D E M O C R A C Y

Chapter I   The Nature of Democracy

1102 But the word democracy has many meanings. It is used in an increasingly wide range of fields, and because of it, people understand it in very different ways. Thus, there are times when people are forced to accept democracy which is almost the opposite of democracy. For example, there may be bosses with far more undemocratic power in a world supposed to be thoroughly democratized. Or, the undemocratic relationship between master and servant may still prevail. Therefore, it would be a terrible mistake to think that just because the word democracy is popular, it means that democracy is really practiced. What is important is not the word but the substance. So what is real democracy?

1103 It is very difficult to define what democracy is. However, if we don't have a clear grasp on this point, we will have a big discrepancy. If democracy is properly studied and steadily implemented, it will bring us prosperity and peace. If the opposite is the case, war and destruction will await human beings in the future. There is no other place for humankind to live but this world on earth. The difference between building a world of peace and happiness, a world that is a good place for all living beings to live in, and turning it into a hell on earth, filled with hatred, warfare, and the fear of death, is whether or not you truly achieve mastery of democracy. Therefore, it’s not an exaggeration that democracy is literally a matter of life and death. Those who seek peace and happiness must first and foremost strive to correctly understand the nature of democracy.

1104 Many people think that democracy is only a political system. They believe that democracy means democratic politics and nothing else. However, we cannot truly understand democracy if we only look at it from a political perspective. Democracy as a political system is important, but what is even more important is to grasp the spirit of democracy because the foundation of democracy is nothing but a spiritual attitude. What then is the fundamental spirit of democracy? In other words, it is nothing but respect for human beings.

1105 Respecting ourselves as human beings or respecting each other as human beings is a much more important democratic attitude than voting for or against a political issue or a candidate for Congress.

1106 Some people may say that it is a matter of course for people to respect themselves. However, how many people in Japan demeaned themselves and were submitting tamely to live their lives in shameful obedience to authority? Failing to insist on what they believe to be right and saying, 'Where might is master, justice is servant', or 'Better bend than break', they continued to accept the wrong meekly. It is an attitude that makes us enslave ourselves without hesitation, rather than it even doesn't respect ourselves. Despotism and dictatorship, which cause great misfortune to humankind, take advantage of this attitude of the people and rise above the people and act as they please. Therefore, the first thing that must be learned in order to embody democracy is the spirit with which each person respects himself or herself and is faithful to what he or she believes to be right.

1107 By the way, the world is a communal life among a large number of people. Therefore, those who respect themselves as human beings must respect all others as human beings as well. Although the spirit of democracy lies in respecting oneself as a human being, it would be a terrible mistake for anyone to treat this as selfish or self-interested. A person who asserts his own rights must respect the rights of others. Those who insist on their own freedom must pay deep respect to the freedom of others. What comes out of this is mutual understanding, goodwill and trust, and recognition of the equality of all human beings. Jesus Christ taught, 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Confucius also said, 'Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you.' If this spirit of goodwill and fraternity permeates a society, that society is democratic. If it permeates the relations between workers and employers in a factory, that factory is democratic. If it guides the relations among people in schools, unions, and families, those institutions are also democratic. Wherever and whenever this spirit pervades human relations, there is democracy. Politics, too, can be democratic In its true meaning only if it is based on this spirit.

1108 Therefore, democracy is much bigger than a political system that elects representatives or decides things by majority vote. It is very broad in its scope of application, and thus its outward manifestation changes from time to time and from place to place. However, the spirit that forms its basis will always remain the same, no matter when or where we go. Democracy seems to differ from country to country because we are only looking at its external form. When the same fundamental spirit of democracy permeates the world, no matter how different one's occupation, faith, or race may be, there will be the same understanding and cooperation between people. Not only within one country, but also between different peoples who speak different languages and have different cultures, the relationship of understanding and cooperation will spread in the same way. In this way, the world will gradually become one. One single, peaceful world without conflict, exploitation, and warfare will be built.

1109 In this way, the nature of democracy is the fundamental spirit that never changes. Therefore, the central issue about the nature of democracy is not what kind of external form it has, but to what extent it contains its spirit. Democracy exists in the home, in the school, in the factory. It exists also in social life, in economic life, and in political life. However, the issue is to what extent it is a real democracy. Is there any kind of scale to measure the degree of extent? We can measure the amount of pure gold contained in an alloy. In the same way, can't we measure with some accuracy the amount of democracy contained in our social life, economic life, and political life? Unlike the amount of gold or silver in an alloy, the nature of democracy is a spiritual one, and it is certainly very difficult to measure it. However, it is extremely important to clearly distinguish between dictatorship, which comes arrogantly under the guise of democracy, and real democracy. You must try to do this as much as possible, no matter how difficult it may be.

1202 Therefore, dictatorship can take many forms, such as despotism, totalitarianism, fascism, Nazism, and so on, but they all have one thing in common. It is a fact that those in authority usually look down on ordinary people and have no real interest in their fate.

1203 In despotism, there is a king. In powerful family politics, there is the lineage. In a plutocracy, there are financial conglomerates. To these people, ordinary people are just animals that need to be kept in subjection. Or they are simply tools to make the lives of those who are standing on top of ordinary people joyful. There are times when they explicitly show this way of thinking. On the contrary, they sometimes hide their intentions and support equality for the Edo period's four classes of warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants. But in the end, it is the same thing. There is no real respect for human beings there. The rulers respect only themselves but treat ordinary people as a lower level of humanity. Ordinary people also believe that they are a lower class of people and blindly follow the authority from above without questioning it.

1204 When the degree of culture in human society was low, the rulers did not try to hide their motives at all. Tribal chieftains and tyrannical kings would blatantly abuse their people and wage war for the simple and obvious reason that they wanted to gain more power and plunder on a larger scale. However, as civilization improves and human knowledge develops, the methods of despotism and dictatorship become more and more artfully. Dictators found it more convenient and effective not to make their greedy, arrogant motives explicit but to adorn them with the dignified garb of morality, national honor, and national prosperity. In the good name of protecting the emperor's honor, people obeyed, worked like chariots and horses, and gave up their lives to fight. But what was the purpose of all this? They did not know that the ambitions of dictators were controlling them, but they thought it was their duty to do so, and they died doing so.

1205 In fact, Japan started the war in such an extremely reckless manner, and the war ended in the most tragic defeat. All the people of Japan were suffered from the piercing pain forced by the dictatorship. You may think that such a thing will never happen again in the future in Japan. However, you cannot rest ease by thinking so. A dictatorship can creep into the supposedly democratized Japan at any time in the future and from anywhere. Those who try to take advantage of the dictatorship will change their ways and become more skillful this time. Now they will try to manipulate people by saying that it is for everyone's good, borrowing the most beautiful name as the democracy that no one can oppose. We cannot be sure that there will not be those who will try to lure us with their oratory, seduce us with their money, deliberately cause confusion in the world, take advantage of that confusion to make clever propaganda, by all possible means to achieve their ambitions. What should you do to defeat such ambitions?

1207 Therefore, democracy is the exact opposite of dictatorship, but democracy is not without authority. In a democracy, however, the authority resides on the side of the people, who are wise and act independently. It is an authority from the bottom to the top. It is politics based on the approval of the ruled. There, all political functions are carried out rationally, based on the views of all the people who make up the society, and for the benefit of all the people. In politics, the tone of all things changes from 'You the subjects.' to 'We the people.'. The people rule themselves through their freely elected representatives. The representatives of the people are not masters of the people but their public servants. Laws made by the will of the people regulate the people's own lives, and at the same time, they regulate politics itself, which is conducted by the representatives of the people. This is nothing but what democracy is all about in terms of politics.

1302 As mentioned before, in its fundamental spirit, there is only one kind of democracy. However, there are two types of procedures for conducting politics democratically. The most widely practiced type is called 'representative democracy.' The majority of the people have to work in companies, plow the fields, cook in the kitchens, and take care of the babies. So they can devote only a part of their time and energy to public affairs. Then they choose from among their fellows those who can represent them fairly in the national assembly, in the city council, and in other places where such political decisions are made. In contrast, in the other type of democracy, the opinions of the people are directly expressed in political decisions, not through representatives. In other words, the people vote directly to decide laws and elect the president. This is generally referred to as 'pure democracy.'

1303 However, it is not really appropriate to call this second type of democracy alone 'pure.' Democracy is pure only when a group does not incite the people in order to seize power, or when the people can not have independent judgment and are carried away by such incitement. Just because a referendum is held, it does not mean that democracy is pure. Rousseau was an ardent advocate of pure democracy. However, the case when the people become slaves, being beholden to the powers, and fearful of their oppression, and then the people accept what they say with uncritical unanimity under pure democracy, he asserted, means the corruption of democracy that we should be most warned.

1304 Thus, there are two types of democratic politics, but in both cases, the authority in politics resides in the people. In other words, the people must be the final arbiter of political policy decisions. Therefore, in a true democracy, all the people, or at least all who are eligible to vote, are encouraged to participate in the actual political process. The most reliable way to carry out the will of the majority of voters is to have representatives freely elected by the people to administer the political policy determined by the people. In this case, it goes without saying that the purpose of politics is to promote the happiness and interests of the people, or in other words, that all politics must be conducted for the public welfare. Abraham Lincoln succinctly summed up this concept and said that it is 'government of the people, by the people, for the people.'

1305 Of course, from a theoretical point of view alone, it is possible for a dictator or a 'benevolent ruler' to conduct politics in line with his people's public welfare. However, seeking political security for the people in a dictatorial system has always been a failure until now, and it shall be a mistake forever and ever. History has taught us that if you allow a few people to monopolize political authority, the result will always be dictatorship, and dictatorship tends to lead to war. Therefore, the only realistic way to realize politics for the people is to make politics of the people and make politics by the people. If politics becomes that of the people, the people will use it as a way to protect their rights and improve their living standards. It is not reasonable for the people to just sit idly and watch politics that does not benefit them.

1306 Totalitarianism is characterized by its emphasis on the nation rather than the individual. The most precious thing in the world is a powerful nation, and the individual is seen as a means to make the nation powerful. Dictators are willing to sacrifice the individual if necessary to achieve this. However, just saying so does not mean that the people of the nation will not work faithfully, so the so-called dictators promise that as long as the nation becomes stronger, the lives of the people will soon improve. Even if a dictator can't keep this promise later, he can always find any number of excuses. He will say, 'Have patience for a while longer! No, in another five years, or even another ten years, everything will be fine,' or something like that. If that becomes impossible, he would say, 'Then you will have to sacrifice yourself for the prosperity of your descendants.' In the meantime, the dictators' lust for power continues to grow and expand without limit until they finally decide to wage war, saying that they need to protect their homeland from encirclement by the powers or that they need to expand the lifeline of the nation. Like this way, Japan in the past went on the pass that a part of people in power thought.

1307 In other words, totalitarianism says that as the nation's house prospers, the nation's people prosper. But, dictators play for high stakes in gambling which is war, and lose everything, nation, and the people.

1308 On the contrary, democracy is based on the idea that as the people prosper, so does the nation. Democracy never ignores or disrespects the individual. Democracy is based on a deep respect for the worth and dignity of the individual. When all individuals are given equal opportunities to develop their best qualities, the knowledge and morals of the nation as a whole will increase, the economy will flourish, and as a result, the nation as a whole will prosper. In short, the prosperity of a nation is brought about mainly by the strength and height of its people as human beings.

