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SoSe 23: (VS) "Auf dem Weg zur Westminster-Demokratie? Wandel und Kontinuität im politischen System Japans"

Steffen Richard Heinrich

Hinweise für Studierende

Language of instruction for both Seminar and Übung will be English, however, participants are welcome to use German for oral contributions and presentations as well as for the Hausarbeit.

Kommentar

This advanced module looks at the changes the political system had undergone in the last three decades and how they impact decisions and decision-making processes. While the political landscape may appear exceptionally stable due to the ongoing dominance of the LDP, institutionally Japan has undergone a period of remarkable changes, including a major overhaul of the electoral system, the advent of policy-based partisan competition and the mediatization of politics. Scholars, however, disagree in their assessments of how these changes have impacted aspects such as policy-making processes, the responsiveness of politicians towards public sentiment or the substance of political decisions. Nor is there consensus on whether Japan should be understood as a Westminster-type democracy where power is concentrated in the cabinet. In the module we will not only revisit these debates but contribute to them by analysing policy-making processes and policy substance using various government sources, surveys, electoral manifestos and political statements. To this end, we will examine and compare a broad range of policy fields, such as gender equality, ageing and foreign relations. Students will learn how to access, process and analyse different kinds of related data and to use and interpret results in the context of their own research projects. Schließen