The Changing Fortunes of Japan's Progressive Governors

Abstract

Japan has a dominant party system under which one party always controls the government.1 The dominant party in Japan is the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In democratic theory, the major defect of a dominant party system is that the electorate cannot the rascals out. Even if the LDP were to lose its majority, the probable outcome would be an LDP-dominated coalition. The threat of losing power is the strongest guarantee of elite responsiveness to the electorate. When this threat is weak or nonexistent, other mechanisms can ensure some degree of responsiveness but they are necessarily weak substitutes. In Japan factionalism in the LDP helps to guarantee the responsiveness of the governors to the governed. The prime minister need not worry about losing power to other parties, but he must worry about keeping his own party behind him. Other faction leaders will use any policy failure or electoral embarassment to unseat an incumbent. Although the electorate cannot readily kick out the LDP, a decline in LDP votes can kick out the prime minister; personnel turnover partially substitutes for party turnover. Moreover, the LDP does lose elections. Losing does not mean a loss of power, but it does mean a diminution of power. The LDP has gone from a stable majority, one in which it controls all Diet committees, to an unstable majority, in which the party has found it expedient to enter into a