1402 However, in this world of 'live and let live', it is only natural that we have obligations to keep as one of the society members in light of such freedom and right. Democracy allows for a wide range of individual freedom, but it is a serious mistake to confuse this freedom with selfishness. In fact, democracy allows and encourages individuals to seek happiness as they like, as long as they do not harm the rights of others. We believe in our religion, choose our political party, write and speak as we want. But the more joyfully we enjoy such freedoms, the more we will feel compelled to respect the same freedoms and rights of our neighbors, and indeed of all peoples. The fundamental idea of democracy is that the more freedom you are given, the more responsibility you have to use that freedom to do something useful for the world. If one is not prepared to make the best use of the freedom granted to him or her for the welfare of society and the public, then any freedom is nothing more than a pearl given to a pig.

1403 Among all the freedoms that democracy does value, freedom of speech is one of the most important. During the recent unfortunate war, the Japanese people have learned more than enough that there is nothing more dangerous than judgments not based on facts. Therefore, newspapers are responsible for writing the facts, and radio is responsible for reporting the facts. Based on these facts, each of the people can make a conscientious judgment and freely exchange his or her opinions with others. In this way, the people can develop a critical eye for things and be trained to improve their political insight. The people are encouraged to debate about the exact facts, reach a consensus by majority vote, and use their experience to correct errors in judgment. As the saying goes, 'Two heads are better than one. Three heads together make the wisdom of Monju, or Manjusri.' Still more, if all the people of the nation who are highly educated continue to work together to discover the common truth based on free speech, it is sure to find the right course of things. In this way, the correct direction of events found by the people is the compass of the people's lives which will steer the right course of politics.

1404 On the contrary, dictatorship strives to hide the facts from the eyes and ears of the people in order to propaganda only the things that are convenient to the dictator. The presses that can report accurate facts are controlled and suppressed. In this way, all speech is suppressed except for opinions that are in the dictator's favor. For example, look at a cart-horse. The driver puts blindfolds on the horse so that the horse cannot look to the left or right. If the horse does not run as the driver wants, he will whip the horse mercilessly. For a horse, it can't be helped. But what if it is a human being? Democracy cannot flourish in a place where people are unable to make their own decisions based on their own will and judgment.

1406 However, equally treating all people is not only the right ideal. It is far more beneficial for social life. If everyone is given equal opportunity to develop his or her talent, a vein of rich knowledge and capable personnel will be mined, and the people as a whole will be enriched economically and culturally. William Shakespeare was born as the son of a poor butcher and a woman who could not even spell her own name. Franz Schubert's father was a farmer, and his mother was a maid until she married. Michael Faraday, the great scientist, was born in a barn. His father was a sickly blacksmith, and his mother was a mere working woman. These people were born when democracy had not yet developed, but they demonstrated their respective geniuses. Furthermore, if all people are given equal opportunities to learn, how many talents will be found? Even among women, many of whom had been given only a low level of education so far, there will be more and more women like Madame Curie. The world will be a brighter place, and the lives of the people will be higher.

1407 Human equality is thus to provide equal opportunities for all people to develop their knowledge and talents. The extent to which each person can utilize these opportunities to improve and display his or her talents is largely determined by the efforts of each person and his or her natural disposition. As a result, there will be differences in the social status of people depending on their talents and efforts. This is a matter of course. Therefore, it would be a great mistake to think that although democracy emphasizes the equality of human beings and that each of the people will receive exactly the same treatment in society. It would not be a just world if those with superior learning and experience were treated equally with those who are incompetent and lazy. It is nothing but what is called evil equality. In a fair society, people with high moral aspirations will be promoted by others to important positions, and those who break the nation's laws because of evil intentions will be tried and punished. Once upon a time, the Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that justice is the distribution of economic rewards and spiritual honor to each person according to his or her worth. A democratic and just world must be established on the basis of an appropriate distribution of resources in accordance with each person's value.

1502 Once again. Democracy is not only a political system but a spirit that must be instilled in all human life. It is a spirit of respect for humanity, a respect for the freedom of others as well as of oneself, and an attitude of goodwill, friendship, and responsibility in all things. Where this spirit permeates the hearts of people, there is democracy. There, society will be democratized, education will be democratized, and the economy will be democratized. On the contrary, if this spirit is lacking, then no matter how lively the elections are, how the parties leaflet each other, and how well the parliamentary politics take shape, it is not enough to say that democracy has been fully realized. So, real democracy is not made in palaces and parliament buildings. If it is to be made, then democracy is made in the hearts of the people. The real home of democracy is in the hearts of those who seek it, love it, and try to realize it in their lives.

1503 Let us consider the relationship between politics and economics in order to understand that democracy can never be completed only on the basis of political institutions.

1504 As already mentioned, accurate reporting of facts and free speech based on those facts are the most important factors in order to have fair politics. But this alone is not enough. Along with this, the other essential requirement is the improvement of the economic life of the people. When the majority of the people of a country are in the depths of poverty, chasing after the bread of the day, there is no room for them to acquire the necessary human education or improve their political knowledge. It is obvious to all that democratic politics cannot flourish under such a circumstance. A few rich people will take advantage of this to buy up the press and try to conduct money politics by propagating false public opinion that doesn't exist at all. On the other hand, those who claim to be working for the people but are actually trying to seize power in the hands of a few rulers will try to incite many people who are struggling to make a living and pull them into the wrong political direction they want. Therefore, without economic democracy to equalize economic opportunities and improve the people's lives, no matter how many representatives are elected and no matter how many laws are made by the parliament, sound democratic politics cannot be fostered.

1505 The same must be said about democracy in social life and education as it is about democracy in the economy. But we will get into those details in the various chapters that follow. For now, it is enough to know that democracy is much broader than political institutions are and that the basis of all democracy exists in the spiritual attitude of human beings toward their fellows.

1506 Japan now has a new constitution, which came into effect on 3 May 1947. This constitution is certainly a noble one. However, no matter how beautiful a constitution is, no matter how solemnly it is promulgated, democracy does not start on its own. Democracy is born from and solely from the people's common sense, the spirit of fraternity and cooperation that guides them, and the strong determination to build up their own lives through hard work and efforts.

Chapter II   Development of Democracy

2102 However, in those ancient countries, there were many slaves apart from the general people, or citizens. Citizens were granted freedom and had various rights, but slaves were not and had nothing. They were sold and bought like livestock and goods, at the mercy of their owners. Slaves were the property of their owners, and they lived only to work and do the will of their owners. They were human beings, but they were not human beings. In such a world, how can there be democracy in the true sense of the word? Politics run by the people who have slaves is not a true democracy. There is no true democracy when people do not recognize the personality of others but act as they want and dominate others.

2202 The Norman king who conquered and came to rule this country was called William the Conqueror. This king was a man of great power and shrewdness who adopted a policy of taming the feudal lords who ruled the provinces and thereby consolidating the king's position. At that time in England, there were many aristocrats called "barons" who ruled their respective territories in a despotic manner, just like the clan system of the Tokugawa period in Japan. On the one hand, William tried to prevent these noblemen from joining forces with each other or becoming so strong that they could fight the king alone. But on the other hand, he did not forget to give the nobles various rights and dignities so that they would feel pleased and submit to the king's power.

2203 However, about a hundred and fifty years later, King John conducted politics as he wanted, ignoring the nobles. Finally, the nobles were so angry that they rebelled against the king and pressed him to make a covenant to prevent such tyranny from taking place again. This was famous Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, which was written in the year 1215.

2204 Magna Carta came to be known as the Englishman's 'Foundation of Freedom.' In some respects, that is exactly what it says, for it provides that the King shall, in principle, have the approval of Parliament to collect taxes; that no freedman shall be arrested, deprived of his property, imprisoned, or banished except by law or lawful tribunal, and that the King shall not use force against any freedman or deny him his legitimate rights. In order to make sure that the king keeps these promises, the nobles will monitor the king at their own council, and if the king breaks his promises, this council will protest to the king, and if the king still refuses to change his ways, the nobles, together with all the common people of the country, can seize the king's property or otherwise torment him. However, it cannot be said that the direct purpose of this document was to promote the freedom of the people and improve their destiny. Rather, it was aimed at protecting the privileges of the nobles from the encroachment of the king.

2205 Thus, Magna Carta was nothing more than a feudal document exchanged between the king and the nobles, but the creation of Magna Carta was a significant event in British history. The king's power was thus constrained to a certain extent. And there was a set of rules that even the king had to follow. If the king violated these rules, the people were openly allowed to use their power to correct the king's actions. Thus, it served as a weapon in struggles to increase the power of the British Parliament for hundreds of years to come.

2206 The scope of those who joined the British parliament was gradually widened, and kings of generations also promoted this trend. However, kings' outward efforts to protect and nurture the parliament were not really out of love for the people or eagerness for democracy. Rather, it was more out of love for money. Because kings could not collect enough money from the nobles alone, they used the parliament as a tool to expand the scope of tax collection and to increase the number of taxpayers. Therefore, when the royal power was strengthened again, kings did not abolish the assembly. They wanted to keep it alive and make good use of it. Kings thought that it would be more convenient for them to make the will of kings look like the will of the people by obtaining the support of the parliament.

2207 So, even though Parliament was born in Britain, it was not created by the representatives of the people at first. The British Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords was from the beginning an organization of the nobles, by the nobles, and for the nobles, while the House of Commons was never as common as its name implies. As it did not derive its name from the 'common people' such as butchers, bakers, and farmers, but from the word 'commune', which meant that it was organized by the wealthy and other local property owners who represented those towns. This can be easily understood from the fact that the king expanded the range of the people who were sent to represent them in parliament in order to obtain financial resources.

2208 It is an interesting fact that the genesis of democratic politics in Britain was instead facilitated by the selfishness and self-interest of the rulers. For example, King John's extravagance and greed led him and his attendants to engage in unreasonable politics that oppressed the nobles, and as a result, the king had to sign Magna Carta. Edward I believed that collecting taxes from the nobles was not enough, and he sought to find a broader source of revenue among the wealthy commoners, which fostered the development of parliament. Furthermore, in an attempt to strengthen his sovereignty, James I equated himself with God and advocated the theory of the divine right of kings, which held that the king ruled according to the will of God. However, after his death, his forceful politics led to a rebellion in 1649, and his successor, Charles I, was finally put to death by Parliament.

2209 In this way, the power of Parliament was gradually strengthened, but the Bill of Rights marked an important period in its historical development. As a result of the Glorious Revolution of November 1688, the Bill of Rights became effective. It made it impossible for the king to suspend or repeal laws or to impose taxes without the consent of Parliament. It also laid down various principles, such as that the election of members of Parliament must be free. The Bill of Rights was a constitution-like provision that restrained the king's power, elevated the status of parliament, and guaranteed many freedoms to the people. Therefore, in later days, drafters of the Constitution of the United States of America and many other countries used it as a reference.

2210 As for the administrative system, the Privy Council was first established for the king to consult with. The king eventually selected a few people from the Privy Council, asked them for their opinions on major administrative matters, and used their influential powers in Parliament to try to get bills passed by Parliament as the king wished. This was the beginning of the British cabinet. At first, the king attended the cabinet meetings and presided over them, but gradually his attendance became rare, and politics was left to the ministers. And instead of the king, someone was appointed to preside over the cabinet meetings and organize them. This person became known as the Prime Minister.

2211 Up to that time, the king would select persons who suited him to form his cabinet, and, at the same time, he would use various methods to conciliate Parliament into supporting the cabinet. Therefore, the king and his ministers were considered to be in charge of governing the nation, and Parliament was far from becoming the center of politics. The main task of Parliament was, in principle, to approve laws that the ministers wanted it to sponsor as necessary for political purposes and to oppose or amend laws that would impose undue political pressure on the people or place a heavy financial burden on them.

2212 However, instead of relying on the king's power to control Parliament, Robert Walpole, who became prime minister in 1721, used various methods to control the members of Parliament and created a majority party that supported him in the House of Commons. And he used it as a foothold for politics. In 1742, when his cabinet had lost the confidence of Parliament, he resigned his post, even though he still had the confidence of the king in himself. This can be said to be the beginning of today's party politics in Britain.

