The Missing Leader: Japanese Youths' View of Political Authority

1975 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Massey

Before 1945 Japan was the epitome of a nation whose political regime was based on the presence of a “benevolent leader,” the Emperor. The postwar democratic regime, however, was founded in explicit repudiation of this central role of the Emperor in the political life of the nation. This study, based on two surveys of Japanese children and adolescents, investigates their images of political authority figures and the consequences of those images on support for the institutions of the present regime. The first part of the paper focuses on younger children's images of possible contenders for the role of benevolent leader. The data reveal indifference toward the emperor and strong negative affect toward the prime minister. Comparison of the images of prime minister and local leader suggests that the leader's personality and leadership style, characteristics of the institutional structure of politics, and children's conceptions of the meaning of “politics” combine to the detriment of the prime minister's image. The second part of the paper centers around the question of whether there occurs in later years a spill-over of negative affect from the prime minister's image onto the other major institutions of the regime. The data indicate that a selective political cynicism emerges in adolescence, in which negative feelings toward the authoritative, output institutions of government are coupled with support for those institutions which mediate popular participation in politics. The paper concludes with a consideration of the significance that the historical origins of a political regime have for popular images of national leaders.

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-213
Author(s):  
Christopher Cochrane ◽  
Jean-François Godbout ◽  
Jason Vandenbeukel

Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature at the national level. Members of the upper House, styled the Senate, are appointed by the prime minister, and members of the lower House, the House of Commons, are elected in single-member plurality electoral districts. In practice, the House of Commons is by far the more important of the two chambers. This chapter, therefore, investigates access to the floor in the Canadian House of Commons. We find that the age, gender, and experience of MPs have little independent effect on access to the floor. Consistent with the dominant role of parties in Canadian political life, we find that an MP’s role within a party has by far the most significant impact on their access to the floor. Intriguingly, backbenchers in the government party have the least access of all.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Marguerite Deslauriers

Abstract Aristotle claims that the citizens of the best city should be both intelligent and spirited at Politics VII.7 1327b19-38. While he treats intelligence as an unqualified good, thumos (‘spirit’) is valuable but problematic. This paper has two aims: (i) to consider the political value of spirit in Aristotle’s Politics and in particular to identify the ways in which it is both essential to political excellence and yet insufficient for securing it, and (ii) to use this analysis of the role of spirit in the political realm to explain Aristotle’s exclusion of women from political authority, even in the context of the household. I analyze spirit as a physical phenomenon and as a type of desire, before considering its moral and affective aspects. I then return to the role of spirit in political life and examine its importance for the activity of ruling. In the last section I consider the implications of this analysis of spirit for the social and political roles Aristotle assigns to men and women.


Author(s):  
Anthony Trollope

‘Though a great many men and not a few women knew Ferdinand Lopez very well, none of them knew whence he had come.’ Despite his mysterious antecedents, Ferdinand Lopez aspires to join the ranks of British society. An unscrupulous financial speculator, he determines to marry into respectability and wealth, much against the wishes of his prospective father-in-law. One of the nineteenth century’s most memorable outsiders, Lopez’s story is set against that of the ultimate insider, Plantagenet Palliser, Duke of Omnium. Omnium reluctantly accepts the highest office of state; now, at last, he is ‘the greatest man in the greatest country in the world’. But his government is a fragile coalition and his wife’s enthusiastic assumption of the role of political hostess becomes a source of embarrassment. Their troubled relationship and that of Lopez and Emily Wharton is a conjunction that generates one of Trollope’s most complex and substantial novels. Part of the Palliser series, The Prime Minister’s tale of personal and political life in the 1870s has acquired a new topicality in the early twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Carol Johnson

This article emphasises the role that political leaders’ discourse plays in evoking positive emotions among citizens in uncertain times, such as feeling protected, secure and proud in addition to the leaders’ (often interconnected) role of encouraging negative feelings such as fear, resentment and anger. The article argues that such discourse frequently involves performances of gendered leadership. It cites examples from a range of countries to illustrate the points being made, but focuses on the 2020 US presidential election which saw a contest between two forms of protective masculinity: Trump’s exclusionary, macho, hypermasculinity versus Biden’s more socially inclusive, empathetic and softer version. Trump’s protective masculinity failure over managing the COVID-19 pandemic was arguably one of the factors contributing to his electoral defeat, while Biden aimed to make voters feel safer and more protected than under Trump. The article also provides examples of protective femininity, with a particular focus on the discourse of New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.


Author(s):  
Duncan McCargo

This book investigates how Thailand's judges were tasked by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in 2006 with helping to solve the country's intractable political problems—and what happened next. Across the last decade of Rama IX's rule, the book examines the world of Thai judges: how they were recruited, trained, and promoted, and how they were socialized into a conservative world view that emphasized the proximity between the judiciary and the monarchy. The book delves into three pivotal freedom of expression cases that illuminate Thai legal and cultural understandings of sedition and treason, before examining the ways in which accusations of disloyalty made against controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra came to occupy a central place in the political life of a deeply polarized nation. The book navigates the highly contentious role of the Constitutional Court as a key player in overseeing and regulating Thailand's political order before concluding with reflections on the significance of the Bhumibol era of “judicialization” in Thailand. In the end, under a new king, who appears far less reluctant to assert his own power and authority, the Thai courts may now assume somewhat less significance as a tool of the monarchical network.


