Civic Attitudes, Political Participation, and System Stability in Japan

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Abstract
The argument has been made that Japan's democratic polity is unstable, and that the reason for this instability is that political cynicism is peculiarly frequent in Japan, and that political cynicism (particularly when in combination with high political efficacy) conduces toward unconventional or radical individual political behavior, and that such behavior in turn is destabilizing to the polity. The conclusions of this article are that (a) the Japanese are no more politically cynical than citizens in other, unarguably stable, democracies; (b) the Japanese are no more prone to approve of or participate in unconventional protest demonstrations, or to approve the use of violence in settling political disputes, than citizens in other, unarguably stable, democracies; (c) although cynicism plus efficacy lead toward protest behavior, they lead even more strongly toward conventional forms of participation and away from violence; (d) protest behavior as it commonly occurs in Japan does not constitute a destabilizing force in politics, and the violence-prone are so few in number and divided that they pose little threat either; and (e) political trust is of little relevance in explaining conventional or unconventional participation, acceptability of violence, or systemic stability—efficacy is the variable of major importance in the attitude-behavior equation.

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