2213 Already in the seventeenth century, two parties, the Tories and the Whigs, emerged in the British Parliament in relation to religious issues, which later became the Conservative and Liberal parties. By Walpole's resignation, it came to be considered that the Cabinet had to base itself on the many confidences of Parliament. A political party with a large number of Parliament members could be seen as representing the will and interests of a larger electorate. Therefore, the idea that the cabinet should conduct politics on the basis of the majority party in Parliament, and that if it lost the confidence of the majority in the House of Commons, it was natural to resign and hold new elections, came to be seen more and more strongly.

2214 However, in order for such a party-cabinet system to truly become the government of the people, the scope of voting rights must have been expanded. The powerful House of Lords, however, represented the lineages and wealth, and the members of the House of Commons were mostly from the upper middle class. The monopoly of power by these people continued for nearly 150 years after the Glorious Revolution. It was broken for the first time with the Reform Act of the electoral system in 1832. Namely, it allowed the newly arisen industrialists to send their representatives to Parliament. Furthermore, the second Reform Act of the electoral system in 1867 extended the right to vote to the petite bourgeoisie and urban workers, and the third Reform Act of the electoral system in 1884 extended it to miners and agricultural workers. In 1918, after the end of the First World War, suffrage was granted to all men over 20 years of age and women over 30 years of age with certain property qualifications. In 1948, a full universal suffrage system with equal representation of men and women was established.

2215 Even though the right to vote was expanded this way, those elected were members of the House of Commons. Therefore, as long as the House of Lords had a strong influence over the House of Commons, Parliament could not be said to represent the will of the people truly. It was natural that the conflict between the House of Commons and the House of Lords became more intense as Parliament became the center of the people's politics. In the House of Commons, there were conflicts between the progressivism of the Liberal Party and the conservatism of the Conservative Party, while, of course, the House of Lords had a particularly conservative atmosphere. This was especially true when the Liberal Party had a majority in the House of Commons and formed the Cabinet. Thus, in 1909, when the Liberal Party cabinet submitted People’s Budget to raise taxes significantly on the propertied class, the House of Lords rejected it. This incident gave rise to the enactment of the Parliament Act in 1911. This not only prevented the House of Lords from amending or rejecting the budget bill but also recognized the principle that if a bill passed the House of Commons for three consecutive sessions, it would be passed into law even if the House of Lords rejected it. It was truly the establishment of the superiority of the House of Commons over the House of Lords. The House of Commons became the center of Parliament in name and reality and of all political organizations in Britain.

2217As the saying goes, 'Rome was not built in a day.' Britain's democratic politics was built through the efforts of its people over a long period of nine hundred years. Rome was destroyed by imperial corruption, but healthy democratic politics overcame all odds and opened up man's destiny to the path of hope and happiness. We must learn the inexhaustible lessons from this great historical trend.

2302 It was only after the British established colonies here that the faint dawn of democracy began to shine in the sky of this new continent of North America.

2303 At that time, merchants and traders who were becoming increasingly powerful in Britain gradually came to the new continent to take advantage of its wealth. They did not find the gems and gold they had hoped for, but they did find lush, open fields, the large forests unspoiled by the human, and a wealth of raw materials for their own industries. They hoped that if the trade between the new continent and their homeland became possible, the new continent would provide jobs for the many people without jobs in Britain. In Europe, there was also a strong sense of patriotism to overcome the power war between Britain and Spain. The independence of the British people and their desire for freedom, especially religious freedom, also helped them to lay the foundation for the colony. (Translator's note: This is not to say that the English took a mild attitude toward the natives. There were severe conflicts in a different way than with the Spaniards.)

2304 The management of these colonies was a private enterprise, run for the owners' profit, but as they grew larger and larger, trading companies were established. The trading companies were given the right to monopolize trade in a particular region and were permitted to operate freely to a large extent. However, the right to govern the colonies was in the hands of the king and Parliament of the home country, and the king dispatched deputies to govern them. In this way, British colonial management in America gradually gained ground.

2305 By the way, the merchants and traders who were in charge of the management of these colonies thought it would be more convenient to allow a certain degree of autonomy to the colonies in order to protect their own interests. This way, they would be able to reduce the cost of running the colonies, and they would also be able to reduce their losses if the business did not go well by imposing it on the local autonomy. It would also attract immigrants and help the colonial enterprise to flourish. This motive allowed the Virginia Company to establish the first representative Congress, the House of Burgesses, in North America in 1619. Later, the King of Britain, being angered at the lack of profits, dissolved the company and assimilated it again to the Crown, but Congress remained in place.

2306 This Virginia Congress was bicameral, the Senate consisting of the Governor and six Councillors, all appointed by the King, who held the actual control of the colony. On the contrary, the House of Burgesses, or Representatives, consisted of every two representatives elected from each of the local districts of Virginia, and though its power was weak, it played a certain role in protecting the interests of the masses from the power of a few rulers. As a result, the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America gradually adopted a representative system of politics, and by the end of the seventeenth century, each colony had its people's Congress, which was nearly alike.

2307 In this way, democracy sprouted in North America not out of goodwill for the people but rather by calculating the rulers' benefit. However, no matter the motive, once a democracy sprouted, it would grow and grow, fighting against all kinds of snow and frost.

2308 In particular, among the immigrants to North America at that time, there were many Puritans who sought religious freedom in the New World, escaping the religious oppression in Britain. They believed firmly that religious freedom could not be separated from political freedom, and with strong faith and unyielding will, they tried to build an ideal political society in the New World without irrational traditions. A group of these believers who immigrated to North America aboard the ship 'Mayflower' vowed on November 11, 1920, to create a self-governing political system based on the will and promise of each individual while looking out over the land of the New World. This fact, among other things, became the forerunner of the spirit of American independence. The seeds of democracy sown by the rulers of the mainland for their own benefit were nurtured by such a spirit like this and gradually took deep root.

2309 As democracy grew in the colonies, it is not surprising that there were increasingly violent clashes between the colonial people and the rulers of the mainland, especially the King of Britain. While the colonial people tried to manage their businesses and regulate their lives according to their own will, the rulers tried to oppress them, and the result was a struggle to defend their freedom with weapons. The words of Patrick Henry, who shouted, "Give me liberty or give me death!" well express the passionate ideals of these people.

2310 Of course, there were various conflicts among the colonial people as well. There were discords between merchants and farmers, conflicts of interest between cities and countryside, and jealousy and friction among colonies. But more than anything else, the urgent need to resist political and economic oppression from the main country brought these opposing peoples together and united the colonies into a single front. This was the beginning of the American Revolutionary War for independence. In order to make their position clear to all the people and to the whole world, the people sent representatives to Philadelphia to draft a statement. This is the famous 'Declaration of Independence' in the history of the world.

2311 The persons who signed the Declaration of Independence of 1776 were by no means representatives of all the people of colonies. While the majority of early inhabitants of colonies were farmers, these persons who signed it were almost all from cities, and many of them were lawyers and merchants. However, Thomas Jefferson, who, in fact, wrote this Declaration, was an idealist who continued his efforts to help the farming village people and was considered rather too radical even by most of the fifty-six signatories. That's why his writing was so powerful. It expressed the spirit of the founding of the United States of America and revealed the ideals of democracy in general. And it manifested the strong will that tyranny and dictatorship must be rejected. One of the most famous parts of it is as follows.

2312 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.'

2313 The Revolutionary War for independence that had begun with such ideals finally ended in victory for the colonies. The thirteen eastern states of North America gained glorious independence from British rule. The Constitution was enacted, which established the organization of the central government and clarified the powers of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. George Washington led the country through a long and difficult war and won the crown of victory and became respected both inside and outside the country, then elected as the first president of the newly formed the United States of America.

2314 However, it would be a mistake to think that the United States of America, which upheld the fundamental principles of democracy as the founding spirit of its country, could therefore achieve a high degree of democracy from the start. Although the principles of democracy were highly expressed in the Declaration of Independence, it took a long time, and a lot of effort on the part of the people of the United States before the resulting politics of the United States could be operated in a truly democratic manner. And those efforts are still being made even today.

2315 In the case of the United States of America, Congress was initially organized exclusively by people with property. These members of Congress wanted first and foremost to protect their property and to expand their commerce to their advantage. They did not believe in democracy but rather feared its growth. They believed that the fundamental purpose of politics was to protect property and preserve the privileges of the privileged. The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, emphasized the equality of men and the protection of human rights, but it was still considered by many to be words on paper. The Constitution was written with the words, 'We, the people of the United States.', but what the people who wrote the Constitution thought in mind first and foremost was never the interests of 'all' the U.S. people. In the beginning, the right to vote was granted to only one-eighth of the people. And thus, Congress did not represent the will of the entire nation. Needless to say, there arose a movement to broaden the qualifications for participation in political power among the people.

2316 Two political parties soon represented these two movements. One, known as the Federalist Party, represented the interests of the propertied classes and sought to weaken the power of the central government to protect the privileges of the property owners. The other, which did not like the central government to be too powerful and opposed the concentration of political power in the hands of a few property owners, was named the Republican Party. Jefferson was the first to lead the Republican Party, and its power grew stronger and stronger over time until the Federalist Party was no longer viable. Later, the Republican Party was divided into two factions. The first faction consisted mainly of people who had interests in commerce and tended to welcome centralization within the Republican Party. In contrast, the second faction consisted mainly of people interested in agriculture and the development of the western frontier and tended to support the decentralization of power to the states. The first faction still called itself the Republican Party, while the second faction called itself the Democratic Party. These two factions became the two major political parties that today divide the American political world into two areas.

2318 The Democrats were supported primarily by those with interests in the western frontier. This western frontier gradually shifted westward as the continent was developed. The western frontier was a safety valve for all kinds of unemployment problems and social unrest and a land of hope that could absorb the large number of migrants pouring in from Europe and other regions one after another. However, the potential for development in the western frontier was not infinite. Eventually, the movement to the western regions was halted, and the United States had to adjust its relations between politics and economy anew.

23019 The rise of industry, the concentration of capital, and the development of large-scale enterprises became the reason that people without property or unemployed would have increased. However, it did not pose many problems as long as there were places to work on the western frontier. But, when the western frontier can no longer provide as many places for people to work as it used to, such social problems had to be solved by some political innovation. In response to this situation, a movement of progressivism emerged around 1890, aiming to eliminate the harmful effects of money politics that remained yet and promote the people's welfare through more advanced democratic politics than ever before. During the First World War, President Wilson implemented new progressive policies, and before the Second World War, President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, or a variety of new policies. Thus, democracy in the new nation of the United States has constantly been developing. And it will continue to do so in the future toward a single goal. That is 'the completion of politics of the people, by the people, and for the people.'

2402 Before the Revolution, France had privileged classes as nobles and monks, centered upon a despot, who held political power in their hands. These privileged classes were large landowners who owned large tracts of land in the provinces, and they monopolized the wealth of society as well as political power. In contrast, rural peasantries and merchants of the cities had long been subjugated humiliatingly by the ruling class.

2403 However, as commerce and industry developed, the citizens' wealth gradually increased, and so did their social power. These merchants and bankers underwrote the government's public debt, funded the government's projects, and supported the nation's finances. Nevertheless, the ruling class continued to live in luxury as in the past and did not think twice about causing the nation's finance to decline, and also had the privilege of being exempt from taxes. This kind of situation could not continue for long. It was only natural course of events that the citizens' dissatisfaction with the situation grew stronger and gradually approached the explosion point.

