Comment by Alex

July 29, 2007 @ 10:19 pm

Good seijigiri guys! As I’m tracking election results, I can’t help but wonder if these results indicate that the electorate is swinging to the left or if its just a vote against the ruling party.

Any thoughts on this?

Comment by Ken Worsley

July 29, 2007 @ 11:19 pm

Thanks Alex!

I’m going to have to think about this one myself before giving a real answer, but one big thing I just saw was that Katayama lost: http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0729/TKY200707290299.html

I honestly don’t think the electorate is swinging to the left, or that the DPJ is really that much to the left of the LDP, given that the DPJ does not seem to have coherent policies and that so many members are simply LDP outcasts.

If the DPJ is going to keep up these sort of results (or at least stay respectable), they’re going to have to come up with some clear policy.

Comment by Cal Hobbs

July 31, 2007 @ 3:50 am

Regarding the discussion of voting for a candidate versus voting for a party, I have often about the impact on elections if ballots did not identify a party with a candidate.

Make the voter select an individual and not a party.

In the US some states still allow ’straight-ticket’ voting. The voter selects one of the two major parties and automatically casts a vote for any candidate running under that party banner.

That always bothered me even realizing that the law of the land did not restrict voting to those with any intellect or judgment or knowledge. If you were at least the designation age and could get a ballot you can vote.

I am quite sure that some US voters thought they were electing donkeys or elephants (and in many cases we might have been better off with one of the two animals in office).

I understand that things may be different in places where the party affiliation meant something in terms of policy or direction. In the US today the party simply means you are doing something or blaming the other party for doing something.

Comment by DeOrio

July 31, 2007 @ 9:47 am

They key here is that Japan is run on a parliamentary system, which means that, in at least some cases, voters are actually voting for a party, not a candidate. In other words, a voter might have the choice of DPJ or LDP, but not who from his chosen party actually fills that seat.

There really isn’t any parallel between voting straight ticket in the US, where it is an individual for whom you’re voting, and voting for a party in a parliamentary system. In the US, if you vote for Joe Smith, the seat goes to Joe Smith, even if he changes his party. This is often, but not always the case under a parliamentary system.

In a parliamentary system, party affiliation is very important because it determines, among other things, who the prime minister is, for example. No one votes for Abe, the LDP is the majority party, Abe is the president of the LDP, so he becomes the PM - it’s based on party lists.

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December 2, 2007 @ 10:55 pm

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