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Socio-Economic Development and Political Democracy in Japanese Prefectures*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Chong Lim Kim
Chong Lim Kim*
Affiliation:
The University of Iowa
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Extract

This research note attempts to test the relationship between levels of socio-economic development and variation in political democracy with data gathered in Japanese prefectures. The operational measures of socio-economic development are the levels of urban-industrialism and social overhead capital, which are derived from the results of factor analysis of fifteen socio-economic indicators. Three measures of political democracy are obtained by factor-analyzing political indicators: they are the degrees of political competition, political participation, and representation equality. The analysis of the data reveals weak relationships between the two measures of socio-economic development and the three measures of political democracy. This finding challenges the validity of some generalizations regarding economic-political linkages previously reported in many cross-national studies. In the context of within-nation comparisons, this study suggests the need for a re-evaluation of the relationship between socio-economic development and political democracy.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , March 1971 , pp. 184 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1971

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Footnotes

*

The larger project of which this note is a part, the Japan Legislative Research Project, was made possible by a fellowship from the University of Iowa, in connection with a Japanese exchange program supported by the Hill Family Foundation. I wish to thank Mr. Hiroshi Takahashi, a graduate student of the University of Tokyo, for his assistance in collecting the data.

References

1 Lipset, S. M., “Some Social Requisites of Democracy,” this Review, 53 (03 1959), 69–105 Google Scholar. Cutright, Philips, “National Political Development: Its Measurement and Social Correlates,” in Polsby, Nelson W., Dentler, Robert A. and Smith, Paul A. (eds.), Politics and Social Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963), pp. 582–592 Google Scholar. Smith, A., “Socio-economic Development and Political Democracy: A Causal Analysis,” Midwest Journal of Political Science, 13 (02 1969), 95–125 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. McCrone, Donald J. and Cnudde, Charles F., “Toward a Communications Theory of Democratic Political Development: A Causal Model,” this Review, 61 (03 1967), 72–79 Google Scholar.

2 The data sources are: Sha, Asahi Shimbun, 1968 Minryoku: To-Dō-Fu-Ken Minryoku Sokutei Shiryōshū, 1968 Google Scholar. Kyoku, Sōrifu Tokei, 1965 nen Kokusei Chōsa Hōkoku, 1966 Google Scholar. Chō, Keizai Kikaku, Chiiki Keizai Yoōran, 1966 Google Scholar. Chōsa Ka, Mombu Daijinkambō Tōkei, Gakkō Kihon Chōsa, 1967 Google Scholar. Chōsa Ka, Unyu Daijinkambō Tōkei, Rikuun Tōkei Yōran, 1967 Google Scholar. Shō, Kensetsu, Dōro Tōkei Nempō, 1967 Google Scholar. Choō, Keizai Kikaku, Shōhisha Dōkō Chōsa, 1966 Google Scholar. Shō, Tōkyō Shuppan Kagaku Kenkyū, Zasshi no To-Dō-Fu-Ken Betsu Suitei Haisōryo, 1967 Google Scholar. Chō, Keizai Kikaku, Kemmin Shotoku Tōkei, 1966 Google Scholar. Shō, Jichi, Chiho Senkyo Kekka Choōsa, 1957–1967 Google Scholar.

3 Shibu is a Japanese term for urban part as distinguished from gumbu or rural areas. It is an administrative unit which often includes a substantial area that we would normally regard as rural. The Japanese census uses a different definition of urban areas, namely the density of population. Thus, these two measures of urbanization do not completely overlap, the correlation between them being .78.

4 Per capita library facility is a composite score of the number of public libraries and the number of volumes they contain.

5 Neubauer, Dean E., “Some Conditions of Democracy,” this Review, 61 (12 1967), 1002–1009 Google Scholar.

6 Japanese women gained voting rights for the first time in 1947. Therefore, female voting turnout and male/female voting ratio may be sensitive measures of political participation in the Japanese context.

7 The representation index is designed to tab the degree of equality in representation. Assuming that the one-man-one-vote principle is a basic element of political democracy, this index calculates the degree of over-or under-representation in terms of the number of assembly seats won and the percentage of popular votes eceived by each competing party. The formula is:

The reason for dividing the numerator by the number of competing parties in the formula is because of the varying number of parties actually competing in prefectural elections. For example, in the 1965 Tokyo To election there were seven competing parties including the Liberal Democrats, Socialists, Komeito candidates, Communists, Independents, and other minor parties, whereas in the 1967 Akita election only four parties competed.

8 I have offered elsewhere some speculations about the nature of economic-political linkages in Japanese prefectures. See my “Economic Development and Democracy in Japanese Prefectures,” Report No. 29, Laboratory for Political Research, Department of Political Science, University of Iowa (July, 1969)Google Scholar.

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