2404 At that time, the idea of democracy was quite developed in France. A scholar named Montesquieu wrote his major book entitled 'The Spirit of the Laws' in 1748, in which he argued that in order to prevent the people from suffering from the abuse of tyrannical power, it would be better to separate the political power into three as the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, which should be separate institutions. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a thinker of democracy born in Switzerland but active in France, argued in his famous book 'The Social Contract' published in 1762 that 'the sovereignty of any country rests with the people, and therefore laws made by the consensus of the people must be the basis of all politics.' As these ideas gradually spread among intellectuals, the irrationality of despotism was clearly recognized, and the time for revolution was ripe.

2405 Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Louis XVI of the Bourbon dynasty, increasingly troubled by financial difficulties, convened in 1789 the Estates-General, an assembly consisting of three houses representing nobles, clergy, and commoners separately. And he consulted it about the way out of financial difficulties. However, a major clash immediately broke out between the representatives of nobles and clergy and the representatives of commoners. And the Third House, led by the representatives of commoners, announced that it would organize an independent National Assembly to carry out the reform of the despotic order by its own hands. This was the beginning of the Great Revolution.

2406 Therefore, the National Assembly voted to abolish the privileges held by the nobles and clergy, and at the same time, enacted famous 'The Declaration of Human Rights' within the same year, clarifying the fundamental principles of the revolution. According to this declaration, human is born with the rights of freedom and equality. Therefore, all political institutions are established to protect these rights that are given to mankind by heaven. Therefore, the root of the power that drives political organizations must reside in the people. In other words, sovereignty always rests with the people. The people make laws by their consensus to guarantee their rights and prohibit actions harmful to society. Therefore, all the people are equal before the law and must have all the freedom within the limits of the law. Each person is free, but that freedom must not infringe on the freedom of others. The Declaration of Human Rights established these principles as the foundation for a new era of democracy. Therefore, it is said that the spirit of the Declaration of Human Rights can be attributed to the three principles of 'freedom', 'equality', and 'fraternity'.

2407 Then, in 1791, the National Assembly drew up a constitution with the Declaration of Human Rights at its beginning as the basis for democratic politics.

2408 However, all things are easy to destroy but difficult to build. The French Revolution soon progressed to abolishing the monarchy and sentenced the former king Louis XVI to death, but the conflict within the country only intensified, with forces opposed to the revolution on the one hand and radicals insisting that the revolution was incomplete on the other. The rulers of foreign countries in Europe, fearing that the French Revolution would have an impact on their nations, put pressure on France, making it increasingly difficult for the revolutionary government to move forward. At that time, Napoleon Bonaparte appeared, overthrew the powerless revolutionary government, established a dictatorship, and became emperor after a national referendum in 1804.

2409 Shortly thereafter, Napoleon fell, and Louis XVIII of the Bourbon dynasty came to the throne, ushering in a constitutional monarchy, but this did not last long. It was because the government, with its strong reactionary leanings, tried to keep the petite bourgeoisie out of politics, and the discontent of these people only grew stronger. Then, with the development of modern industry, a new and wider working class emerged, fiercely demanding the right to participate in politics. These emerging political forces led to the so-called February Revolution in 1848, which overthrew the monarchy and restored the republican system.

2410 Continuing, within the same revolutionary forces, there arose a conflict between the economically advantaged citizen class and the working class colored with socialism. The working class launched a revolution in June of the same year to create a socialist republic, but it failed after a fierce urban war. It was the so-called June Revolution. In the same period, the National Constitutional Assembly with universal suffrage was set. And the Constitution of 1848 was drawn up and promulgated in November, establishing the republican institution that divided power between the National Assembly, which had legislative power, and the President, who had executive power. In addition, the June Revolution instilled fear against socialism in the hearts of the citizens, and since a feeling of worship of Napoleon still remained among the farmers, the reactionary forces soon grew strong. So, Napoleon's nephew Louis Napoleon became president, and in 1852 he became Emperor and was proclaimed Napoleon III. However, Napoleon III also lost his battle against Germany in 1870, and France returned to the republican system for the third time.

2411 In France, the seesaw conflict between the radical forces and the reactionary forces continued. And the royalists who attempted to restore the monarchy were rather stronger than the reactionary forces. However, the various factions within the royalist party could not reach a consensus, and the movement to restore the monarchy failed. Therefore, France has continued to exist as a republic ever since.

2412 As it can be seen, the monarchy and the republic were alternating hectically in France, and there were violent conflicts between democracy and reactionism. It was the people of France who, through the great revolution triggered by the destruction of the Bastille prison, overthrew tyranny at once, pushed open the doors of the heavy feudal era, and brought the light of modern democracy to the European continent. However, the same French people praised Napoleon's military valor and elevated him to the rank of emperor soon after. And there, a strong conservative party that loved the monarchy and a radical party that repeatedly fought urban wars for the interests of the workers existed at the same time.

2413 On the one hand, this is due to the French people's emotional nature, and on the other, it is also an expression of their strong patriotism. And for this reason, French democracy did not gradually develop in one direction, as it did in Britain and the United States of America. Instead, it went back and forth. However, no matter how hard the reactionary forces tried to suppress it, the power of democracy, which has not been defeated, has always guided its history in the end.

2414 In the Second World War, France was attacked by Nazi Germany and occupied throughout the nation by the Germans once, but with the help of the Allied forces, France finally restored its honored freedom. Through this great ordeal, the French people deepened their belief in democracy and realized the necessity of establishing its unshakable foundations. Based on this conviction and necessity, the new Constitution of the French Republic was passed by the National Constitutional Assembly in September 1946 and confirmed by a national referendum on October 13 of the same year, which should be said to be a very significant event.

2415 The new Constitution of the French Republic reaffirmed the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights of 1879, reiterated that the motto of the Republic was liberty, equality, and fraternity, and clearly stated that the fundamental principle of the Republic was politics of the people, by the people and for the people. At the same time, it guaranteed full equality of rights between men and women and promised that each person would have the obligation to work and the right of employment. It also clarified that any worker could collectively negotiate labor conditions through his or her representatives and, furthermore, could participate in the management of the enterprise. In these respects, we can say that this new Constitution preserved the spirit of the French Revolution and, in addition, sought to expand that spirit in a manner appropriate to the new era.

Chapter III   Institutions of Democracy

I am the king of all things as far as my eyes can see.
No one can violate my rights.
From the middle of the island to the sea in all directions,
I am the master of birds and beasts.

3103 Humans are incomparably more intelligent than birds and beasts. Nevertheless, it is only in the world of poetry and fairy tales that a single human being can become the king of many birds and beasts. However, in the human world, there have always been actual kings. Those kings did not rule over animals that were much less intelligent than kings were, but over many humans who were of equal intelligence. Furthermore, kings were 'foolish lords' who were much less intelligent than their retainers in many cases. So how could a single king rule over so many people? That is a very difficult question to answer. But conversely, it's a very simple question. Why is that? Because in such a world, there existed such a political institution. In that political institution, a single king was enthroned, everyone moved according to his orders, and those who did not obey his orders were punished in any way.

3104 In this way, a political system in which a single ruler holds absolute power and all people unconditionally obey his orders is called despotic monarchy. In particular, when the ruler has a high status that the general public cannot approach, and the position is inherited from generation to generation, it is called a despotic monarch, or despotic monarchy. How could a despotic monarch be praised by the general people even when the monarch often was a tyrant or a foolish lord? It is truly a wonder. However, there is a way to make the mysterious not mysterious. It is to make the people believe that the position of the sovereign was God-given and that the sovereign's orders were of God's will. Therefore, most of the past despotic monarchies were founded on the doctrine of the divine right of kings. As people became more self-aware and realized the absurdity of such an idea, despotic monarchies began to fall one after another.

3105 In this way, a political system in which a single ruler holds absolute power and all people unconditionally obey his orders is called despotic monarchy. In particular, when the ruler has a high status that the general public cannot approach, and the position is inherited from generation to generation, it is called a despotic monarch, or despotic monarchy. How could a despotic monarch be praised by the general people even when the monarch often was a tyrant or a foolish lord? It is truly a wonder. However, there is a way to make the mysterious not mysterious. It is to make the people believe that the position of the sovereign was God-given and that the sovereign's orders were of God's will. Therefore, most of the past despotic monarchies were founded on the doctrine of the divine right of kings. As people became more self-aware and realized the absurdity of such an idea, despotic monarchies began to fall one after another.

3106 Since the beginning of human history, there have been many governments that have owned, used, and oppressed their people in this way. Therefore some argued that there should not be such a thing as a government. This is anarchism. Kropotkin of Russia is a famous thinker of anarchism.

3107 In an ideal anarchist society, there is no institution of power, which means there is no monarch, president, parliament, or court. If, as Kropotkin and others have argued, this is the only way to maintain complete peace in the world, and if the welfare of society is naturally enhanced by the voluntary cooperation and assistance of the people, then there will be no need for government. If there is no government, there will surely be no danger that anyone with power would oppress the people.

3108 However, a society that does not need a government belongs to an ideal. In the real world, people have conflicting opinions and interests. In such a case, since we cannot allow all the people's sayings as they are, we must decide to implement the idea that the majority of people support, and other people who disagree or have a different opinion must follow that idea, and we must force those who disagree to the last to accept the decision. Such an institution with coercive social power is the government. So, until the human world becomes perfected to the point where there is no need for social coercion, the need for the government will not disappear. As long as there is a need for the government, it is desirable that the majority of the people decide the institution of that government. Not only the institution of the government, but also the policy of the government should be determined by the majority of the people, and the people who govern the government according to the will of the people should be representatives of the people, freely chosen from among the people. Thus, it is known that democratic politics is the best and most correct politics.　

3202 Chapter 1 has already explained that there are two types of political democracy, representative democracy, and pure democracy. Representative democracy is a system in which laws are made, and politics are carried out by representatives freely chosen from among the people rather than by the people's direct vote. In this type of democracy, the people's will is realized indirectly in politics through the institution of the people's representatives, which is why it is called 'indirect democracy.' In contrast, in pure democracy, the people vote directly on the approval of laws and decide important political issues. So, pure democracy is also called 'direct democracy.'

3203 In indirect democracy, the most important body that has the members elected by the people, represents the people and enacts laws is the legislature, that is Congress (in the U.S.A.), Parliament (in Britain), National Assembly (in France), or Diet (in Japan). The most important job of the legislature is to make laws. All executive or administrative powers of the government must be exercised in accordance with the provisions of law. Therefore, the government cannot do its job without the support of the majority of the legislature members. Consequently, it is proper and reasonable for the party with the majority in the legislature to form the cabinet. It is parliamentary cabinet system. If one political party cannot gain a majority in the legislature, two or more parties will form a coalition to form a cabinet, which is how parliamentary politics or parliamentary democracy works.

members elected by the people
represents the people,
the legislature enacts laws

direct democracy
laws are voted on by the people

3204 On the other hand, there are some institutions where the administration occupies a more independent status from the legislature. In this institution, the head of the administration, for example, the president of the United States of America, is not nominated by Congress, but is chosen from among the people in a different way. Therefore, in the parliamentary cabinet system, the executive power is dependent on the legislative power, while in the American type democracy, the executive and legislative powers are separated. Hence, this is called democracy of 'respective independence of powers.' Either way, every democratic nation has a well-developed court system that adjudicates cases according to laws, and the courts exercise judicial power independent of both legislature and administration. This 'independence of judicial power' does not differ between the parliamentary cabinet system and the respective independence of powers system.

3205 Furthermore, in a direct democracy, laws are voted on by the people, and although there is parliament, it only deliberates on draft laws. The vote of the people is called the referendum. In a more direct democracy, the people would not only be able to decide whether or not to accept a law proposal by referendum, but they would also be able to submit a law proposal of their own, which is the initiative of the people. If a certain number of people take the initiative to submit a draft law, it will become law by the people's approval or by a vote of the legislative body.

