The Acquisition of Formal and Informal Political Power in the United States and Japan
by Kai Kurosu
Category: Social Science
Abstract – At the time of writing the United States midterm elections are less than a month away, and the impact of unseen processes are bound to influence the outcomes of this coming election, just as they did a year ago in the 2017 Japanese general election.
This essay will take Japan and the United States as comparisons, and show how the culture of the country determines the routes people can take to acquiring political influence. A key distinction at the heart of this essay is the difference between formal political power and informal political influence. Formal power is the legitimate acquisition of positions of political office through legal appointments and elections. Informal political power is lobbying and influencing the actions of people in public office, or the sentiments of the voting public.
Politics in The United States and Japan, both advanced democracies, have certain elements in common, such as the importance of the economy. This paper will focus primarily on economic anxiety, which exists in both countries, but manifests in different ways.
The economy has always been the most important issue for post-war Japan, as the country’s so-called ‘economic miracle’ after the Second World War allowed it to gain a position on the world stage as the world’s second-largest economy. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rose to power after the war, and ruled Japan with a majority in the parliament from 1955 to 1993, and then from 1996 to 2009, as well as from 2012 to now. The LDP’s ‘legitimacy’ to rule over Japan for so long has come from their ability to provide economic stability, as LDP prime ministers presided over a time of rapid economic growth in Japan. Both times the LDP failed to win the general election; Japan was in a time of extreme economic instability.
This essay will take Japan and the United States as comparisons, and show how the culture of the country determines the routes people can take to acquiring political influence. A key distinction at the heart of this essay is the difference between formal political power and informal political influence. Formal power is the legitimate acquisition of positions of political office through legal appointments and elections. Informal political power is lobbying and influencing the actions of people in public office, or the sentiments of the voting public.
Politics in The United States and Japan, both advanced democracies, have certain elements in common, such as the importance of the economy. This paper will focus primarily on economic anxiety, which exists in both countries, but manifests in different ways.
The economy has always been the most important issue for post-war Japan, as the country’s so-called ‘economic miracle’ after the Second World War allowed it to gain a position on the world stage as the world’s second-largest economy. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rose to power after the war, and ruled Japan with a majority in the parliament from 1955 to 1993, and then from 1996 to 2009, as well as from 2012 to now. The LDP’s ‘legitimacy’ to rule over Japan for so long has come from their ability to provide economic stability, as LDP prime ministers presided over a time of rapid economic growth in Japan. Both times the LDP failed to win the general election; Japan was in a time of extreme economic instability.