Changing Laodicean Politics in Japan-I : What China Can Learn from Japan's Experience
Introduction As the second decade of the 21st century approaches, China has been in the spotlight among academics, media, businesses, and politics. The book, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order by Martin Jacques, represents an excellent example. From the book title, one can assume what Jacques discusses in his book. Sound familiar? Yes, this is déjà vu all over again. About three decades ago, the book, Japan as Number One: Lessons for America by Ezra Vogel, also discusses Japan, addressing how it was going to overtake the United States. Vogel’s expression – Japan as number one – became a famous phrase in contemporary Japanese history describing Japan’s economic superpower during its heyday. Furthermore, since the 1980s some naïve scholars called Japan Pax Nipponica, expecting that Japan would dominate the “Pacific Century” in the 21st century. Recently, a similar term -“Asian Century,” referred to an irreversible political and economic shift from the global power from West to East (i.e., from the US to China), coined by a scholar in Europe. Yet, the “Pacific Century” is no longer a credible reality for Japan. Unfortunately, Japan’s phenomenon is lasted only decades, basically disappearing from the front page of media attention, as well as, fervent discussions among political leaders, academic cycles, and business communities. As the financial and economic crises have loomed, Japan is no longer viewed as a model to be followed, respected, and appreciated. What happened inside Japanese politics? How did Japan slip from “number one” to number “nothing?” Why did the Japanese take so long to change the regime in the 2009 election? What can China learn from Japan’s experiences? This paper analyzes contemporary Japanese politics, especially political reforms since the 1980s, which ultimately lead to the end of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 8 domination. After more than 20 years of the bursting of the Japanese bubble economy, to change and to reform LDP, is too difficult, too little, and too late. In addition to the incomplete series of reforms and the ill-fated domestic policies implemented by political leaders, the never-ending corruption scandal cycle
When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order
When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order by Martin Jacques The Penguin Press, 2009 ISBN 1594201854, 978-1594201851 Hardcover, 576 pages"When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order" is the provocative the title of Martin Jacques' assessment of China's future role as the dominant global power. For more than a decade Jacques was editor of "Marxism Today" - having first transformed it from an obscure ideological organ of the Marxist Left into a broad platform for wide ranging political and social debate. Not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union "Marxism Today" was also wound up and Jacques went on to become deputy editor of The Independent, an engaging newspaper columnist and author.Having heard him speak recently about his book on China my main reservation is that he is still overly influenced by his political antecedents, and perhaps too willing to overlook the nature of the Chinese political system as he rightly dwells on China's extraordinary growth, economic capacity, and cultural richness.The title of the book is itself a giveaway.Mercifully, no nation has ever ruled the world and however much national fortunes may change no free people would accept the idea of one nation determining our destiny. It's neither desirable nor historically probable.In 1963 the great Welsh tenor, Sir Harry Secombe, recorded a song entitled "If I ruled the world". It contained the memorable lines that if he ever found himself in that position "every man would be as free as a bird" and "every voice would be a voice to be heard. " Would this be China's song for its own citizens or the rest of us?Jacques tends to dismiss concerns for human rights as the West patronizing China and he believes that because the Communist State has created economic growth (a Pew Poll indicated that over 91% of its people are satisfied with its economic performance) this confers legitimacy on the Government. He argues that there is no widespread desire for democracy or for the "enlightenment values" of the West.His central point is that, unlike Western powers, China is not a nation state but a "civilization state "; that China is far more diverse than we imagine, and more flexible. He cites the example of Hong Kong and the creation of "two systems in one country" as an example of both its diversity and its flexibility.What is incontestably true is that at a moment when our western economies are in crisis and stagnating, Chins continues to accelerate.In 1992 just 3.5% of America's imports came from China; today it is 14.5%; in Brazil it was 0.9%, today it is 14%; and in the UK, from virtually nothing in 1990, China provides 6% of our imports today. One fifth of Australia's imports come from China, while its two-way trade with its near neighbors - Taiwan, Singapore, and even Japan -soars. Over the next five years we will see the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (RNB) - "the people's currency" - increasingly challenge the mighty U.S. dollar.Globalization will no longer be shaped by the United States but by China - although Jacques takes far too little account of America's military might or China's disastrous demographic trends, or the flight of capital from China's new rich. The inhumane one child policy (previously a flagship of the country's Communist ideology) has left it with an aging population which will have to be supported by a significantly reduced young workforce (the back bone of its current economic growth).Perhaps expressed less provocatively and less provocatively than in the title of Jacques' book, it could certainly be said that the twenty-first century is China's century; just as the twentieth century was America's century and the nineteenth century was Britain's. …
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.