Make Japan Great Again – Japan's Democratic Backsliding
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ODSJEK POLITOLOGIJA Make Japan Great Again – Japan's Democratic Backsliding Master Thesis Kandidat Mentor Bećirbegović Selim Prof. Dr. Damir Kapidžić Broj Indeksa: 988/ 2-PiR Sarajevo, (Oktobar 2020) TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER Acknowledgements I would like to first thank my thesis advisor, Prof. dr. Damir Kapidžić, for his support and guidance throughout the thesis, for always being available to hear out my imprecise formulations, and for guiding me back on track. At the University of Heidelberg, I express my gratefulness to Prof. Dr. Aurel Croissant for sharing his academic insight for East Asian Democracies. I could not have imagined having better advisors and mentors for this thesis. It has been an honor to work with them. Special thanks and gratefulness at the Graduate School of Human and Enviromental Studies Faculty of Integrated Human Studies at the Kyoto University for Associate Professor Tsukasa Mihira who provided me with the literature and gave me a special insight of Constitutional Politics & Judicial Process of Japan. ABSTRACT Democratic backsliding as a phenomenon, has recently been raised as a new challenge for the political world. Because of this, this thesis aims to shine light on the extent of democratic backsliding in Japan and the factors that enable it. This is done through a Mixed Methods research design, consisting of a description of changes in testing the case study three main strands of potential explanations for backsliding. A key finding is that that of the five tested hypotheses three have been confirmed and one has been partialy confirmed, through this we see a negative development during the past 20 years in Japan. Furthermore, it is found that weak check and balances, a dissproportional electoral system and mainstream parties’ adopting populist policies decreases their commitment to democracy, appear to be factors enabling backsliding in Japan. Keywords: Democratic Backsliding, Democracy, Democratic Consolidation, Japan, LDP TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1.INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1 2.METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................4 2.1 Selection and definition of research problem.......................................................................4 2.1.1 Subject of Research...........................................................................................................4 2.1.2 Research Problem..............................................................................................................5 2.1.3 Previous Research..............................................................................................................6 2.1.4 Theoretical Framework......................................................................................................7 2.1.5 Research question..............................................................................................................7 2.2 Selection of the field of scientific anaysis............................................................................8 2.3 Definition of terms and conceptual analysis........................................................................9 2.4 Research Objectives............................................................................................................12 2.4.1 Scientific Description......................................................................................................13 2.4.2 Scientific Explanation......................................................................................................13 2.4.3 Scientific Classification...................................................................................................14 2.5 System of hypotheses and variables....................................................................................15 2.5.1 Variables..........................................................................................................................16 2.6 Operationalization and Indicators.......................................................................................16 2.6.1 Validity and Reliability....................................................................................................18 2.7 Research Design.................................................................................................................18 2.7.1 Method.............................................................................................................................19 2.7.2 Mix Methods Approach...................................................................................................19 2.7.3 Process Tracing................................................................................................................20 2.7.4 Material & Data...............................................................................................................21 2.7.5 Study's Scope, limitations and instrumentation...............................................................21 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK....................................................................................22 3.1 DEMOCRACY.................................................................................................................22 3.1.1 Two strands of democracy...............................................................................................26 3.1.2 Democratic Consolidation...............................................................................................28 3.1.3 Defective Democracies....................................................................................................31 3.1.4 Problems of Democracy...................................................................................................32 3.2 DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING...................................................................................38 3.2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................38 3.2.2 Theories of Democratic Backsliding...............................................................................39 3.2.3 Conceptualizing Democratic Backsliding.......................................................................43 3.2.4 Explaining Democratic Backsliding................................................................................48 3.2.5 Causes of Democratic backsliding...................................................................................50 3.2.6 Factors contributing to Democratic Backslidng...............................................................52 4. POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF JAPAN..........................................................................56 4.1 Politics and the Political System before 1945....................................................................56 4.2 Constitution........................................................................................................................57 4.3 Political System of Japan...................................................................................................59 4.3.1 Executive.........................................................................................................................59 4.3.2 Legislative.......................................................................................................................60 4.3.3 Judical.............................................................................................................................61 4.3.4 State Provincial...............................................................................................................62 4.3.5 Media..............................................................................................................................63 4.4 Electoral and Party System................................................................................................65 4.4.1 Electoral System.............................................................................................................65 4.4.2 Political Parties...............................................................................................................71 4.4.2.1 LDP..............................................................................................................................72 4.4.2.2 DPJ..............................................................................................................................74 4.5 Bureaucracy.......................................................................................................................75 5. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS.................................................................................................77 5.1 Measurment of Dependendt and Indipendendt Variables & Robustnes Check................77 5.2 Factors contributing to Democratic backsliding................................................................79 5.2.1 Identifying backsliders and determing the severity of backsliding................................81 5.3 Overview of factors contributing to Democratic backsliding...........................................82 5.4 3 Step model of democratic backsliding...........................................................................83 5.4.1 Capturing Institutions....................................................................................................83 5.4.2 Targeting Opponents.....................................................................................................85