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Japan's Social Democratic Party Of Theory Change And Policy Adjustments: The Process, The Direction And Influence

Posted on:2009-02-02Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y Y CuiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2206360272984889Subject:Scientific Socialism and the international communist movement
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Japanese Social Democratic Party (formerly the Japanese Socialist Party), the largest opposition party in "55 year system", is one of the post-war Japanese major political parties. For its great impact on the formation of contemporary political parties and trends of Japan's politics, Japanese Social Democratic Party is a political force that cannot be overlooked in Japan's politics.The Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party, as two major political parties, are in political confrontation once again since the 21st Senate election in the summer of 2007. The Social Democratic Party is the third largest opposition party after the Communist Party and plays a certain role in protecting the peace constitution, opposing political corruption and other important issues. However, although the Japanese Socialist Party changed its name to the Social Democratic Party since January 1996, its political strength and impact is still declining day by day. In contemporary Japanese political arena, the Social Democratic Party advocates peace constitution, social justice and environmental protection, safeguards the rights of women and vulnerable groups, represents social progress and reflects the needs of people. But after some intense factional struggle in the party and loss in reorganization of the joint separatist regime, the public support rate fell. The Social Democratic Party changed the name of the party in order to win national trust again, but against all expectations, in the recent House of Representatives elections, the number of parliament seats has dropped to a single-digit instead of retrieving the voters' supports. To study the success and failure of Japanese Social Democratic Party will help us not only understand Japan's politics better, but also learn the Asian and even global democratic political situation in the post-Cold War period and future development.Under the guidance of historical materialism, this thesis from political science, law, philosophy and other perspectives, chooses the theory and policy adjustment of Japanese Social Democratic Party as the major point, analyses systematically its policy adjustment process, the direction and the influence, using the methods of literature analysis, historical analysis, case studies and comparative analysis.The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part analyses from the founding of Japanese Social Democratic Party to changing its name, reveals the growing conservative trend from "fuzzy theory" to abandoning scientific socialism, establishing Western Europe-like democratic society, and explores the complicated factors of adjustment of the theory. The second part elaborates the representative policy adjustments in the 21st century, such as the Yasukuni Shrine policy, new ideas concerning vulnerable groups and resolutely defending the Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution about peace policy, and so forth. The third part analyses the new changes of alliances and joint camp in the process of middle-tendency, and reveals that the Social Democratic Party combined opposition parties and middle left-wing community groups in order to develop own political survival after the loss of united support. The fourth part reviews the impact of theory adjustment and future development, and point out the policy of the Social Democratic Party is of more diversity and openness, but at the same time, it is difficult for the Social Democratic Party to make any breakthrough in public support rate and political activities in the increasingly conservative political environment.This thesis holds the view that to a certain extent, the policy adjustment and the theoretical change of the Japanese Social Democratic Party were in line with the social development and the world trend of future development. However, whether the Japanese Social Democratic Party will change its political ideas into practical political ability depends on its ability to integrate the party differences effectively, realize inter-party cooperation and form a stable alliance, adjust election strategy and expand the voter supports and other factors. It is full of uncertainty that whether the Japanese Social Democratic Party will move toward the rejuvenation and come into power finally or decline gradually and fade away at last.
Keywords/Search Tags:Japanese Social Democratic Party, conservative trend, Constitution Protecting Union, social democracy, middle-tendency
PDF Full Text Request
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