The Politics of Oligarchy
Institutional Choice in Imperial Japan

This book examines the failure of the Meiji oligarchy to design institutions capable of protecting their hold on power in Japan.

J. Mark Ramseyer (Author), Frances McCall Rosenbluth (Author)

9780521473972, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 July 1995

248 pages, 30 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.514 kg

"The combination of a simple and clear economic model of politics with a carefully researched, detailed and nuanced array of empirical evidence makes this book both a compelling volume and a good read. ...a compelling account of why Japanese politics was not so very different after all...." Ellen Comisso, Jrnl of Comparative Economics

In the latter-half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Japan underwent two major shifts in political control. In the 1910s, the power of the oligarchy was eclipsed by that of a larger group of professional politicians; in the 1930s, the focus of power shifted again, this time to a set of independent military leaders. In this book, Ramseyer and Rosenbluth examine a key question of modern Japanese politics: why the Meiji oligarchs were unable to design institutions capable of protecting their power. The authors question why the oligarchs chose the political institutions they did, and what the consequences of those choices were for Japan's political competition, economic development, and diplomatic relations. Indeed, they argue, it was the oligarchs' very inability to agree among themselves on how to rule that prompted them to cut the military loose from civilian control - a decision that was to have disastrous consequences not only for Japan but for the rest of the world.

List of tables and figure
Series editors' preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The collapse of oligarchy: failed attempts at cartel-maintenance
3. Concession or facade: the Meiji constitution
4. Electoral rules and party competition: the struggle for political survival
5. The bureaucracy: who ruled whom?
6. The courts: who monitored whom?
7. The military: master of its own fate
8. Financial politics
9. Railroad politics
10. Cotton politics
11. Conclusion: institutions and political control
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]