Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:32:18.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bamboo Shoots and Weak Roots: Organizational Expansion of New Parties in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2015

KEN HIJINO
KEN HIJINO*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Law, Kyoto [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent research claims that local party organizations are essential for new parties seeking organizational stability and national-level electoral success. Yet new parties which emerged in Japan since the 1990s have failed in building nation-wide networks of local organizations. The article asks how these parties sought to expand locally and why their attempts have been largely unsuccessful. It finds evidence that under certain conditions (in urban areas and multi-member districts, or when controlling local chief executive offices and endowed with inherited resources) new parties have been more successful in standing and winning seats in regional elections. Regions with these favorable conditions are few, however, resulting in the overall weakness of the new parties’ local organizations. The study also disconfirms expectations that a party's control of national government should result in their improved representation at the local level. The article contributes to elucidating the incentives and dynamics of building party organizations in terms of local elected offices for newcomer parties in Japan. It hints at similar challenges for entrepreneurial parties with few social roots in other established democracies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 270 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akiyoshi, T. (2013), Hoshu ōkoku ni okeru minshutō no genkai [The Limits of the DPJ in Conservative Strongholds] in Shiratori, H. (ed.), Tōitsu chihō senkyo no seijigaku [The Politics of Unified Local Elections], Tokyo: Mineruba Shobō.Google Scholar
Art, D. (2007), ‘Reacting to the Radical Right: Lessons from Germany and Austria’, Party Politics, 13 (3): 331‒49.Google Scholar
Bolleyer, N. (2013), New Parties in Old Party Systems: Persistence and Decline in Seventeen Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brett, C. C. (1979), ‘The Komeito and Local Japanese Politics’, Asian Survey, 366‒378.Google Scholar
Carey, J. M. and Shugart, M. S. (1995), ‘Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas’, Electoral Studies, 14 (4): 417‒39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, R. J. and Wattenberg, M. P. (eds.) (2002), Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenno, R. F. (1973), Congressmen in Committees, Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
Golder, M. (2003), ‘Explaining Variation in the Success of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe’, Comparative Political Studies, 36 (4), 432‒66.Google Scholar
Hijino, K. V. L. (2013), ‘Delinking National and Local Party Systems: New Parties in Japanese Local Elections’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 13 (1): 107‒35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hijino, K. V. L. (2014), ‘Intra-Party Conflicts over Gubernatorial Campaigns in Japan Delegation or Franchise?’, Party Politics, 20 (1): 78‒88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itō, A. (2008), Minshutō: yabō to yagō no mekanizumu [The DPJ: Mechanisms of Ambition and Merger], Tokyo: Shinchōsha.Google Scholar
Kataoka, M. (1997), ‘Changing Local Politics: Party Realignment and Growing Competition’, Japanese Politics Today: Beyond Karaoke Democracy, 206‒23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kestel, L. and Godmer, L. (2003), ‘Institutional inclusion and exclusion of extreme right parties’, Western democracies and the new extreme right challenge, 133‒49.Google Scholar
Lam, P. E. (1996), ‘The Japanese Communist Party: Organization and Resilience in the Midst of Adversity’, Pacific Affairs, 361‒79.Google Scholar
McElwain, K. M. (2012), ‘The Nationalization of Japanese Elections’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 12 (3): 323‒50.Google Scholar
Nishio, M. (2007), Chihō bunken kaikaku [Decentralization Reforms], Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppan.Google Scholar
Noble, G. W. (2010), ‘The Decline of Particularism in Japanese Politics’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 10 (2): 239‒73.Google Scholar
Ohmura, H. and Machidori, S. (2013), Minshutō chihō soshiki no rekishiteki kiban [The Historical Foundations of DPJ Local Organizations] in Tatebayashi, M. (ed.), Seitō soshiki no seijigaku [The Politics of Party Organizations], Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha.Google Scholar
Park, C. (2000), Daigishi no tsukurarekata – shōsenkyo no senkyo senryaku [How a Parliamentarian Is Created: Electoral Strategy in Small Member Districts], Tokyo: Bunshun Bunko.Google Scholar
Poguntke, T. (2002), ‘Green Parties in National Governments: From Protest to Acquiescence?’, Environmental Politics, 11 (1): 133‒45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, S. R. (2009), ‘Party Strategy or Candidate Strategy: How Does the LDP Run the Right Number of Candidates in Japan's Multi-Member Districts?’, Party Politics, 15 (3): 295‒314.Google Scholar
Reed, S. R. (2013), ‘The Survival of Third Parties in Japan's Mixed-Member Electoral System’, in Kushida, Kenji E. and Lipscy, Phillip (eds.), Japan under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Books.Google Scholar
Scheiner, E. (2006), Democracy without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sunahara, Y. (2010), Chiho ni okeru seitoseiji to nigen daihyosei: chiho seiji reveru no jiminto bunretsu no bunseki kara. [Local party politics and presidentialism: from an analysis of LDP splits in local politics], Leviathan 47: 89‒107.Google Scholar
Tsustumi, H. and Mori, M. (2013), Minshutō chihō soshiki no hikaku jirei bunseki [Comparative Case Analysis of DPJ Local Organizations], in Tatebayashi, M. (ed.), Seitō soshiki no seijigaku [The Politics of Party Organizations], Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha.Google Scholar
Uekami, T. and Tsutsumi, H. (2011), Minshutō no keisei katei, soshiki to seisaku [The DPJ's Formation, Organization, and Policies], in Minshutō no soshiki to seisaku [The DPJ's Organization and Policies], Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha.Google Scholar
Weiner, R. (2008), ‘Prefectural Politics: Party and Electoral Stagnation’, in Martin, S. and Steel, G. (eds.), Political Reform in Japan: Assessing the Impact, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, pp. 151‒74.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, N. (2013), Seiken kōtai kōka wo ikasenakatta minshutō; [DPJ Unable to Benefit from the Effects of Change in National Government], in Shiratori, H. (ed.), Tōitsu chihō senkyo no seijigaku [The Politics of Unified Local Elections], Tokyo: Minerva shobō.Google Scholar
Yamamoto, K. (2010), Seitōkan ido to seitō system – nihon ni okeru seikaisaihen no kenkyū; [Party System and Party Switching: A Study on Japan's Political Realignment], Tokyo: Bokutakusha.Google Scholar