Japanese Journal Reviews Ellis Krauss Book on the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions
08/15/2012
Peter Mair,
Japanese Journal of Political Science
According to Ellis Krauss and Robert Pekkanen in their new and highly instructive analysis of the development of Japan's traditional ruling party, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) is possibly the most successful party in any democracy. This is also a view shared by many party scholars, and it is not difficult to understand why. To come to power in 1955, and, with the exception of a brief ten-month inter-regnum, to rule continuously until 2009, when it suffered a major defeat, is an enviable record. Its closest rival is reckoned to be the Swedish Social Democrats, who ruled from 1932 to 1996, but who lost power from 1976 to 1982, and again from 1991 to 1993.
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Ellis Krauss is a leading expert on Japanese politics, U.S.-Japan relations, and Japan's political economy. In 2010 Cornell University Press will publish his latest book, co-authored with Robert Pekkanen of the University of Washington, The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Institutions.
He can provide commentary on domestic politics in Japan, the Japanese mass media, U.S.-Japan relations and Japan's foreign policy and role in Asia.
