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Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

tsangchungshu.medium.com

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Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#31

Post by luckylion »

yorwba wrote: post #28

> Japanese politics is different from US politics. And not in the quirky, hand-wagging way that European politics is different. Japanese politics is not US politics expressed using a different idiom, but rather a world of its own. I'm surprised by the implication that the authors think European politics is US politics expressed using a different idiom. There's not even such a thing as a single "European politics". Ju…

> The percentage of people who're not in a political party in Japan is 94.4%, with the closest European countries being Denmark (94.7%) and Germany (93.5%). The US is the country with the lowest percentage of non-party members at 49.9%. I think it's pretty clear who's the odd one out here.

It feels like they're comparing different things though. In the US, they use voter registration / party identification as "membership", while they use actual membership in other countries. My grandmother always used to vote for the Social Democrats in Germany, certainly identified with them, but was never a member. She wouldn't show up as a party member here, but she would if she did the same in the US. It seems "true believers" would be the better metric to compare to the US party affiliation.

Also, it's amazing how bad that website is built. Thanks for the bread crumbs to follow.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#32

Post by Iv »

donw wrote: post #26
Iv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this solidarity part that I like but in my case I find it really outweighed by the bad parts that force individuals to conform and to do no waves to be part of the community. In our case it culminated with a PE teacher of the local school who was hitting the students members of his kendo club and sent one to the hospital. And the discovery that all the parents of the club members knew about that. Yes, if the…

I'm not sure how cleaning schools requires the sempai-kohai system...? Besides, while I'm not a fan of the whole sempai-kohai thing, it's not like bullying isn't absolutely rampant in US schools which wholly lack that cultural mechanism.

I wan unclear. No it does not require it and I would be happy to import that part alone. But that part alone is not enough to make me favor the Japanese school system that comes with a lot of issues IMO.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#34

Post by donw »

Iv wrote: post #32
donw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how cleaning schools requires the sempai-kohai system...? Besides, while I'm not a fan of the whole sempai-kohai thing, it's not like bullying isn't absolutely rampant in US schools which wholly lack that cultural mechanism.

I wan unclear. No it does not require it and I would be happy to import that part alone. But that part alone is not enough to make me favor the Japanese school system that comes with a lot of issues IMO.

Oh, absolutely.

It does prompt the question: what education systems do you favor?

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#35

Post by SiempreViernes »

yorwba wrote: post #28

> Japanese politics is different from US politics. And not in the quirky, hand-wagging way that European politics is different. Japanese politics is not US politics expressed using a different idiom, but rather a world of its own. I'm surprised by the implication that the authors think European politics is US politics expressed using a different idiom. There's not even such a thing as a single "European politics". Ju…

Yeah, their understanding of politics in Europe doesn't seem to be as developed as their understanding of Japanese politics though this is not an important problem for their article.

It is a bit interesting to read such an outsiders perspective though, as an outside impression can be a useful basis for self-reflection.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#37

Post by bildung »

yorwba wrote: post #28

> Japanese politics is different from US politics. And not in the quirky, hand-wagging way that European politics is different. Japanese politics is not US politics expressed using a different idiom, but rather a world of its own. I'm surprised by the implication that the authors think European politics is US politics expressed using a different idiom. There's not even such a thing as a single "European politics". Ju…

> I'm surprised by the implication that the authors think European politics is US politics expressed using a different idiom.

I think they meant another dimension than you. I've looked into the underlying value systems in the US and Germany as part of my phd, and the underlying moral frameworks are essentially identical: there are two basic ideas of how a society should look like (the progressive and the conservative idea), and what each idea consists of is almost identical (modulo country-specific weights).

* criminal justice: redemption vs. retribution

* social safety: more of it, and collectively organized vs. less of it, and individually organized

* abortion/women's rights: pro women vs. contra abortion

* environmental protection: important vs. unimportant

* education: focus on equal opportunities for all vs. focus on elite institutions

and so on.

The actual parties differ of course, and the overton window of "mainstream" political views certainly do. But the underlying moral dualism has the same two poles.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#38

Post by School-Cotton »

luckylion wrote: post #31
yorwba wrote: post #28

> Japanese politics is different from US politics. And not in the quirky, hand-wagging way that European politics is different. Japanese politics is not US politics expressed using a different idiom, but rather a world of its own. I'm surprised by the implication that the authors think European politics is US politics expressed using a different idiom. There's not even such a thing as a single "European politics". Ju…

> The percentage of people who're not in a political party in Japan is 94.4%, with the closest European countries being Denmark (94.7%) and Germany (93.5%). The US is the country with the lowest percentage of non-party members at 49.9%. I think it's pretty clear who's the odd one out here. It feels like they're comparing different things though. In the US, they use voter registration / party identification as "member…

The US is the only country I know of where you’re asked if you want to register as a member of whatever party you like, for free, when registering to vote.

Indeed, it’s meaningless to compare party “membership” in the US to being a real, card-carrying, dues-paying member of an organization in another country.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#39

Post by Iv »

donw wrote: post #34
Iv wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wan unclear. No it does not require it and I would be happy to import that part alone. But that part alone is not enough to make me favor the Japanese school system that comes with a lot of issues IMO.

Oh, absolutely. It does prompt the question: what education systems do you favor?

I have been disappointed by both the French and Japanese education. I'd love to give Montessori and Freinet style of education a try.

But I find it weird that education can't reinvent itself radically. The system we have was based around a scarcity of books and a need for the production of standardized workers.

I suspect the education system's main constraint is not the needs of kids but the possibility/will of the current teachers.

Re: Building a Functional One-Party Democracy (2019)

#40

Post by tored »

mpweiher wrote: post #14
sneak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing in GP that suggested they were referring to the economy specifically: the population has been in decline for some time, and many parts of the country are losing tax revenues.

We need populations to at the very least stagnate, decline is also not a bad idea.

Yes, the current ideology of constantly increasing populations is not long term sustainable, not economically, nor climate wise or social.

You can describe it as a form of a Ponzi scheme, the idea is that we must increase populations so we can continue living on the current living standard, not a future increased living standard.

What would it take to get to an improved living standard according to the this ideology? Doubling of populations? Tripling?

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