Japan's political trust deficit

Abstract

This introductory article to the special issue on ‘Trust and Mistrust in Contemporary Japan’ lays out key trust concepts used in social science research. It then turns towards the Japanese case, summarizing important research on the notion of trust and Japanese politics and society, according to which trust levels are comparatively low. The subsequent part provides an overview on the case studies that scrutinize issues related to political trust in particular. As the contributions invariably point to low levels of political trust, we finally reflect on problems in Japan's politics in relation to the notion of trust.     

Blessing or Curse for Advocacy? How News Media Attention Helps Advocacy Groups to Achieve Their Policy Goals

This article asks whether and under what circumstances a presence in news media debates helps advocacy groups to achieve their policy goals in European Union (EU) legislative politics. Common wisdom holds that lobbyists eschew the public spotlight and prefer to influence policymaking from behind the scenes. This perception contrasts with the literature on media and interest groups, which typically conceives of media attention as a crucial commodity for interest groups to influence policy decisions. This article unites these seemingly contrasting stances by arguing that media attention can be both a blessing and a curse for advocacy. The central argument posited is that media attention may improve or reduce advocacy groups’ chances of preference attainment depending on how advocacy groups frame their message in the news. The analyses draw from interviews with more than 200 policy practitioners and content analysis of 3,557 media statements connected to a sample of 125 EU policy proposals. The findings demonstrate that an advocacy group’s media presence may improve preference attainment, but only when the advocacy group manages to frame its objectives in the news as aligned with the public interest.     

对增强中国-东盟政治互信的思考——写在中国一东盟建立战略伙伴关系10周年之际

本文回顾了中国-东盟战略伙伴关系建立10年来的经历,认为政治互信是连接双方关系的重要纽带。10年来,双方在政治互信的建设方面取得了不少实质性的成果,但也存在着不足。本文指出,未来10年深化中国-东盟战略伙伴关系的关键仍取决于政治互信的建设,双方都应为此而付出不懈的努力。     

Party politics,elections and (mis-)trust in Japan

Abstract

Trust matters profoundly for many dimensions of political life. In this article we focus on political trust: how the trust or mistrust citizens have toward the political process, politicians and government affects politics. Prior research has shown that political trust influences such crucial dimensions of politics as the basic legitimacy of government, political participation, voting behavior, compliance with government, and reform orientation. In this article, we seek to answer three major questions. First, is political trust declining in Japan? Second, we are interested in exploring the determinants of trust and distrust in politics: why do people lose trust in politics? What kinds of voters lose political trust? Third, we explore the consequences: what happens when people lose trust in government and politics.     

泰国立宪君主政治权威兴衰的过程、原因与趋势

本文采用“政治体制-社会结构-经济形态”层级式互动框架,对泰国立宪君主政治权威兴衰的过程、原因与趋势进行了分析。指出,泰国立宪君主政治权威的发展变化,主要取决于跨越式发展进程中结构性失衡引起的新旧利益集团的政治权力竞争与妥协。20世纪60年代以来,泰国立宪君主政治权威复兴的根本原因在于军人集团与王室-保皇派从冲突到结盟的政治关系转变。从长期来看,新资本集团的政治崛起将使得王室-保皇派再次被边缘化。     

A Review of: “The Take”

This study uses four waves of panel data to analyze inadvertent learning—that is, learning in the absence of interest or motivation—from watching public service television channels. Previous research suggests that motivation-based gaps in political knowledge are at least partly a function of the political information opportunities provided by the major television channels in a country, which influence the likelihood of being inadvertently exposed to news and current affairs programs. The present study puts the inadvertent learning hypothesis to a thorough empirical test by analyzing individual-level growth in knowledge over time, based on panel data collected during five months leading up to the Swedish 2010 national election. Using multilevel growth curve modeling and an extensive battery of surveillance knowledge questions, the results show not only (a) that public service channel viewing was related to learning, but also (b) that knowledge growth occurred among public service viewers independently of their political motivation and news attention, and (c) that such learning was even more pronounced among viewers lacking an interest in politics. The findings are discussed in light of ongoing media environmental transformations as well as cross-national comparative media systems research.     

委内瑞拉利益集团与政治变迁

利益集团是政治变迁中重要的政治行为体之一。作为委内瑞拉传统的利益集团,工人联合会与商会联合会的发展在制度的长期作用下形成了独特的路径依赖。特别是自1958年菲霍角体系建立以后,两大利益集团通过咨询委员会与分权公共管理部门的设置充分参与整个决策过程。由于利益集团自身强大的实力以及总统、行政机关、国会等其他行为体的角色设定,利益集团在决策过程中起到举足轻重的作用。两大利益集团在此过程中与政府、政党、公民社会的紧密联系促进了利益表达机制的高效性。但随着20世纪80年代委内瑞拉经济的衰退,利益集团与政府、政党、公民社会之间的关系逐渐恶化,原有的利益表达机制受到破坏。利益表达渠道受阻引起了公民社会的不满与抗议,社会矛盾与政治冲突加剧,进而对20世纪80年代的政治危机与经济危机的爆发产生重大影响。在全面危机爆发之后,委内瑞拉以菲霍角协议为基础的政治协商体系瓦解,以查韦斯为代表的左翼政党开始登上政治舞台,委内瑞拉政治进程进入新阶段。