THE JAPANESE VOTER AND POLITICAL ACTION

In: The Western political quarterly: official journal of Western Political Science Association, Band 10, Heft 4, S. 847-857

Abstract

An analysis of the actual diff's in voting behavior & other types of pol'al participation, as among Ru/Ur areas, & groups with diff soc characteristics, indicate that the high average turn-out in national & local elections in Japan is not associated with a rising level of pol'al consciousness. Based on samples taken in industrial Osaka & around the Ru area of Izumo, it was found that Ur Japanese patticipate less in the formal act of voting, but engage more actively in other types of pol'al action, than their Ru neighbors. Ru/Ur voting diff's appear to be partly explicable in terms of pol'al optimism & related SE factors of the Japanese countryside, where there is a strong sense of voting duty without a corresponding degree of pol'al awareness. The data collected suggest that the lower voting record of the cities is related to the widespread pessimism about the efficacy of legal pol'al action, which is particularly marked in Ur areas. IPSA.