A Comparison of Political Factionalism in Japan and India*

Most studies of political factionalism begin with attempts to define the terms ‘faction’ and ‘factionalism’. The resultant definitions are then regarded as having universal validity, irrespective of time, place, or political culture. The use of this procedure, in our opinion, leads either to the unwarranted universalisation of causal relationships having limited scope, or to generalisations which are too broad to be of much practical value.