
of young advisors led by his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin. In this article, we look at how these young neo-conservative intellectuals, together with several identifiable individuals, brought about reforms in Abdullah's leadership and impacted on UMNO politics. We discover that, notwithstanding
their enthusiasm for progressive reforms, these intellectuals had underestimated the strength of reactionary and conservative elements existing within an UMNO-based interlocking system, hence reducing them to an anomaly amongst these forces. The perception deficit befalling these reformists
was aggravated by their encroachment into the political economy of the UMNO rentiers and prevailing weaknesses in Abdullah's support system. The article seeks to contribute to the discourse on intra-elite conflicts in dominant conservatives regimes, such as have taken place in dominant parties
like the UMNO.
In the international anti-corruption discourse, and within the international community, the general attitude as to whether a country is democratic is if anti-corruption standards are high and corruption a marginal phenomenon. Nevertheless, corruption is also an effect of modernity and is considered to be an effect of a failed state or a society with weak institutions. However, since the work of Samuel Eisenstadt we are sensitivee to the diversity of pathways to modernity. Considering this, the question that immediately arises is: why does corruption still exist in modern states like the USA, Germany or Japan if it really is only a prerequisite of the passage to modernity? The question itself provides us with an answer: Modern states are in transition too and corruption is one vehicle by which it takes part in this process. According to our understanding corruption functions both as an elevator (structural corruption) for parvenus from the petty bourgeoisie, but can also take the form of a closed circle of exclusive people of the haute vollée. In the former, corruption is an instrument to gain social capital, while in the latter it is to secure access to social chances and social capital.
Against this background this article investigates the pathways to modernity in Germany and Japan by examining the cultural preconditions of political corruption in both countries. By doing so, we focus on major political scandals related to the legal framework for party financing. We assume that not only systemic imperatives and socio-political scope conditions, but also mentality-related perceptions as well as action- and value-orientations can have a structuring impact when it comes to corrupt conduct in politics.
Reiffenstein T. Specialization, centralization, and the distribution of patent intermediaries in the USA and Japan, Regional Studies. The preparation, examination and litigation of patents requires a complex division of labour. The inventors and firms that generate patents have been well covered in the geographical literature, but the same cannot be said of the producer services whose job it is to shepherd patents through patent offices and the courts. This paper explores the spatial distribution of patent intermediaries (agents and attorneys) in the USA and Japan with a view to shedding light on how the institutional architecture of national patent systems shapes the geographies of patent practitioners. This comparison reveals important differences in their locational preferences at several scales of analysis. US patent intermediation is geographically decentralized and practised in conjunction with other facets of business law, while in Japan the situation is far more specialized and concentrated in Tokyo. [image omitted]
The Japanese defense market is an oligopoly. Firms in the defense industry also produce civilian goods, and the revenues they obtain from defense contracts are quite small relative to the revenues coming from the production of private goods. Because the Japanese constitution prohibits arms export, the defense industry in Japan essentially serves an internal market. Furthermore, defense contracts are not awarded on a competitive basis. The procurement procedures rely on cost-plus contracts, most of which are carried out at the discretion of the bureaucrats in charge. Information on prices and contracts thus become extremely opaque, which makes it easier for misuse and corruption to flourish. The paper presents a game that incorporates these features of the defense procurement process. The results of the analysis suggest that the government pay for low-quality defenses goods at inflated prices. Furthermore, because Japanese firms are shielded from competition and because of the lack of a large foreign market, the Japanese defense industry has no incentive to engage in R&D to improve the quality of its defense goods.
Crime as a Cultural Problem. The Relevance of Perceptions of Corruption to Crime Prevention. A Comparative Cultural Study in the EU-Accession States Bulgaria and Romania, the EU-Candidate States Turkey and Croatia and the EU-States Germany, Greece and United Kingdom
Existing theories of the nature of the state in Western capitalist democracies have been mostly propounded from one of three major theoretical perspectives, each emphasising a particular aspect of the state: the 'pluralist', which emphasises its democratic aspect: the 'managerial', which emphasises its bureaucratic elements: and the 'class', which focuses on its capitalistic aspect. Each of these theoretical perspectives has contributed something to our understanding of the state, but each also has its limitations. In this book, Alford and Friedland evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective and present a new, synthetic framework for a more comprehensive theory of the state. Impartially reviewing the major historical and empirical works within each theoretical tradition, they reveal how empirical study has been shaped by theoretical assumptions. They agree that each perspective has a distinctive 'power' to understand part of the reality of the modern state, although it is powerless to explain other parts. In each case, the part that can be explained is the perspective's 'home domain', or the aspect of the state that it emphasises, while other aspects are either rejected or reinterpreted. The authors argue that the state cannot be adequately understood unless full account is taken of each of these home domains, and they suggest how the contributions of each perspective to the explanation of its own domain can be integrated into a new, and more powerful, theory.
Based on a qualitative study of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), this paper argues that the celebrated rise of MPT's status to a "policy" ministry is best understood in terms of its expanding power of external control. Amakudari is a prized product of such bureaucratic control over firms and works as "spoils" for the regulatory ministry. The extensive web of amakudari that MPT cast, following the "privatization" of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph and the "liberalization" of the telecommunications industry, may well lead to costly policy failure not unlike the jusen and HIV-contaminated blood scandals.
Gendai Nihon no seito to seiji [Parties and politics in contemporary Japan (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1962); and Uchida Kenzo, Gendai Nihon no hoshu seiji
- Robert Scalapino
- Junnosuke Masumi
MPT (2) MPT (2) H & W (1) Labor (2) H & W (1) MITI (1) MT (1) HA (1) HA (1) Labor (1) MOF (1) MITI (1) HA (1)
- Hm
I refer not to consensus as a cultural norm but to the transactional nature of Japanese government-business relations, which is enduring because of the political stability of Japan's national institutions
- Writes Samuels
Muramatsu Michio, Nihon no gyosei
- T J Pempel
Labor (1) Agrii (1) Justice (1) Educc (1) Labor (1) - H & W (1)
- Fa
Political Inclusivity: The Domestic Structure of Trade
- Daniel Okimoto
Okura-sho wa naze oitsumeraretanaka
- Mabuchi See
- Masaru