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Faction Behavior and Cultural Codes: India and Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Steven A. Hoffmann
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Abstract

The typical internal structure of factions in a particular culture strongly influences the ability of factions to resolve conflict among themselves. This hypothesis is verified by examination of faction structure in India as contrasted to that in Japan. The argument draws on material from the broad range of contemporary studies of Indian and Japanese party politics and some studies of their bureaucracies as well. The major implication of the findings is that the “political culture” concept can be given a sounder empirical base when related to overt political behavior than when viewed as a matter of political psychology.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , February 1981 , pp. 231 - 254
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Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981

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References

1 Carras, Mary C., The Dynamics of Indian Political Factions: A Study of District Councils in the State of Maharastra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 See Rosenthal, Donald B., “Sources of District Congress Factionalism in Maharastra,” Economic and Political Weekly 7, 34 (Aug. 19, 1972): 1725–46Google Scholar; and reviews by Hardgrave, Robert L. Jr., The Annals 407 (May 1973): 195Google Scholar, and Franda, Marcus, American Political Science Review 69 (1975): 299–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See Dittmer, Lowell, “Political Culture and Political Symbolism,” World Politics 29 (July 1977): 552–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar. My use of “universalism” comes from Sheth, D. L., “Comparisons of Developmental Processes Within and Across Nation-States,” in Rokkan, Stein and Eisenstadt, Samuel, eds., Building States and Nations (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1974), 1: 119–20.Google Scholar

4 The only previous effort of which I am aware was that of Stockwin, J. A., “A Comparison of Political Factionalism in Japan and India,” The Australian Journal of Politics and History 16 (Dec. 1970): 361–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Rastogi, P. N., The Nature and Dynamics of Factional Conflict (Delhi: South Asia Books, 1972), p. 5.Google Scholar

6 Brass, Paul R., “Leadership Conflict and the Disintegration of the Indian Socialist Movement: Personal Ambition, Power, and Policy,” Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 14 (March 1976): 39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Brass, Paul R., Factional Politics in an Indian State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), p. 56.Google Scholar

8 See Thakur, Janardan, All the Janata Men (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1978)Google Scholar, passim: Franda, Marcus, Radical Politics in West Bengal (Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1971), p. 246Google Scholar; and Gould, Harold A., “Toward a ‘Jati’ Model for Indian Politics,” Economic and Political Weekly 4 (Feb. 1, 1969): 296.Google Scholar

9 Thayer, Nathaniel, How the Conservatives Rule Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 15–57Google Scholar; Chie, Nakane, Japanese Society (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1972), pp. 40–86Google Scholar; Curtis, Gerald, Election Campaigning Japanese Style (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), pp. 1–33Google Scholar. Interviews: Masumi Junnosuke, political scientist, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, June 1977; Kobayashi Katsumi, former secretary to Liberal Democratic party faction leader Nakasone, Tokyo, May 1978; Kondo Tetsuo, deputy minister and Diet member, Liberal Democratic party, Tokyo, May 1978.

10 Brass, Factional Politics, p. 55.

11 Gould, “Jati Model,” p. 293.

12 Takeshi, Ishida, “Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Japan Viewed in Terms of Omote-Ura and Uchi-Soto Relations,” unpublished paper (Tokyo: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tokyo University, 1977), p. 10Google Scholar. Interview: Tanaka Tsutomu, middle-level official, Economic Planning Agency, Ministry of Finance, Tokyo, June 1977.

13 Nandy, Ashis, “The Culture of Indian Politics, A Stock Taking,” Journal of Asian Studies 30, 1 (1970): 68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Interview, T. A. Pai, former Cabinet minister, Delhi, June 1978. See also Hanson, A. H. and Douglas, Janet, India's Democracy (New York: Norton, 1972), pp. 131–151Google Scholar; Nandy, Ashis, “The Making and Unmaking of Political Cultures in India,” Daedalus 102 (Winter 1973): 120–24Google Scholar; and Heginbotham, Stanley, Cultures in Conflict: The Four Faces of Indian Bureaucracy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975).Google Scholar

15 On Raj Narain, see Thakur, Janata Men, pp. 112–24. For the analytical point, I am grateful to Dr. Bashiruddin Ahmed, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, July 1978.