3206 These three types of democracy are not realized in pure form but are implemented in various nations through various combinations of forms and elements that cannot be explained by the pure types alone. The parliamentary-centered system is represented by Britain, the respective independence of powers system by the United States of America, and the direct democracy system by Switzerland. Let us examine how the democratic system is operated in these three nations.

3302 The center of the British political system is Parliament. The British Parliament has near-universal power. Someone once said, 'The British Parliament can do anything, except turn women into men and men into women.' This Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Since the House of Lords is made up of hereditary nobles, the House of Commons truly represents the people. Therefore, the fact that British politics is democratic and the power of Parliament is strong means that the power of the House of Lords is strong.

3303 By the way, the political form of Britain is Constitutional Monarchy, which is formally an institution with the King at the top. The King was originally considered to be the source of honor and justice, and was recognized as having the supreme power to make and enforce laws. However, as a result of the people's long struggle for democracy, the real power of politics has gradually come to be centered in Parliament. Therefore, now, it is the exclusive authority of Parliament to formulate and deliberate laws. And the King cannot be involved in this at all. However, the King has the right to refuse to agree to laws decided by Parliament. But this right has never been exercised since 1707. In other words, the King's real power is very limited. So British scholars say that the King is the top ornament of the building of democracy, the most precious symbol that the people of the home country and self-governing territories look up to and swear allegiance to, and the magnificent chain that connects the nations of the British Commonwealth.

3304 Therefore, although Britain is of monarchy, the actual center of politics is Parliament. In it is the House of Commons, whose members are elected by and represent the people. With the House of Commons at its center, the British Parliament is the highest national body with legislative power. At the same time, it plays an important role in criticizing all actions of the government. The government has the support of the majority party in Parliament, but there is always an opposing party in Parliament that constantly criticizes and attacks the government's policies. In response, the government must repeatedly explain, excuse, and defend its policies. It causes the government to reflect on its political policies' correctness constantly, and it causes the people to look critically at the central points of political issues. Parliament plays the most important function as a stage for such political debate to take place openly. It can be said that the British Parliament has performed this important task in an exemplary manner.

3305 The members of the House of Commons shall be elected by the vote of men and women of twenty-one years of age or older. In other words, it is a fully universal election with equal rights for men and women. However, it has taken a long time to reach the present state. In the past, the people's true will was not represented at all by Parliament because the voters were limited to a few people with property. However, the right to vote was gradually expanded, and only in 1928 were women granted full and equal voting rights. The movement for women's suffrage in Britain is particularly famous in the history of the development of constitutional politics. Compared to this, Japan's full universal suffrage, especially for women, was granted in a single stroke, with almost no effort on the part of the people. That is why even though the form of the system is well organized, it is still insufficient in terms of political awareness and training of the people. Whether or not the substance of democratic politics can be built up within this neat form depends solely on the readiness of the people to follow the fundamental spirit of democracy.

3306 While the House of Commons of Britain is a fully representative body of the people's will, the House of Lords is composed of hereditary nobles, as I mentioned before. Since the aristocracy is a remnant of the feudal era, a system in which nobles are naturally members of the House of Lords must be inappropriate from the viewpoint of the principles of democratic politics. However, in Britain, the House of Lords has continued to exist with very reduced powers. As explained in the previous chapter, it was Parliament Acts of 1911 that reduced the power of the House of Lords, so that if the same draft law was passed by the House of Lords three times in succession, it could be passed into law by the King even if the House of Lords rejected it each time. However, when the decision on a proposed law is postponed due to the opposition of the House of Lords, public criticism will be ripe. So there is some effectiveness in avoiding rash legislation. It is one of the advantages of the bicameral system.

3307 On the basis of Parliament, the Cabinet is in charge of the actual administration of politics in the form of assisting the King. There are three customary principles governing the organization of the Cabinet and its course of action. The first is that ministers must be members of Parliament. Moreover, the number of ministers who are members of the House of Commons must be greater than that of the House of Lords. This means that the Cabinet's actions shall constantly be subject to the criticism and advice of Parliament, which represents the people. The second is that the ministers are jointly responsible for the work of the Cabinet. Each ministry is responsible for its own affairs separately, but all ministers are responsible for the works of the Cabinet together. It ensures that all ministers work in unison and under one policy. The third is that when the House of Commons passes a nonconfidence resolution of the Cabinet or rejects an important bill that could be called the life of the Cabinet, in principle, the Cabinet resigns in a body, or instead of resigning, it can dissolve the House of Commons and ask the people for its confidence. The smooth implementation of these principles ensures that the Cabinet is a democratic institution deeply rooted in Parliament and, therefore, in the people.

3308 The British political system did not come into being all at once but gradually developed to this level over a long period of history. The system was created one part after another by various laws and also by customary principles that are not in written form. This is why Britain, which is said to be the source of constitutional politics, does not have a constitution integrated into a single code of law like Japan and the United States of America. However, the principle that a general election to seek the people's judgment must be held before any amendment of laws related to the nation's fundamental interests and the people's will is also established by political custom.

3402 Before the birth of modern democracy, despotic monarchs held all the power of the nation in their hands. So, for example, let's say a monarch, on a whim, decreed, 'Anyone who bullies a dog would be put to death.' Then it would become a law that anyone who drove away with a stick a dog that had a habit of biting people would be punished by death. Even if a monarch didn't set laws in advance, the monarch could collect harsh taxes to build a beautiful palace or kill an unpleasant retainer on the spot.

3403 What can be done to prevent the people from suffering from such violent politics and judicial decisions? For example, in the U.S., Congress, which represents the people, makes laws, the President is in charge of enforcing those laws in the executive branch, and the Courts are in charge of judicial decisions based on the laws. As such, in the U.S.A., a system for the separation of the powers is adopted. In other words, the body that enacts laws, the body that enforces the laws, and the body that conducts trials must be separate from each other. If the legislative, executive and judicial powers are all held in one hand, any kind of tyranny can be implemented. Therefore, the principle of separation of powers is that the three powers must be divided and operated by three independent organs. The Constitution of the United States of America has the clearest expression of this principle.

3404 First of all, the legislative power is exercised by Congress. Congress is the only body that enacts laws, and although the President can reject the draft laws decided by Congress, as I will explain later, it is not absolute. Moreover, the administrative organs that have administrative power and the courts that have judicial power are organized by the laws made by Congress, and they act based on the laws and the budget agreed by Congress. In that sense, it can be said that the work of Congress forms the basis of all other federal activities.

3405 Congress consists of the Senate (Upper House) and the House of Representatives (Lower House). The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of forty-eight states. (In 1948, when this book was written, there were forty-eight states. In 1959, the state of Alaska and the state of Hawaii were added.) The Senate is made up of two members equally elected from each state. The House of Representatives, on the other hand, is composed of numbers of members depending on each state's population. The qualifications for holding these elections are extremely broad and equal. There is no distinction between men and women, but discrimination based on skin color remains and is gradually being eliminated.(Translator's note: In the United States after the Civil War, blacks were given the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. However, equality was not truly achieved until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established that the segregation of blacks and whites in public facilities was a violation of the Constitution, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed the federal government to register voters when states unreasonably prevented blacks from registering as voters.) 'All men are created equal.' is a principle recognized as the self-evident truth in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. This principle is already widely realized in the system of the United States in terms of equal participation in politics.

3406 The main duty of Congress is to legislate, and no body other than Congress participates in the legislative process. Therefore, in the U.S.A., the President can make recommendations for legislation to Congress, but he does not have the right to submit a bill to Congress.

3407 As soon as a bill passes either of the two Houses, it is sent to the other House. For example, if a bill passes the Senate first, it is immediately sent to the House of Representatives. If it passes there without amendment, it is signed by the Speaker of the Lower House and the President of the Senate and submitted to the President.If the President approves it, he shall sign it and send it to the State Department, which shall promulgate it. If the President vetoes it, he shall send it back to the House which passed it in the first place, with the reasons therefor. However, even if the President refuses to pass a law, it can still be enacted if a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress votes on it again. This is the reason why I said earlier that the President's veto power is not absolute.

3408 Next, the chief executive of the United States of America is the President. Since the President is elected from and by the people, even a boy or girl born in a low-income family can one day become the President of the world's foremost country. The Presidential election is held every four years, and it makes people excited in the United States. But, the President is not directly elected by the people. Rather, the people first elect a presidential elector, who then elects the President. In other words, the U.S. presidential election is indirect. By the way, the Presidential electors do not vote based on their own opinion but vote for the Presidential candidate nominated in advance by the political parties to which they belong. Therefore, when the people choose their electors, they effectively decide who will be President elected. Therefore, the conventions where each political party nominates its own presidential candidate are of great importance. Starting with the nominating conventions of the two major political parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, and ending with the election of electors by national referendum in November of the same year, the country is abuzz with political issues. These events also serve as a great opportunity to raise the political awareness of the people. (Translator's note: Each state has its own fixed number of electors. That number is corresponding but not strictly proportional to the population. In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the Electoral College that receives even one more vote than any other Electoral College is entitled to get all the electors. In effect, this is a winner-take-all system in which the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in a state's popular vote wins all the electors in that state. The total number of electors won in all the states is added up, and the candidate with the highest total number of electors wins. Since the system does not directly reflect the total number of voters cast, the runner-up candidate in the total of all states in the popular vote may win the election.)

3409 In order to exercise his executive power, the President appoints the heads of ministries at will as collaborators in the execution of his duty. This group of ministry secretaries is called the Cabinet. Any member of Congress cannot be a Cabinet member. The Cabinet is subordinate to the President and assists him. Therefore, the Cabinet is responsible only to the President and not to Congress. The President alone has full responsibility for the exercise of executive power.

3410 That is why the president of the U.S. has extremely strong power concerning the administration. A famous example of this is an anecdote about President Lincoln. At a serious Cabinet meeting, everyone disagreed with Lincoln. Then he said, "Seven against, one for. So it was decided in favor."

3411 As a result of the strict adherence to the principle of separation of powers, the President is not involved in the operation of Congress. However, in order for the President to implement his policies, the laws that form the basis of his policies must be enacted by Congress. Therefore, it is the President's responsibility to urge Congress to enact laws consistent with the President's policies. For that, the President may recommend Congress to consider any measure that the President believes necessary, although this depends largely on the activities of the majority party. This recommendation is usually sent to Congress in the form of a so-called 'the President's message to Congress', which may be presented in writing or delivered orally.

3412 Needless to say, another of the three powers is the judicial power and exercised by the Courts. However, in addition to its general judicial power, the U.S. Supreme Court also has the extremely important power to review whether or not laws enacted by Congress are in accordance with the Constitution. This is called the 'power to review the constitutionality of law.' If the Supreme Court finds that a law enacted by Congress is contrary to the purpose of the Constitution, it can refuse to apply that law, and as a result, that law will naturally lose its effect. This principle was established by custom and is not explicitly stated in the Constitution. However, as long as this principle exists, the legislative power of Congress is also not final. As long as Congress is an assembly of human beings, it cannot be said that its decisions are always correct. Therefore, it is one of the great advantages of the American system. The Supreme Court has the power to review the constitutionality of law to prevent Congress from going too far and ensure that the result of the majority vote in Congress does not violate the spirit of the Constitution.

3413 The courts, which have such a great responsibility, consist of the Supreme Court, which is established by the Constitution, and the lower courts, which are established by law. Therefore, the details of the organization of the Court are determined by the laws enacted by Congress. In other words, the Supreme Court has the power to stop unconstitutional legislation by Congress, but the decision on how to establish the Court is largely up to Congress. As for the judges who work in the Supreme Court, the Constitution provides that they shall hold their positions for life, thereby guaranteeing the independence of the Court. On the other hand, the President appoints judges with the consent of the Senate. In this way, the U.S. system is carefully designed so that the three powers of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary are clearly separated from each other but are also subtly related to each other to maintain a balance among them.

