The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

In all democracies, political parties are vehicles that are used by like-minded politicians to access power, thereby getting the opportunity to advance their various policies. Political parties, therefore, provide a forum for politicians who share interests and ideologies, to coalesce and rally the electorate to give them the mandate to run the government.

Schmidt, Shelly and Bardes (1999, p 275) define a political party can be formally defined as a group of political activists who organize to win elections, operate the government and to determine the public policy. This definition explains the difference between a political party and an interest group. Interest groups do not want to operate government and therefore do not put forth presidential candidates. On the other hand political parties differ from factions, which are smaller groups or blocs in a legislature or political party acting together in pursuit of some special interest.

This discourse basically focuses on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan, exploring the extent to which LDP can be considered a political party, particularly in reference to the international standards of such parties. In that line, it is imperative that we at first underscore the universally acceptable standards of political parties in any democracy.

Often, political parties have been viewed from two contrasting perspectives, with the somewhat idealistic position holding that political parties should be internally democratic as they perform a wide range of critical functions, whereas the more realistic approach viewing political parties as self-interested bodies whose primary goal is to win elections. But whatever the view point, the western model of political parties lays emphasis on features such as party ideology, party organization, leadership, representative mechanism and party conferences or conventions. WMD (2008)
In a bid to determine whether LDP is indeed a political party, we are therefore imputed to consider if the organization, structure and overall running of the LDP reflects some or most of the aforementioned features.
 
Ideology
Crespo (1995, p 201) points outs the fact that unlike the leftist parties, the LDP does not espouse a well defined ideology or political philosophy. Its members held a variety of positions that could be broadly defined as being to the right of the opposition parties, yet more moderate than those of Japans numerous rightist splinter groups.

On this account, LDP stands alienated from the model political parties in established Western democracies, which have clear cut ideological pursuits that unite the politicians within it. On the contrary, given that it is basically a conglomerate of factions, each pursing their self-interests, the LDPs tenets are far removed from what a democratic political party is formed on.

The Organization Liberal Democratic Party
As explored in the Peoples Daily Online (PDO), at the top level of the LDPs organization is the President, who can serve for two terms, with each term lasting for three years each. While the party maintained the parliamentary majority, LDPs president automatically became the Premier of Japan. The choice of the partys president was formally that of the partys convention composed of Diet members and local LDP figures, even though in most cases they were merely approved by the most powerful party leaders.

In a bid to make the system more democratic, the former Premier Takeo Fukuda had introduced a primary system in 1978, which eventually opened the balloting to approximately one and half million LDP members. But the process proved to be so costly and acrimonious that it was subsequently abandoned in favor of the old smoke-filled room method. After the LDPs president, the other most important officials are the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the LDP Executive Council and the members of the Policy Affairs Research Council. PDO (2009)

This organizational leadership structure gives the LDP the semblance of a political party, particularly with the LDPs convention being the body deciding the president of the party. This is a function of the partys constitution, which is a strong feature in a model political party.

The Structure of the Liberal Democratic Party
Scheiner (n.d.) notes that for over a century that the LDP party had ruled Japan, it had eventually presided over economic collapse and political corruption, which in turn had resulted into its unpopularity with voters. Despite all this, the LDP had remained in power, largely due to the fact that there lacked a strong opposition to oust it from power. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.rieti.go.jp httpwww.rieti.go.jp)

For having stayed for that long in power, the LDP had become a de facto leadership instrument in Japan, the only channel through which the country could be run. The presence of other parties and their contribution in democratizing Japan had if any, quite minimal impact. But the internal structure that had once held the LDP together, denying other parties the muscle to rise to power, eventually worked against the party itself.

A report in The Christian Monitor (2009), penned by Ford predicted that LDP would have a hard time holding onto power, regardless of how long it had been a key player in Japans politics. This is because the party was adversely weakened by the collapse of the system that had sustained it for more that half of a century. Indeed, the dominance of LDP in Japans politics had rested almost entirely on its alliance with a range of powerful interest groups such as the farm lobbyists, the construction industry, the Japan Medical Association and a national network of influential local postmasters.

If anything, factions and zoku politicians were amongst the most important components of the LDPs traditional politics. The zoku politicians consist of senior and middle-level LDP parliamentarians whose specialty was particular areas of policy making. Due to their extensive networks, they had substantial influence over policy making. They operated through an LDP organ called the Policy Research Council and were seen as an obstacle to economic reform since they served special interests. During his regime, Koizumi successfully contained zoku powers by promoting market-oriented economic policy, but this changed immediately he got out of power, reverting to the old retrogressive trend. (Mishima, 2006)

