Comparing Britain to Japan
In 1900 Britain was in many respects the world's leading nation, enjoying a large share of world trade, a dominant position in the international money market, and possessing a far flung empire supported by the world's most powerful navy. Japan was a complete contrast, sharing with Britain only the fact that it too was a nation of Islands lying off the shore of a major continent. Until the 1860s it had possessed a social and economic structure more akin to that of feudal, rather than twentieth century, Europe. By the 1990s, the positions were almost reversed. This paper sets out to examine the contrasting democratic political systems of the two nations and to explore the social and democratic consequences of the changes that have occurred. The establishment of the Japanese archipelago assumed its present shape around 10,000 years ago. Soon after the era known as the Jomon period began and continued for about 8,000 years. Gradually they formed small communities and began to organize their lives communally. Japan can be said to have taken its first steps to nationhood in the Yamato period, which began at the end of the third century AD. During this period, the ancestors of the present Emperor began to bring a number of sm
The establishments of the British monarchies were much different from Japan's. Britain is one of the few states that has never been conquered and reshaped by another government. They have also never had a full-fledged revolution, ousting one regime and putting in place a totally different one. From 1066 to the eighteenth century British politics consisted of rule by the crown and the aristocracy. There was usually tension between the crown and the others. However, it was out of this tension that legal and representative institutions evolved which would later be picked up and adopted to democratic government. Britain did however have one brief revolution. The British monarchy was overthrown by the Puritan Revolution in 1649, and from 1653 to 1658 Oliver Cromwell ruled Britain as a republic. Once again, the monarchy was restored in 1660. (Shively p.107) The establishment of the democratic political system in Japan came into force in 1947 when their constitution was made up. This was helped by American occupation there with a strong influence from General McArthur. It is based on three principles: sovereignty of the people, respect for fundamental human rights and pacifism. The similarities between Britain and Japan's political systems are very important to see in which way each undermines democracy. To see this we need to look at the similarities but also their differences in each. Japan's similarities to Britain's system are that Parliament has two houses like Japan's system. There is a hereditary emperor as head of the state. Elections must be with in 4 years, there is a Prime Minister, which is elected by majority of the lower house in Japan. Their systems are very centralized, not feder
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Approximate Word count = 1159
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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