3502 Switzerland, like the United States of America, is a federation made up of several cantons, or states. The Swiss federal government is divided into three organs: legislative, executive, and judicial. The Federal Assembly consists of the National Council and the Council of States. Each canton has two members in the Council of States, which is similar to the U.S. Senate. The National Council consists of two hundred members elected from each state by proportional representation, depending on the population of each canton. The proportional representation system, which will be explained later in the section on elections, is a specially designed election method that allows each political party to produce members in proportion to the number of people who support it. The right to vote is granted to men over twenty, and women's suffrage has not yet been granted. Elections are not held with the same fervor and fanfare as in the U.S.A. and other countries, but there is much to be learned from the fact that there are few abstentions and that people vote based on their calm judgment of political issues.(Translator's note: Women's suffrage in Switzerland was granted relatively late in Europe, in 1976 at the federal level and in 1991 at the cantonal level. And also, in 1991, the right to vote was granted to men and women over eighteen. Around 1948, there were few abstentions. But nowadays, referendums are held about four times a year on about fifteen issues, including the Federal Assembly elections. The average voter turnout over the past few decades has been a little over forty percent.)

3503 The executive organ of the Swiss government has a unique structure. A nation is usually headed by a single person, such as the king, the president, or the prime minister. But in Switzerland, the Federal Council is made up of seven members elected by the Federal Assembly. Then, each year, a joint session of the Federal Assembly elects one of the members of the Federal Council as its president and gives him or her the title of President of the Swiss Federation. The president, however, presides over the Federal Council and has only the power to decide in the event of a tie. The president cannot appoint officials, reject bills, or conduct diplomacy. Therefore, the president is only a nominal head of Federal States and represents the nation only at ceremonial occasions.

3504 However, the most remarkable feature of the Swiss system is that it is based on direct democracy. In other words, important laws are debated in the Federal Assembly and then put to a referendum, or a vote of the people. The people must approve of such laws before they can become effective. Furthermore, if a certain number of voters in the people agree, they can submit a bill. Then either the Federal Assembly will vote on it, or the people will vote on it. This system is the people's initiative. (Translator's note: Three or four national referendums are held annually at the national level alone, and there are also referendums in each state.)

3506 Direct democracy is the most thorough form of democracy because it seeks to decide legislative issues directly by the people's will. However, on the other hand, legislative issues are quite complicated and difficult. In comparison, most people are not familiar with the law. If the people, who do not have sufficient knowledge of the law, vote directly on such difficult legislative issues, there is a risk that the outcome may be influenced by whim or chance. This point is where the debate over direct democracy is divided. In any case, the implementation of direct democracy will not necessarily have a positive effect unless the people's political common sense is considerably enhanced.

3507 There are various types of democratic institutions. We have seen three major types in practice in the British, American, and Swiss systems. If we look further at the political institutions of France, Canada, and Australia, you will find that they differ in some respects from each other. In addition, even the political institution of one nation has gradually changed over time and will continue to develop. Democracy, like a living organism, is constantly growing. And yet, the principle underlying democracy, that is, to set political policy for the people, by their freely expressed will, and to carry out that policy through their freely elected representatives, has always been the only principle that has never changed.

Chapter IV   The Right to Vote

4102 By the way, there are various representatives of the people, but the most important among them are the members of the legislative assembly who make laws on behalf of the people. However, the term 'legislative assembly' is confusing because each local government has its own assembly, so when referring to the assembly of the entire nation, let's call it 'National Assembly.' The laws made by the National Assembly regulate the lives of the people, and at the same time, they provide the framework for the government to conduct politics. Therefore, the better the laws are, the better the nation's politics will be. In order to make good laws, the National Assembly must be organized by members who truly represent the people's feelings. In order to send good members to the National Assembly, the people must be given the right to vote, and the people must be able to use their rights to vote according to their own correct judgments.

4103 In tyranny and dictatorship, one tyrant or dictator and a small group of people around hold absolute power. They then wield their power as they see fit to oppress the people's lives and trample their rights underfoot. In order to prevent such negative effects, it is an important object of democratic politics to discipline all powers so that they do not deviate from the predetermined course of laws. Tyranny and dictatorship are not without laws, but those laws are made in a self‐serving manner of the tyrant or dictator. They are made to bind the people. On the other hand, in a democratic institution, it is not the king, the president, or the prime minister, but the people themselves who will make laws. And then, not only the king, the president, or the prime minister but anyone in charge of any public affairs must obey the laws made by the people. In actuality, instead of the people directly making the laws, they entrust the task to the National Assembly, which represents the people. You can understand how important the work of the National Assembly is and how important it is for the people to elect competent and faithful members of the National Assembly.

4104 But then, there is an argument that it is not advisable to leave the task of making laws to the National Assembly alone. Legislating through the National Assembly does not necessarily mean that the laws will be made in accordance with the people's will. The majority party in the National Assembly may make laws contrary to the people's will, and those laws may execute the politics. That is why laws must be voted on directly by the people to be passed or rejected. As described in the previous chapter, the system that attempts to put this argument into practice is pure democracy or direct democracy.

4105 However, the laws of today's countries have developed in a very complex manner. Therefore, to make good laws, it is necessary to have specialized knowledge and carefully consider the interests and disadvantages. If the people, who don't have a lot of knowledge about laws, decide to make laws, it cannot be guaranteed that good results will be obtained. In addition, if the people vote with imprudent judgments or irresponsible sentiments, they may end up rejecting a good law proposal that has been painstakingly prepared. Moreover, in a country with tens of millions of people (Japan's population in 1948 was about 80 million), it takes a lot of time and effort to present each draft law to the people and make them vote on it. In practice, therefore, it is better to organize the National Assembly with people of high knowledge and experience and leave the enactment of laws to the legislature, while the people only elect members of the National Assembly. That is representative democracy or indirect democracy, which is the system used in most democratic countries today.

4106 Therefore, the choice of an eligible person to be a member of the National Assembly is the key to the success or failure of democratic politics. The election should be the most solemn action for each of the people to choose a truly trustworthy person as their representative and entrust him or her with the important legislative power. However, there are some candidates who, in order to somehow attract votes to themselves, try to please the electorates, make convenient announcements, or make promises they cannot keep. Not be taken in by such schemes, the people should choose the real jewel out of glass balls with the people's common sense. In order for the people's representatives to make good laws and conduct good politics, the people must first have good political common sense. If the people can choose the right people, they will conduct politics for their own well-being through good representatives.

4107 Making laws is the most important job of the National Assembly, but no matter how good the laws are made, they will never be effective if they are not implemented properly. The courts are in charge of applying the laws, but the government is enforcing the laws in actual politics. Therefore, in order for politics to run smoothly, there must be a good balance between the government and the National Assembly. In many democratic countries, there is a system to create a government in tune with the National Assembly. The new Constitution of Japan states, 'The Prime Minister shall be appointed by a resolution of the Diet from among its members.' Therefore, when the people elect the members of the Diet, the people are not only choosing them but also choosing the head of the government who is directly in charge of politics. That is why the importance of elections is so great.

4202 In this way, the fact that there is a rivalry among political parties in the National Assembly, which shall be the center of the nation's politics, and that they are mutually struggling for power with each other, has the adverse effect of disturbing the nation as a whole from keeping in step. However, it is extremely dangerous to decide what kind of politics should be conducted based on only one idea. The beauty of democratic politics lies in having people with opposing viewpoints, looking at things from both the front and the back, criticizing each other, and debating with each other. It is a common practice of dictatorship to insist that one policy is absolutely correct and to block criticism from other positions. It will lead the people into a catastrophe like a horse whipped by a coachman. However, if there are too many political parties only devoting themselves to struggling with each other, political stability cannot be maintained. It is suitable that they get together into two or three political parties to have fair and honest debates.

4203 Therefore, when the people elect a member of the National Assembly, they should not only look at the candidate's character but also consider what kind of political party the candidate belongs to and what kind of political beliefs he or she has. The people must not only elect their representatives but must also elect political parties.

4204 So, which should we focus on in elections, the candidate's personality or the political party to which the candidate belongs?

4205 It is a very difficult question to answer. Once the ground of a political party is clearly defined and its policies are made clear, or in other words, once each political party is well established, the people should consider the party first and then vote. However, in a situation where the borders among political parties are not clear, and their basic policies change rapidly, it is necessary to consider the candidate first in elections. Even if we support one political party and vote for its candidate, it will be meaningless to hold a party-oriented election if the candidate is enticed away or changes sides after being elected and goes to another party. Therefore, while focusing on the political party, we should look at the person and vote. Furthermore, we should not think that we are done with them once the election is over. We should continue to carefully monitor the actions of the members of the National Assembly, criticize them openly. And it will be necessary for us to be prepared to raise our fine political parties, organized by fine members of the National Assembly, with our own hands.

4206 Parliamentary politics is not based on individuals but political parties. Therefore, no matter how good a person is elected, if the members of the party to which the person belongs are small in number, it will be difficult for that party to lead parliamentary politics. However, in an election under a large or medium constituency system allowing for the election of multiple candidates from one district, if one candidate of a political party is extremely famous, that candidate will get more votes than necessary and win the election easily. In contrast, other candidates of the same party will lose. If a candidate receives enough votes to be elected, the votes cast for the candidate may not be counted but may be directed to other candidates of the same party. The above or other similar methods of conducting elections so that members of each political party are chosen in proportion to the support of the people are called the 'proportional representation system.'

4207 Proportional representation system is the most advanced method of elections in theory, but it is quite complicated and difficult to implement in practice. Therefore, the ordinary method of simply selecting one or more members from a single constituency is still widely used. In Japan, the system of electing one or two members of the Diet from a single constituency has been called the small constituency system. The system of electing three to five members of the Diet has been called the middle constituency system. And the system of electing more than six members of the Diet has been called the large constituency system. In a small constituency system, the voters often know the candidates very well, making it suitable for them to select a great renowned locally. In a large constituency system, the voters are free to look over a wide range of candidates and choose the one they think is best. (Translator's note: Since 1994, the Japanese electoral system for the House of Representatives is an electoral system comprised of single-seat constituencies, and in addition, proportionally represented multiple-seat constituencies. And the system of electing only one member of the Diet from a single constituency is called the small constituency system.)

4208 In any case, the election of the members of the National Assembly is one of the most important elections in democratic politics. In a republic nation where the president is elected directly by the people separately from the members of the national assembly, the people usually put the most effort into the presidential election. However, in a country like Japan, where the Emperor is hereditary, and the Diet appoints the Prime Minister, the election of the members of the Diet is of utmost importance. The right to vote for the members of the Diet is a dignified right of the people of a democratic nation, and it is their sacred duty to exercise it conscientiously.

4302 Generally speaking, political power can be both poison and medicine, depending on how it is used. Just as the same drug can be a medicine when diluted, but a poison that kills people in a small amount when concentrated, so the political power, when monopolized by one person or a small group of people, becomes a terrible poison that will torment the people. Therefore, the power must be diluted and shared among as many people as possible to be used as medicine. However, those currently in power do not readily agree to extend the right to vote to more people because the more power they monopolize, the more they can play politics to their own benefit. Additionally, the few running politics have a habit of looking down on many other people's level of knowledge and morality because they feel like they are standing on top of the people. So they oppose giving the right to vote to such people, saying that it is dangerous. Moreover, unless the privileged classes are getting to think that way, it will not be possible to amend the law and democratize the elections. So it must be not easy to realize the extension of the right to vote. Owe to the people with the growing political awareness and the progressive thinkers with ardent advocacy, who have broken down the deep-rooted barriers, the right to vote has been widely extended to the people, and a bright and fair democratic politics can be executed.

4303 Throughout the long history of political democratization, the process of removing property restrictions on the right to vote has particular significance.