Another integral component of LDP is the bureaucracy, which it touted to be a creation of foreign powers who once occupied Japan during the Second World War. Whatever political reforms propounded by these former foreign occupiers, they have never brought any substantial changes on the bureaucracy. Subsequently, these powers used the bureaucracy to indirectly rule Japan even though the LDP leadership subtly encouraged it. As time passed by with LDP in power, the bureaucracy retained, even consolidated its traditional strength. It is important to note that the LDP had to a large extent not regarded the bureaucracy as a rival but a partner in running the government. (Mishima, 2006)

Since the bureaucracy was renowned for its organizational excellence, the LDP found it advantageous to respect its independence. Besides, the LDP politicians, especially the zoku politicians, were also in pursuit of their own special interest. This meant that the bureaucracy could secure considerable influence in policy area and have less to do with special interests, for instance in areas diplomacy, the environment and macroeconomic policy. (Mishima, 2006)

According to Crespo (1995, p 201) the bureaucracy had strong links to the parliamentary faction of this erstwhile dominant party, and consulted it in regards to the formulation of public policy. There were different policies that were devised within the bureaucracy, and the Diet passed them, rejected them or more commonly in accordance to the criteria of the make up of its different committees. In fact, as Blechinger (2000,p ) puts it, the loyalty of the members of the diet was more in the factions in which they belonged than with LDP as a whole. Worth noting is that these factions were closely related to the bureaucracy, in essence serving as the political arms of the bureaucracy.

 Crespo (1995, p 201)  points out that in this sense, the bureaucracy has a certain considerable degree of autonomy, much of it stemming from its specialized knowledge, similar to what Weber described in his classical studies.

Crespo (1995, p 201) further notes that this autonomy enjoyed by the bureaucracy also projected from the fact that, in contract to whatever happens in other countries, the process of recruiting and promoting public officials is not intimately linked to the dominant party, as was the case in Japan when LDP was still in government.

The Liberal Democratic Party, therefore, stayed on power by responding to crises in public confidence shifting leadership amongst the partys fiercely competitive factions and by taking steps to redistribute the stimulus packages or social welfare policies co-opted from the hapless socialist and left-of-center opposition parties, as underscored by  Green (2010, p5). Unlike other model political parties, LDP doesnt directly appeal to voters to elect it but uses intermediaries in the name of factions to get the mandate from the electorate. In this case, while in office LDP doesnt endeavor to fulfill any pledges to the electorate as it is the case with other model political parties. It rather aims to honor its pledges with the various factions within it, which orchestrated its election victory.

LDP a Coalition not a Political Party
The increasing dependence of LDP on its coalition partners to survive the competition from other smaller opposition parties, questions the allusion that LDP is indeed a political party. The model political parties are by no mean a collection of smaller parties which have ganged up against other parties, to gain access to power they are instead a collection of like-minded politicians, pursuing particular ideologies and pressing for the enactment of certain policies. The need to incorporate various parties within its ranks denied the LDP a definite ideological pursuit and rather reduced into a mere power-accessing machine.

As Manyin and Chanlett-Avery (2008, p 4) observe, for more that a decade, the LDP was not able to secure independent majorities in both Diet Chambers and had therefore to come up coalitions with smaller parties. For instance, since 1999 the LDP formed a governing coalition with the New Komeito party, a fascist-leaning party with strong ties to the Buddist Soka Gakkai religious group.
The Komeitos clout in the coalition, Manyin and Chanlett-Avery (2008, p 4) add, did eventually increase and this was for two reasons first, the LDP was reliant upon the Komeito to obtain the 23 majority in the Lower House to override the DPJ led vetoes in the Upper House. Secondly, the LDP candidates in many electoral districts had become reliant upon the support from Soka Gakkai followers. Even though, traditionally, the LDP had dominated the coalition, during the summer of 2008, New Komeito became more assertive they for instance resisted Fukudas push to renew the authorization to provide fuel to coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The Partys Mechanism
Reed (2001, p 4) is of the view that in the democratic theory, the contrast between impersonal mechanism and personal networks involves the difference between elections based on party platforms and elections based on pork barrel projects, constituency service, and personal favors. A democracy based on candidates competing to build a personal base of support by doing favors for individual constituents and acquiring the centrally subsidized construction projects for their own electoral districts is quite different from a democracy based on political parties competing for votes by presenting coherent policy packages.

Even though personal vote strategy is important in most democratic systems, including the United States and Britain, many studies have pointed to the fact that personal vote is particularly prominent in Japan. Certainly, most of the recent scandals, from the Lockheed Scandal in 1974 through the most recent Recruit and Sagawa Kyubin Scandals, have involved LDP politicians renowned for the ability of their political machines to both gather the vote and to get pork barrel projects for their districts Reed (2001, p. 4). This is a feature that somewhat gives the LDP some semblance with other model political parties.

