• Montesquieu vs. Bagehot: Two visions of parliamentarism in Japan

    Author(s):
    Yuri Kono
    Translator(s):
    Egas Moniz Bandeira (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    Japanese Studies
    Subject(s):
    Japan, Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de, 1689-1755, Political science
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Parliament, Tokugawa, Montesquieu, Political theory
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/qgs9-wc26
    Abstract:
    This chapter focuses on the Tokugawa-Meiji transition period in the Japanese archipelago. It discusses the question of the perceived poor prospects for the transplantation of a "parliament" onto Japanese soil. The Japanese system itself, on which the new parliament was premised, hovered between a centralized unitary state and an extremely decentralized federal state (at the time, the controversy was conceptualized by means of the Confucian terms hōken 封建 and gunken 郡県). This polarization of the image of the existing Japanese system as the basis of the new parliament naturally produced a polarization of the image of the congress as well, namely between the decentralized “Montesquieu Model” and the centralized “Bagehot Model.” I want to show that the story of modern Japanese parliamentarism was never a monolithic success story, but rather a drama of conflicts that was open to different possibilities.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    Routledge
    Book Title:
    Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950: Concepts, Practices, and Mythologies
    Author/Editor:
    Ivan Sablin; Egas Moniz Bandeira
    Page Range:
    53 - 74
    ISBN:
    9781003158608
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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