4304 Why on earth can only those with property participate in elections, and should those without property be excluded from elections? There is no reason for that at all. However, in the past, under the pretext that the poor were less educated or less cultured, the right to vote was granted only under certain property restrictions. But in the end, there is just money politics for the benefit of those with property. Those with little property are usually the majority of the people in any country, and the nation's strength is supported by the diligent and hard work of those working-class people. Politics must be done for the benefit of all the people. In order to do that, we must first make sure that the ideas of those working-class people are represented in the elections. Those people may not be familiar with the showy formalities of the rich, but they have the sincerity to consider real issues straightforwardly. Their lack of money may have prevented them from attending advanced schools, but with the spread of compulsory education, they have a good grasp of common sense, and above all, they have practical experiences. There would be no reason not to use their sincerity and experiences in politics. Therefore, as the public opinion of those people grew stronger, the wealthy who had monopolized the right to make political decisions were gradually forced to concede, and the property clause was step by step removed. So that, the people have become able to exercise their right to vote equally without discrimination between rich and poor at last.

4306 Looking at Japan, when the parliamentary system was first established under the Meiji Constitution in 1889, one had to pay at least fifteen yen per year in direct national tax to participate in the election of representatives. The limit was lowered to ten yen per year in tax amount by the revision of the Election Law in 1900. Ten or fifteen yen may seem like a small amount of money nowadays, but in the 1890s and 1900s, only a few people with a substantial income could afford to pay a fifteen or ten yen national tax. In addition, in 1919, the tax limit was lowered to three yen. In this trend, the so-called universal suffrage( or popular election) movement was actively developed. The revised Election Law of 1924 removed all tax and property qualifications so that even poor people who did not pay taxes could vote as long as they were at least twenty-five years old, had not been sentenced to a serious crime, and were not mentally disabled.

4402 However, from the standpoint of human equality, which is the fundamental spirit of democracy, such sexual discrimination is not something that should be kept indefinitely. It doesn't mean that democracy does not simply treat all people equally, without regard to their ability or experience. In fact, every country has a certain age limit on the right to vote, and children are thought not to be eligible to participate in elections. However, the situation is completely different when it comes to the distinction between men and women. The reason why women were placed in a lower position was mainly that men were arrogant. If women's knowledge level was low, it was because they were not given the opportunity to receive higher education. It is impossible to say whether, on average, women are less talented than men. Even if we can say so, it is absurd that incompetent men are given the right to vote while outstanding women are not qualified to be given it. In addition, women's participation in social activities became more and more common globally. It has become clear that women's sensitivity and attention to detail can serve some public activities beyond the reach of men depending on the field. For example, the improvement of food, clothing, and housing cannot be solved without women's participation in politics. In parallel with these circumstances, many pioneers, including John Stuart Mill, an English philosopher, argued for women to be given the right to vote, which became a major public opinion and led people to recognize equal voting rights for men and women. In Britain, women's suffrage was granted in 1918 for women over the age of thirty who met certain property qualifications. Ten years later, women gained electoral equality with men. In the United States of America, the Constitution was amended in 1920 to allow women the right to vote in general.

4403 Although in Japan, it was at the end of the Taisho era (1912-25) that universal elections were allowed for men only in 1925, the politics that had developed toward democracy up to that time soon deviated into the evil ways of militarism and dictatorship as soon as Japan entered the Showa era. Therefore, women's suffrage was no longer an issue at all. As a result of the previous war, militarism and dictatorship were destroyed, democracy was reintroduced into the political system, women's suffrage was granted, and the age limit for voting was lowered to 20 years old for both men and women. Then the number of voters increased by about twenty-three million in the whole country. In addition, the age requirement for becoming a member of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors has been set at 25 and 30 years old, respectively, and young and female members of the Diet are already working to build a new Japan.

4502 For example, after the defeat in the First World War, Germany decided to create a new constitution in the city Weimar, where Goethe died, and implement a highly democratic politics centered on the National Assembly. But, there were many political parties in the National Assembly, and while they were battling each other and wasting time while shilly‐shallying, the Nazi Party led by Hitler emerged. Disgusted with the lackluster attitude of party politics, the German people, both men and women, used their wide voting rights to concentrate their votes on the Nazi Party, which said inflammatory things but deceits, and made it the number one party in the National Assembly, and established the basis for a dictatorship at their own request. The Nazi's dictatorship gradually broke international laws, trampled on international trusts, and plunged the nation into a reckless war, which made German people despair even worse off than Japanese people did. This shows that it would be a terrible mistake to think that just because a new democratic constitution has been established and the right to vote has been widely distributed among the people, that this alone will make democratic politics work.

4503 No matter how much the right to vote is extended, if the people use that right to vote for a dictator, democracy will be destroyed. That is not all, however. If many people with the right to vote are not faithful to their rights and fail to vote, they will fall into the hands of the dictator who hides behind the society and controls the people. Don't forget it.

4504 If the people are indifferent to politics, only those who want to realize a certain goal at all costs will push for strong candidates, talk with each other, and concentrate their votes on those candidates. In this way, even if only a few portions of people in the country want to monopolize power, they can eventually fabricate the politics of holding down the majority of the indifferent people and dominating power. Therefore, when many voters sleep on their rights, it will not only weaken democratic politics but also threaten their own very lives.

4505 In spite of this, there are many people in the world who are indifferent to politics. These people are divided into two main types. People of the first type have a great deal of knowledge and ability, but to the contrary, they try to dismiss politics as trivial. They are inclined to dislike those who are preoccupied with politics. And yet, they are the ones who will deplore it more than anyone else that someone they consider lesser than themselves comes to power. In contrast, people of the other type think that politics is a high thing that they cannot understand. They also believe that politics is something far away from them because of their long habit of self-deprecation. Moreover, they do not realize that the quality of politics is deeply involved with their own destiny.

4507 Therefore, the right to vote is a right, but at the same time a duty. The fact that it is a duty does not mean that you will be punished if you fail to do so, as is the case with the duty to pay taxes. In this sense, participating in politics with enthusiasm and understanding is not a legal obligation but rather a moral obligation. It is not even a moral obligation but rather a matter of love for the well-being of many people. For example, think that there is a woman in a farming village who may abstain from voting, saying that she does not know things like elections. In case she is the only one who abstains from voting among all the people in the country, she may think it will produce no effect on the election. However, if many people feel the same way, it will greatly affect the election outcome. It is not a fiction or a fairy tale that, if you were a mother, your beloved child, whom you are nursing at your breast, may become a victim of dictatorship in the future because of your vote abstained. Democracy is, like constructing a large and solid building by piling up one brick at a time, the accumulation of actions made with a clear sense of responsibility and a sound conscience by people who are aware that politics must be the work of 'everyone'.

Chapter V   Majority Rule

5102 Therefore, in democratic politics, various opinions can be expressed from among many people, and active debates can take place. Since each person asserts each judgment, tries to do what each believes to be right, and submits a different opinion from a different standpoint, various conflicts of opinions and conflicts of interests are inevitable as a natural result. That may be undesirable and unpleasant, depending on the certain point of view. However, there is the heartbeat and vitality of democratic politics. If it were to stop, democracy would be dead.

5103 Nevertheless, when making laws or deciding on political orientation, if everyone insists on each different opinion and is adamant about each own decision, it will be impossible to reach a conclusion. Although each person's idea must be respected, when people approve of the mutually conflicting ideas by saying, 'A's opinion is valid, and B's argument has its own reasons.', it will become impossible to solve the actual problem on a single unified policy. Therefore, democracy uses the method of majority rule. In the democratic procedure, the final decision is made by the majority of votes after a thorough debate among the members. An opinion is put up as a proposal, and the question is whether it is agreed or not. Then, by raising hands, standing, or voting, the members are asked whether they agree with the proposal or not. If majority votes favor the proposal, the proposal is adopted; if only minority votes are in favor, the proposal is rejected. Once a decision has been made, even those who disagree, or those with minority opinion, will follow the decision. It is what majority rule is all about. It is the discipline of democracy that even those who have the minority opinion and disagree with the proposal shall obey the result of the majority decision once made, without which political conflicts cannot be resolved, and social order cannot be maintained.

5202 However, can we say that the majority opinion is always correct? If only a few people agree with it, can we assume that the argument is wrong? Obviously, we can not say so. In fact, sometimes, the decisions made by the majority are proved to be wrong. Sometimes the opinions of a few might be correct. Rather, a decision made by a small number of excellent people after careful consideration is more likely to be valid than the opinion of a large number of people who are in a state of confusion and following blindly to others. No, the opinion of the wisest person in the nation can be the most correct one. So why should we not adopt the opinion of the few best people or the wisest and only one, from the beginning, but let many people express their own opinions and then decide on one opinion by a mechanical method such as a majority vote?

5203 There has been such valid suspicion about majority rule since a long ago. No, it's not just that there is such suspicion. Some argue, "Because the majority opinion would do like 'too many captains will steer the ship up a mountain', or 'too many cooks spoil the broth', it would be better to abandon the democratic system of politics. And leave the real power of politics to the wisest people." The most famous of these arguments is the philosopher Plato's theory of 'politics based on philosophy', for which the word aristocracy is usually used. Still, in this case, it doesn't mean politics only by nobles.

5204 Plato rejected the idea of democracy, in which a large number of fools rule by sheer strength of numbers. And he argued that the ideal form of the nation would be one in which the philosophers with the best reason and the most critical mind would lead politics and save the souls of fallen human beings. The influence of Plato's theory of the ideal nation on the political philosophy of later generations has been enormous.

5205 Plato's theory of the ideal nation may be an ideal of politics, but it will surely fail if you try to implement it in reality. The reason is that it is nothing but dictatorship to give all political power to the wisest person and let all the people obey the orders of that iron person. According to a dictatorship, the dictator is the wisest person among the people, so as long as the people follow the dictator's will, there is no mistake. However, who decides that the dictator is the best and the wisest among the people? The fact that the dictator's cronies say so does not guarantee that this is true, and in fact, it may be very deceptive. Also, even if the dictator is really a great person, but if the same person holds a great deal of power for a long time, there will always be corruption and degeneration. And because the power is concentrated in the hands of a few people, the power becomes poison instead of medicine. In order to hide the bad effects from the people's eyes, they tell lies in order to promote only the good points of their dictatorship. They try to boast of their showy successes by doing their unreasonable politics. The result will be an irreversible failure that will force the people to the brink of ruin. The cruel fate of Nazi Germany, which made Hitler into an unparalleled hero and boasted that it was like the realization of Plato's ideal nation, must be said to be a clear lesson to human beings that dictatorship must never be repeated again.

5206 Dictatorship accuses democracy of being 'ochlocracy' (or 'mobocracy'). Democracy cannot be said to be free from such harmful effects. However, the people of today, with the spread of education and the improvement of knowledge, are different from the people of Plato's time. As long as the people have a sound political morality, they will be able to gather the thoughts of many people and discuss matters, which will not result in 'too many captains will steer the ship up a mountain.' Instead, they will get great benefits like the proverb, 'Out of the counsel of three comes wisdom (of Manjushri)'. If the important points of politics were hidden to the people and if the people had only to follow what their leader says, neither the people nor their leader will not be able to find the veins of wisdom within the people. The people will be blinded, but the dictator will also be blinded because the dictator will not have the opportunity to be criticized by the people. And then the dictator will also run like a chariot horse to the edge of destruction. In order to avoid this danger, there is no better way than to have as many people as possible participate in the political process and form one opinion by majority rule.