Internal Democracy
Some of the major policies propounded by the LDP hinted to the fact that this was a party struggling to stay afloat amidst shifting sands. They were indeed a pointer to the partys deficiencies. For one, LDP aimed for party reforms headed by the National Vision Project Committee of the National Strategy Headquarters, launched a party reform project and drafted a proposal under the name of Political System on 13 March 2002.  These reforms were aimed at regaining public confidence through a new election system and convert the bureaucratic-dominated decision system into politics dominated decision system. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.masayogoto.com httpwww.masayogoto.com)
These reforms, however, did not seek to address the lack of democracy within the party, a trend that is highly encouraged in model political parties in Western democracies.  Earlier on, there had been a glaring example of the lack of democracy within the LDP was during the reign of Koizumi when he failing to push to push through with the postal privatization bill, Koizumi took a political gamble by dissolving the Lower House in early August 2001, paving way for a snap election to seek a new mandate to reform programs. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.moneyandpolitics.net httpwww.moneyandpolitics.net)

After calling the election, Koizumis leadership excluded from the list of official candidates, the 37 Lower House LDP members who had voted against the bill. And Koizumi went even further instructing the party leadership to field LDP candidates against all dissenters. Subsequently, Koizumis political gamble paid off with LDP capturing 296 seats in the 480 member Lower House.  ( HYPERLINK httpwww.moneyandpolitics.net httpwww.moneyandpolitics.net)

When his government resubmitted the postal bill it was swiftly passed and, as he set out to cleanse the party, the LDP expelled the former agriculture minister Hosei Norata and told 27 others, including the former telecommunications minister, Seiko Noda, to leave the party because he had voted against the postal bill in the Diet. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.moneandpolitics.net httpwww.moneyandpolitics.net)

The measure of the maturity of democracy in any democratic state is gauged by the practice of the same within the political parties in that very state. Its arguably true that a party that cannot practice democracy in its internal operations can hardly be trusted to do the same on a national level. Party democracy is one of the salient features of a true political party because it is from that level that democratic ideals are exhibited when the party competes at the national level.

Election Campaigns
Blechinger (2000, p 5) argues that the key function of political parties in modern democracies include the mobilization of voters in support of political agendas the selection of candidates for public office and the organization of election campaigns. In order for a party to win a majority of seats and therefore have control of the government, it must with other parties for votes.  Until the mid 90s LDP had a monopoly in Japans politics, wining a succession of elections against small parties which were evidently disadvantaged by the conglomerate that was LDP. This invariably made the Japan elections to be a contest between small parties against a coalition, with the LDP emerging the victor time after time.

However, apart from the advantage of the numbers of parties it had within its umbrella, the LDP could not have won those elections without also having another advantage of funding over their rivals.  This question of campaign funding puts the LDP on the same pedestal with other model political parties in the West.  Blechinger (2000, p 5) notes that election campaigns are costly. Both parties and candidates need money to print posters, brochures and leaflets, or to pay TV and radio advertisements in order to make their message known to voters. They also have to pay staffers and equipment to organize and run campaigns and to finance campaign-related travels of candidates and party leaders.

Therefore, campaign finance is an important issue in political competition and, in their struggle to win, parties and individual candidates often try to outspend each other, and under financial pressure, both candidates and party leaders might be willing to accept payoffs or illegal donations offered by wealthy donors in exchange for promises of future favors. In developed and developing countries alike, politicians are therefore tempted to spend as much money as possible on their campaigns, often in excess of official campaign spending limits. Blechinger (2000, p 5)

 In Japan, for example, election laws prescribe a limit for the amount of money candidates can spend during the campaign period. The spending limit depends on the number of registered votes per seat and the total voter population of the electoral district. In the 1980s and early 1990s, candidates of the long-term ruling Liberal Democratic Party exceeded the legal limit by at least six times and as much as thirteen times. Most of these funds come from corporate donations.  Blechinger (2000, p 5)

The tactics used by LDP during election campaigns is another feature that makes the party compare with other model political parties in the Western democracies. When surveys showed that the Democratic Party of Japan was leading in the run-up to the 2009 August election, the LDP adopted negative campaign in an attempt to win back the conservative voters.

In one example, the then ruling party ran an animated cartoon on its website portraying Democratic leader Yukio Hatoyama as a smooth-talking suitor wooing a woman with fuzzy promises. Over a candlelit dinner, a wavy-haired man resembling opposition Hatoyama offers the woman a life without worry about costs for child care, highway tolls and post-retirement nursing services. The LDP had imported this trick from the partys in Western democracies, which they use to discourage voters against voting their rivals. In Japan, this was a totally novel phenomenon. China Daily (2009, p 11)

Having taken all that into consideration it is safe to conclude that the Liberal Democratic Party has got both the futures of a model party and in other instances it fails to fit into that description. While the structure of LDP and its attendant lack of a definite ideological pursuit demeans it its place among other known political parties the manner in which the LDP runs its affairs,  for instance the passing its policies and conducting election campaigns is quite similar to the way other model political parties carrying out their business.

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