Author(s):  
Mihail Klimenkov

The Public Chamber is currently attracting a lot of scientific attention. The present research owes its relevance to the fact that the Public Chamber remains passive, despite claiming an important role in the development of civil society. The research objective was to identify the place and role of the Public Chamber in the regional socio-political life. The article focuses on its ability to act as a mediator between the government and civil society. The author sees the Public Chamber as a communication platform, which allows the scientific community to influence public policy by acting as experts. The empirical study lasted from February to June 2020 and involved former and current members of the Public Chamber of the Kemerovo region, as well as its researchers and experts. The analysis was based on the qualitative approach and the methods of informal expert interviews, comparative analysis, and content analysis. The author identified two main criteria: the model of regional power and the regional political regime. These criteria determine the final configuration, i.e. the influence and role of the Public Chamber in the regional public policy. The Public Chamber appeared to be more of an imitator than a real actor in the field of the local public policy. The paper also introduces a new classification of the development of the Public Chamber in the Kemerovo region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Kaarbo

This article explores how differences in prime ministers’ leadership styles may affect parliamentary influence in security policy. Drawing on work on personality differences in political psychology, I argue leadership style is a critical but often overlooked factor in the growing area of research on parliaments and foreign affairs. My key argument is that prime ministers vary in how they respond to and manage parliamentary involvement in security policymaking. I propose Leadership Trait Analysis to capture prime ministers’ orientations towards parliamentary involvement. I examine the plausibility of my argument with intra-country comparisons of Turkish and UK prime ministers’ orientations towards parliament in specific cases of security policy. More generally, this article challenges more formal-institutional approaches to parliaments’ role in security policy. A focus on prime ministers has an analytic advantage of bringing together some of the various factors (such as intraparty divisions and public opinion) to explain parliamentary influence in security policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-68
Author(s):  
Antonіі Palamar

The influence of religion on politics is inherent not only to the Islamic world, however, none of political theorist should ignore the role of Islam in Muslims’ public life, its impact on the policies of Muslim nations and the global geopolitical situation. Due to its historical uniqueness Modern Islam is not only a religion but also a way of life for the vast majority of Muslims and the basis of their civilizational and even national self-identification. Therefore, the role of religion in the Muslim world is different to that of countries, mostly populated by Christians, as Christianity is legally separated from the system of public administration in European countries. Islam, on the other hand, regulates not only the sociocultural sphere of society, including human relations, but also significantly affects the socio-political life of many Muslim countries, where Islamist movements have now become the major part this sphere.In Egypt, where authoritarian secular regime of Hosni Mubarak was overthrown during the revolution, Islamists took the lead in the protest movement, won the first democratic elections and used the opportunity to lead the country after nearly 60 years of underground activity. This paper examines the influence of the religious factor on the change of Egypt’s political regime in 2011-2013 by conceptualizing the terms of “political Islam” and “Islamic fundamentalism.” The author concludes that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party should not be defined as “fundamentalists” because: 1. they don’t try to return to a “righteous caliphate,” Sharia, and a literal perception of the sacred texts; 2. the Brothers could not be viewed as the most conservative force among Islamists, while Salafists are properly rightly considered to be; 3. the association is considered as a part of moderate Islamism, an ideology that does not mandate any the use of armed methods of struggle. At the same time, the author argues that owing to the fact that Egyptian “Muslim Brotherhood” adhered to moderate Islamism as an ideological party basis, it became a decisive reason that provided them a venue at the top tier of the government in 2011-2013.


Author(s):  
Christ’l De Landtsheer ◽  
Shana Hollander ◽  
Peter Maene

This article focuses on the role of personality in the case of Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on January 31, 2020. A decisive step in Brexit were the general elections on December 12, 2019, in which Boris Johnson, Conservative Prime Minister of the UK and advocate of Brexit, defeated Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party and ‘neutral’ about Brexit. Political psychology considers personality as a major factor in political developments. This article presents the results of an assessment of the personalities of Johnson and Corbyn, and it argues that the personality of these key players influenced the Brexit process. The analysis is based on the theory and methods of Immelman, Immelman & Steinberg, and Mastenbroek. Our findings suggest that Johnson’s charismatic personality, his dominant leadership style, and his negotiating skills contributed to his electoral victory and to the realization of Brexit. Johnson profited from Corbyn’s lack of personal charisma and from his undecisive and divisive leadership regarding Brexit.


Author(s):  
Ruslan M. Kliuchnyk ◽  

The article is devoted to the place and role of a Journalist in modern Politics. The main professional characteristics of a modern Journalist have been considered. It has been suggested that the requirements for Journalists will continue to grow in the future. A particular attention has been paid to Journalists who disagree with the political regime, whether democratic or not. Journalists covering political events cannot always stay indifferent to what they say and write about. The political events provoke their reaction. It is determined by the peculiarities of human perception as a subject of cognition of a certain kind of information. A striking example of the influence of an opposition Journalist on the political process is the phenomenon of the Wikileaks website and its creator, Julian Assange, Australian Journalist and Programmer. He started to publish the information compromising the political elite. Publication of information, compromising the political elite, has led to a rethinking of the role of a blogger in political life. In 2016, Wikileaks became an effective tool to discredit Hillary Clinton, the pro-government Democratic Party candidate in the US presidential elections. It was noted that Matthew Lee, Associated Press Journalist, is widely known for his point of view on the foreign policy of the USA (��� ��������� � ���������). He became famous for his use of trolling and provoking against officials by asking tough questions. This, in particular, made him a subject of political life. We have come to the conclusion that a journalist can become a prominent figure in national and international Politics. His participation in Politics is determined by his role in decision-making, as well as by his influence on the mass audience. As a result, journalists are exposed to attacks because of their professional activity. Democratic countries have issued regulations designed to protect journalists. In this article system and comparative approaches have been used. The documents in text and video formats facilitates our research. We have considered the papers of modern scientists regarding this problem. The article can be useful for professors, doctorates, lecturers, students and the wide range of people who are interested in political communication.


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