Essay
Gallery
Political Beliefs - the politics in the 21st century
Hiroyuki
Hashimoto
In this essay I present my research on the way future political mechanisms should be. I am interested in political mechanisms because the politics of Japan is in a term of change in recent years. I am going to cover 2 main points. I want to explore the history of political mechanisms, democratic political systems in the world and future politics. First, I will show you a birth of a dual representative system, then I will cover the political situation of the United States in the colonial times and in Switzerland nowadays.
In any study of future political mechanisms, it is important to know the background details. In Japan, it has been 4 years since a decentralization law was put into operation. Decentralization is loudly advocated, but also Diet members and people are focusing on the country vs. the district, and they do not reform the political mechanisms in the district.
As for the local self-governing body, a dual representative system is prescribed in the Japanese constitution. However, the governor still has administrative leadership in the district. Local national assemblies are not as strong as the governor. It is safe to say that the present situation of the local self-governing body in Japan is a unitary representative system.
What are the causes of this political imbalance? I think the political imbalance is caused by public ignorance of the meaning of the political system. There is a long tradition of a dirty public image of Japanese politics. The effects are good politics will not be performed.
I think the political imbalance is similar to the imbalance of legal application in Japan because both of them come from the fact that different systems are mixed and used. However the political imbalance is different from the imbalance of legal application because the former reinforces damage and the latter can prevent generation of damage.
Warned by this situation, I will study about a unitary representative system and a dual representative system in my research this time. I will also elaborate how politics in Japan should be in the future. Nowadays, a unitary representative system has been adopted in Japan and Britain, and a dual representative system has been adopted in the U.S. and France.
How was a dual representative system born? I will show you the formation of a political organization, and confrontation of national power and people.
According to "Political thought in England" by Ernest Barker (1), various groups occur in society and each of those groups came to work on administration for their profits at the beginning of the 20th century. He calls this phenomenon "Group jet". They were born to oppose the intervention principle. I think it is the sprout of the dual representative system. This is because it were not until special interest groups were born that the administration and the legislature, which are types of groups, fight each other as the dual representative system.
All politics were originally unitary representative systems. In a unitary representation system, for example, the monarchial system of Britain, the structure in which an assemblyman elects a leader went wrong in Britain. In the United States, they argued about "division of administration and politics" at the same time. In this way, a dual representative system was born. It is expected that the Parliament which is the head decision-making organization which is made of the administration executive officers chosen by direct election operates checks and balances mutually. According to "Political reform in the world" by Kazumi Fujimoto (2), "From the first, a presidential system is considered in order to control the despotism of the legislature, and in order to perform efficient management of an administration prefecture. The special feature is that the President serves as the head of the state and the merit of administration, and what the administration prefecture is made to become independent of the legislature completely by leaving election of the President to the people instead of the legislature Congress." However, actually, the authority of the Executive Office of the President was expanded, and the authority of Congress suited the tendency that got less power. Then, the authority of the Executive Office of the President tried to strengthen the authority by the side of Parliament again, and there are circumstances that people were going to aim for the balance of Parliament and administration, in addition reformers tackled reform of the National Diet in the United States.
Ms.Fujimoto added, "In the first place, they did strengthening of the authority of congress for opposing the President, a mechanism, the staff, and sources of information. Secondly, they did democratization of Congress, especially reform of a committee system. Thirdly, they achieved strengthening of the surveillance of Congress by mass communications with people".
I have shown how the dual representative system occurs. You can say that the dual representative system needs participation of public opinion.
It is fair to say that bad politics is much more cruel than a tiger. What is "good politics"? I would say they are the politics in which public opinion is fully reflected. Every citizen can speak their own opinion freely there. Freedom is accompanied by responsibility.
Now I will cover democratic political systems in the world that generically help their people. We will see the trend of 2 countries below.
All the residents of the town gathered and there was a structure which decides on a public thing in the United States in the colonial times. It was called a town meeting. According to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)(3), "In the United States, when a road is destroyed, neighboring people gather and the meeting for restoration is held without asking governmental authority for help. When a crime arises, neighboring people gather and cooperate, in order to find out the murderer, human beings' enemy. "
In the colonial times in the United States, everything begins with only the members in the local area giving an opinion. At the same time, local problems were all solved with local people's own hands. I think, in this situation, the opinion of the individual is always reflected in the politics. I believe that small-scale politics can be to help enrich politics.
I have shown democratic political systems in the United States. Now, I will cover democratic political systems in Switzerland. As a presidential rotation system shows, the federal government's authority is not so strong in Switzerland. Many things are left to Cantons and Gemeinden (municipality, community). At a Gemeinde, residents have decided various things in the residents meeting, (See appendix 1) the Landsgemeinde (Blue sky people meeting), which gathers all the members. The democracy of Switzerland is the so-called "grass-roots direct democracy" which is not an assemblyman Cabinet system or a presidential system, either.
In brief I have shown how the dual representative system occurs and grass-roots direct democracy from the U.S. and Switzerland. Japanese political situation nowadays might improve if the opinion of people would be well reflected in the politics. However, the situation might deteriorate if the opinion of people would not be reflected or even if it is less reflected than in today's politics.
It is fair to say that future politics should make grass-roots direct democracy the keynote, because public opinion is fully reflected there. To be sure, some political scientists in Japan have recited Dousyusei, the state regional system. In order to attain grass-roots direct democracy, people have to have the right sense of entitlement. In Switzerland, jurisprudence serves as a compulsory subject from the junior high school level. Although some may be anxious also about evil, it is effective for the politics in the 21st century to study jurisprudence from the junior high school level. This is because the right common sense can come from studying jurisprudence.
Bibliography
1. Ernest, Barker. Political thought in England: from Herbert Spencer to the present day: London, 1915
2. Kazumi, Fujimoto. U.S. political reform Senshu University publication part, 1992
3. Tocqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel de. Democracy in America (De la democratie en Amerique): Kodansha, 1835
4. Willkommen bei der Evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Luckau:
http://www.kirche-luckau.de/gemeinde/jg/gemeinde.jpg
5. Willkommen bei der Evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Luckau:
http://www.kirche-luckau.de/gemeinde/jg/junge_gemeinde.jpg
Appendix 1
Landsgemeinde(4)