16 Lebra, Takie Sugiyama, “Reciprocity and the Asymmetric Principle: An Analytical Reappraisal of the Japanese Concept of On,” in Lebra, and Lebra, , eds., Japanese Culture and Behavior (Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1976), pp. 192–207.Google Scholar

17 On consensualism and ambivalence about power, two major sources are: Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber, “Consensus and Conflict in Indian Politics,” World Politics 13 (April 1961): 385–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Weiner, Myron, “Struggle Against Power: Notes on Indian Political Behavior,” World Politics 8 (April 1956): 392–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Evidence on Indian factional decision making can be found in Brecher, Michael, Succession in India (London: Oxford University Press, 1966)Google Scholar, passim, and “Succession in India 1967: The Routinization of Political Change,” Asian Survey 7 (July 1967): 423–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 The literature on Japanese decision making in English is large and growing. Major works include: Pempel, T. J., ed., Policy-Making in Contemporary Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Vogel, Ezra, ed., Modern Japanese Organization and Decision Making (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Campbell, John Creighton, Contemporary Japanese Budget Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar; and Blaker, Michael, Japanese International Negotiating Style (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978)Google Scholar. For his comments on gekokujo, I am grateful to Mr. Kano Tsutomu, editor of The Japan Interpreter, interview, Tokyo, June 1977.

19 Indian material drawn from: Kothari, Rajni, Politics in India (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), pp. 256, 266–68, 290Google Scholar; Kakar, Sudhir, The Inner World: A Psycho-Analytical Study of Childhood and Society in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 122–26Google Scholar; and Gould, “Jati Model,” pp. 295–96. I take responsibility, however, for the use of the jajmani concept here.

20 Seizaburo, Sato, Shumpei, Kumon, and Yasusuke, Murakami, “Japan Viewed as le Society,” Japan Echo 3 (Spring 1976): 16–35Google Scholar; same authors. “Analysis of Japan's Modernization, “Japan Echo 3 (Summer 1976): 69–90Google Scholar; Junichi, Kyogoku, Gendai Minshusei to Seijigaku [Modern Democratic Government and Political Science] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1969), pp. 147–49Google Scholar; Smith, Thomas C., The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1959), pp. 50–66Google Scholar; and Takeshi, Ishida, Nihon No Seiji Bunka (Japan's Political Culture) (Tokyo: Daigaku Shuppankai, 1971).Google Scholar

21 On the different Indian identities: interview with Dr. Ramashray Roy, Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, August 1976. The growing importance of Japanese nonvertical groups: Kano interview, 1977. Japanese ability to shift identifications: Ishida, “Conflict Resolution,” passim.

22 Exaggerated social distrust in bureaucratic setting: interview, T. A. Pai, June 1978, confirmed by Professor Anil Bhatt, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, interviewed June 1978.

23 The factual material in this passage and elaboration below come from Ishida, “Conflict Resolution,” pp. 1–3; Nakane Chie, interviews, June 1977, May 1978; Ishida, interviews, June 1977, May 1978; Kobayashi interview (n. 9), May 1978; Ishida, Nihon No Seiji Bunka, pp. 1–150; Tanaka interview (see n. 12), 1977.

24 Ishida, Nihon No Seiji Bunka, p. 95.

25 Kothari, Politics in India, p. 166.

26 The substantial literature on this subject includes: Rudolph, “Consensus and Conflict,” Weiner, Myron, “Traditional Role Performance and the Development of Modern Political Parties,” Journal of Politics 26 (1964): 831–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kothari, Politics in India pp. 29, 261–65, 298–99; Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 1: 256Google Scholar; Cohen, Bernard, “Some Notes on Law and Change in North India,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 8 (Oct. 1959): 79–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Anthropological Notes on Disputes and Law in India,” American Anthropologist 67 (1965): 82–122.Google Scholar

27 Carstairs, Morris, The Twice Born (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958), p. 47.Google Scholar

28 Ishida interview, 1978; Nakane interview, 1978; Chitoshi, Yanaga, Japanese People and Politics (New York: John Wiley, 1956), pp. 55, 109Google Scholar. See also Nakane, Japanese Society, pp. 52–53; and Blaker, Japanese Negotiating Style, p. 61. For corroborating information, I am also grateful to Mr. Kobayashi and Mr. Iwamatsu, both of faction leader Nakasone's office, joint interview. Tokyo, July 1977.

