From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: Japanese Govt (Was: New era in American politics....)
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 07:17:36 GMT

In article <jwb.721281240@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au>
jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen) writes:
>underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
>>One of the first things that Japan should do is to reform the position
>>of prime minister by making it a _directly_ _elected_ position and renaming
>>it "president".  This will have the twin beneficial effects of (1) making
>>it very hard for any single party (like the LDP) to control the Japanese
>>gov't and (2) injecting youth and change into the position of prime minister.
>...
>What Japan could do with is some electoral reform which resulted in people
>having a real choice. The highly malapportioned multi-member
>electorate system in Japan has meant a locked in arrangement of a
>permanent governing party and a permanent opposition.

But I think that the LDP will still have a lock on the legislature
even if there is reapportionment.  What I'm saying is that it will
be harder for the LDP to control everything in the gov't if the
executive is directly elected.  We can still call the position "prime
minister" if you, Mr. Breen, don't like the sound of "president".

Judging from politics in the USA (and Japan), when something major
goes wrong at the national level (or there is a national scandal
or there is a national controversy or there the national economy goes
bad), the most visible person that is the target for blame is the
president (or prime minister).  That's why the LDP cycled through
several prime ministers a few years ago.  That's why Bush got defeated
by Clinton.

But note that even though the prime ministers are cycled, they are
still all from the LDP because the LDP controls the chamber of the
Diet that is responsible for selecting the prime minister.  Which
ever party controls the Diet also controls the position of prime minister.
That _does_ not encourage political diversity in the gov't; on the
contrary, that exacerbates 1-party rule.

I am sure that if the position of prime minister were directly elected
and if the election coincided with the height of the Uno-scandal a few
years ago, then no LDP prime minister would have been elected.  Polls
back then indicated an approval rating (of the LDP by the Japanese) in
the single digit range.

>...
>BTW 2, I suspect the fact that Japan is a Monarchy might make it just
>a little difficult to have a "president".

No, it won't.  The Monarchy in Japan is powerless.

What direct election of the prime minister would do is to place
the prime minister under greater control by the people at large
then by the LDP.  What happens now is that if the LDP is unhappy
with the prime minister, he is just removed.  Kaifu didn't deserve
to be bunted out of his position at the will of the LDP.

Some people say that because the USA uses an electoral college,
an indirect means of selecting the president, the elected president
is not that representative of the will of the people (as a 
directly-elected president).  Well, in the Japanese system,
the prime minister is even less representative of the will of the
people.

The prime minister of Japan, currently, answers directly to the LDP.
Literally.  The LDP can remove him as it sees fit.

>BTW 3, after 8 years of Reagan, not to mention 68 yo Bush, point (2)
>above is a little weak.

No, it isn't.

William Clinton just won the election.  He confirms what I've just said.
The national economy is bad, and Bush is an older guy who _appears_ to
be stuck in his ways.  Clinton is a younger guy who _appears_ to
represent change.  When something goes wrong at the national level,
the person who _contrasts_ with the person currently in power is more
likely to win.

If the economy were excellent now, George Bush would have won a 2nd term.

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Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,talk.politics.guns