29 American Embassy, Tokyo, Daily Summary of the Japanese Press, Dec. 2, 1974, pp. 26–27Google Scholar; Dec. 4, 1974, pp. 15–18. Interviews: Shiratori Rei, political scientist, Dokkyo University, Tokyo, May 1978; Ishida, May 1978; Fukuoka Masayuki, political scientist, Komazawa University, Tokyo, May 1978.

30 See nn. 28 and 29. Also Kyogoku, “Democratic Government,” pp. 154–55, and interview: Professor Kyogoku Junichi, Tokyo University, June 1977. Material drawn also from Tsuneo, Watanabe, editor (chief, Political Division) Yomiuri Shimbun, interview, Tokyo, June 1978, and from his book Habatsu [Faction] (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1968), pp. 4–18, 3O–48, 59–64, 68–96, 117–24.Google Scholar

31 Kyogoku, Gendai Minsbusei, pp. 149–52; Kothari, Politics in India, p. 258; “halfway” discussion concept is from Nakane interview, 1978; K. D. Desai, political scientist, Gujerat University, Ahmedabad, June 1978 interview; Yanaga, Japanese People, p. 86; Blaker, Japanese Negotiating Style, p. 189.

32 Blaker, Japanese Negotiating Style, p. 39.

33 Interview: Professor Maruyama Masao, intellectual historian and political scientist, Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, May 1978.

34 Nandy, “Indian Politics,” p. 65, “Political Cultures,” p. 120; Ishida interview, 1978.

35 The point comes from Professor Anil Bhatt, 1978 interview.

36 On Janata structure see Thakut, Janata Men, passim, and Gupta, Jyotirindra Das, “The Janata Phase: Reorganization and Redirection in Indian Politics,” Asian Survey 19, 4 (April 1979): 390–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Gould, Harold A., “The Second Coming: The 1980 Elections in India's Hindi Belt,” Asian Survey 20, 6 (June 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Overseas Hindustan Times, July 26, 1979.

38 Das Gupta, “Janata Phase,” p. 393.

39 My interpretation, based on Economic and Political Weekly, April 14, 1979, p. 688, and April 21, 1979, pp. 719–20.

40 Illustrated Weekly of India, Sept. 9, 1979; and Economic and Political Weekly, April 21, 1979, p. 719.

41 Economic and Political Weekly, July 7, 1979, p. 1111.

42 Overseas Hindustan Times, July 19, 1979; Economic and Political Weekly, April 14, 1979, p. 688.

43 Overseas Hindustan Times, Aug. 9, 1979.

44 Interpretation in this section based on the following sources, all 1980: Japan Times, June 25, 27–29, July 2, 4–6, 8, 10, 12, 16–17; Daily Yomiuri, July 1, 4–9, 11–12, 15–17, 20; Asahi Evening News, July 5–6, 8–10, 12, 16–18; American Embassy, Tokyo, Daily Summary of the Japanese Press, June 25, pp. 6–9, July 11, pp. 5–8, July 16, pp. 11, 15–16, July 17, p. 14, July 18, pp. 12–16, July 19–21, pp. 14–15, July 22, pp. 1–3, 12, July 23, pp. 1–3, July 25, pp. 7–8; Asahi Shimbun, July 18.

45 Japan Times, July 6, 1980.

46 Asahi livening News, July 8, 1980.

47 Asahi Evening News, July 18, 1980.

48 Nandy, “Indian Politics,” passim, and “Political Cultures,” passim.