5207 In addition, democracy is based not only on the popular debate like 'mixture of wheat and chaff', but also on the method of selecting people with superior insight from among the people and entrusting them with politics. It is why the people elect members of the National Assembly and entrust the task of legislation to experts in this field instead of discussing and making laws by the people together. So, the National Assembly appoints the Prime Minister. And the Prime Minister selects other ministers of state who are thought to be the most suitable. Then the government is in charge of administration. However, whether it is legislative or executive power, if a certain group of people monopolizes it for a long time, it will surely cause various adverse effects. Just like when water sits in one place for a long time, the water can become stagnant and breeds mosquito-larvae or decay. Therefore, in a democratic politics, the term of office of the members of the National Assembly is limited, and general elections are held often. Faces of the Cabinet are changed along with elections. So new water always flows into the center of politics. In other words, democratic politics is a combination of the advantages of 'majority rule' and 'elitism'.

5302 Whereas, as mentioned before, it can never be said that the majority's opinion is always more correct than the opinion of the few. In the Middle Ages, all people believed that the sun and stars revolved around the earth where we live. At the beginning of the modern era, Copernicus and Galileo appeared and corrected the error in the geocentric theory. At that time, the geocentric theory was the absolute majority opinion. Only a small number of people believed that the heliocentric theory was correct. Similarly, in the case of political decisions, there are not a few cases where the opinion chosen by a small number of people is correct than what is believed by the majority. If the majority's power is used to push through everything and the opinions of the righteous few are not listened to, this is truly the tyranny of the majority. Democracy must do something to prevent this evil effect from occurring.

5303 Depending on how majority rule is used, the method of majority rule can not only lead to the evil effect of the tyranny of the majority, but also to the destruction of the very foundations of democracy itself. It is because, if the majority can do anything as long as it has got the majority's power, it can take advantage of the momentum of the majority to make one particular political policy absolutely correct, silence all oppositions and criticism, and create a dictatorial political system at once.

5304 Once again, let's see the case of Germany.

5305 After being defeated in the First World War, Germany adopted a highly democratic system of politics with a constitution in the town of Weimar. According to the Weimar Constitution, the people are the source of the nation's power, and the center of national politics based on the will of the people is the National Assembly. The members of the National Assembly are elected by universal suffrage, with equal representation of men and women, and laws are determined by the majority vote of the National Assembly. Under the Weimar constitution, Germany was an exemplary democratic nation, as good as any other country in the world.

5306 But, many political parties emerged in the National Assembly. And while they were battling each other and wasting time while shilly‐shallying, the German people became gradually disgusted with the lackluster attitude of party politics. They began to hope for the emergence of a strong political force that would lead the nation in a single direction. This was where the Nazi Party emerged. The Nazi Party, which at first had only seven members, quickly gained popularity among the German people and finally became the number one party in the German parliament as a result of the general election held in January 1933. Thus, Hitler formed his cabinet and used the majority vote in the National Assembly to enact laws that gave the government not only executive power but also legislative power. Once the government had the power to legislate, it could do whatever it wanted to do. Parliament becomes useless. Germany became a complete dictatorship nation where the people were driven full tilt to war and catastrophe by Hitler's propaganda and the oppression of the Nazi Party.

5307 There is a similar phenomenon in the animal world. For example, a little cuckoo, or Hototogisu, does not build its own nest but lays its eggs in the nest of a bush warbler, or Uguisu. The mother bird Uguisu in the nest does not discriminate among eggs and keeps them warm. However, the eggs of a little cuckoo will hatch in a shorter period than the eggs of Uguisu. Baby birds of the little cuckoos grow faster and dominate the nest, pushing the nightingale eggs out of the nest and dropping them to the ground, destroying them all. Hototogisu sings like Ho-to-to, gisu. Uguisu sings like Hooo-hokekyo, hooo-hokekyo. Hokekyo is Japanese name of Lotus Sūtra.

5308 Democracy, which indiscriminately gives power to the party that has occupied the majority in the National Assembly, is like the stupid Uguisu mother. Using that to the advantage, the dictatorial Hototogisu lays its eggs in the National Assembly, the important nest of democratic politics. At first, they are quiet, but once they gain control of the majority, they quickly reveal themselves, driving away all the opposing parties and monopolizing the parliament. Democracy is destroyed at once, and only dictatorship prevails. All above is just what had happened in Germany. There is no guarantee that this will not happen again. The people of a democratic nation need to be very aware of the fact that in democratic politics, there will also be such pitfalls.

5402 Freedom of speech means respect for the individual will, which is why minority opinions must be respected. Of course, if the people are wise, the majority's opinion will always be closer to the truth than the minority's opinion. However, even in cases where the majority's opinion is correct, listening carefully to what the minority's opposition says and reconsidering the opinion supported by the majority is a way to put truth on a more solid foundation. On the contrary, if the majority force their opinion to prevail even though the minority's opinion is correct in reality, and if the majority do not listen to the minority, the light of truth that shines into politics will be blocked in vain. It must be said that such an attitude is to lose willingly the opportunity forever to correct the mistakes that society has fallen into.

5403 Therefore, majority rule does not mean that the majority's opinion is presupposed to be absolutely correct. However, it is often impossible to determine which of the several conflicting opinions is correct in advance. God would be able to determine which of them is true immediately. But for human beings who are not God, to make a determination with the God-like authority is nothing more than a hubristic and dogmatic attitude. However, if you think and think about which is the right path to take, you will never be able to solve the problem. That's why the majority vote is the only way to find a solution tentatively. In other words, majority rule is not a way of deciding which is the right way to go, but rather a way of settling the problem for the present and moving forward with the decision.

5404 Does that mean that we will never know which of the several conflicting opinions is correct?

5405 No, it never does. There will come a time when the distinction between the right path and the wrong path will be clear. How will we know? Experience will tell us. Human beings, who are not God, cannot know the distinction in advance with absolute certainty. However, if you settle a problem by majority rule for the present, make a law based on that policy, and conduct politics, the results will soon appear on the ground. In some cases, it may turn out to be good for the public welfare. On the contrary, there are cases where the facts clearly show that the policy decided by the majority's opinion is wrong, and it would have been better to follow the minority's opinion. In the former cases, the policy should be left as it is. In the latter cases, it will be necessary to change the law and the way of politics according to the policy expressed by the minority. In the latter cases, the people will no longer support the previous majority's opinion. On the contrary, many people will come to support the opinion that was previously held by the minority. If this happens, the former majority's opinion will become a minority's opinion. The minority's opinion will grow into a majority's opinion, and the law can be amended by a new vote in the National Assembly. In this way, laws are gradually improved, and politics is gradually set on the right course. Thus, the real strength of democracy lies in the fact that the results of majority rule can be constantly revised through experience, and through the criticism and cooperation of the people, politics can be constantly improved. It is only a corrupt form of democracy that the majority neglects to listen to the voices of the minority and only imposes the principle of majority rule.

5406 The dictator will say. "There is no error in my judgment. The directions that I show you are always right. Follow me believing me, my people. I will allow no criticism or opposition from you. Do not refuse to be sacrificed at present. I guarantee your future happiness. Even if you live a life of suffering, your hardships will bear fruit in the form of happiness for your descendants. So be patient. For the prosperity of our people, for the development of our nation."

5408 Against this arrogant statement of the dictator, democracy advocates, "Politics is the politics of the people. The people themselves can reap the welfare produced by politics. However, in order to do so, the people themselves must cultivate the land well, sow good seeds, and make constant efforts to weed, fertilize, and irrigate. In a world with so many difficulties, what can the people do to bring forth good political fruits? The way to do this should be the one that the people decide by themselves, express their opinions without hesitation, and take counsel together. But, it is not easy for everyone to agree on the same thing. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a policy by majority rule and work together based on that policy. If the way the people decide by majority rule is wrong, the result will be clearly seen in the autumn harvest. Then, next year, the people can make use of their experience and try a different policy. In this way, today's difficulties will gradually be overcome, and the people must be able to make a good political progress for the well-being of the people themselves. Do not abandon majority rule just because the conclusion by majority rule may sometimes be wrong. If the people abandon majority rule, the politics will surely end up with dictatorship. True democracy is one that uses majority rule while at the same time correcting the m

5502 The same can be said for politics. It is over‐optimistic to think to be able to succeed perfectly in politics at the first trial without any failure. The events of human society are much more complex than natural phenomena such as steam or electricity. Therefore, there are more failures in politics, which deals with social matters, than in technology, which uses natural forces. It is the people's responsibility to utilize these failures and gradually build a better politics. The people should be free to express their opinions and formulate political policies by majority vote. If something goes wrong after trying it, it should be corrected through consultation with everyone. This is what democracy is all about. When the people think all such troubles and efforts bothersome, leave everything to one person's ideas, and try to achieve extraordinary success in one time, politics becomes a dictatorship. It is like thinking that a divine wind will blow as long as the people pray to a shrine. Heaven helps those who help themselves. How can there be a divine wind blowing when the people leave politics to others?

5502 Therefore, democratic politics takes into account the possibility of failures occurring in majority rule from the beginning. However, if possible, it is better for politics not to be wasteful. It is better if the decisions made by majority rule are in line with the correct political direction from the beginning. For that, the first requirement is to improve the political education of the people. Those who criticize democracy, which is based on majority rule, often say that democracy is ochlocracy, or politics by the vulgar crowd. Well, if the people are all idiots, what the more idiots believe in will be the bigger mistakes. However, today, when knowledge is spreading among the people becoming more and more educated, some who still think so prove that they are the biggest fools by themselves. Such people opposed universal suffrage and women's suffrage, saying that giving the right to vote to the poor living in the back tenements and kitchen maids would disrupt politics. But, in many countries today, the right to vote is extended the more, the better and more promising politics is being conducted.

5503 Then, what about Japan? As a result of the defeat of the war, Japanese people were granted the widest political participation possible in the world before they acquired any real political self-awareness of their own. The dictatorship was banished, and everything now is decided with elections and majority rule. Will this be enough to build a bright future for Japanese politics? If Japanese people are as politically unaware as they were, it is unlikely. On the contrary, if all the people study and take an interest in politics and apply the principle of majority rule correctly with their own responsibility and efforts, Japanese people will eventually be able to build a bright world over scorched earth. People all over the world are watching over what Japanese people are doing. The path to this goal shall be paved by each correct everyday step of each Japanese.

Chapter VI   The Awakened Voter

6102 In a democratic nation, the source of all politics is the people's will. In other words, sovereignty resides in the people. However, since all the people cannot be thinking about politics from morning till night, they are supposed to elect representatives who will conduct politics on their behalf. It was mentioned before. Based on the support and cooperation of the people, these representatives will carry out important projects that cannot be carried out by each one separately of the people, such as building schools, opening roads, conserving water resources, and preventing disease, fire, and crime. So, the people's representatives must make constant efforts to understand what the majority of the people want and what is most important for them.

6103 By the way, the number of people is great. So, it is not possible to listen to what each of the people thinks and wants one by one. But, it would be extremely dangerous for the representatives to listen to the opinions of only a few people and decide the way of politics based only on those limited opinions. Therefore, the people try to express their wishes and opinions in a widely known way to the public. Representatives in charge of politics must fairly judge the sentiments that the people expressed and decide on the actual policies to be implemented according to the people's will as much as possible. In this way, on issues that attract the this world's attention, some of the people try to write articles for newspapers and radio, contribute to magazines and books, or speak at national conventions and other meetings. So they express their opinions in a general way. Public opinion is the voice of those people.

6104 In today's society, various ways of communicating public opinion have developed. You don't have to write for newspapers or magazines, give a speech, or go to a radio street‐corner transcription to express your opinion. Instead, through how many copies of a magazine discussing a certain issue are sold, how many people gather to hear a person speak and how enthusiastically they applaud, or what kind of movies or plays are popular, you can get some idea of public opinion. These are the ways to let the people know what issues and concerns are currently being raised, and at the same time, they are powerful tools for the representatives of the people to judge the trend of public opinion.

6105 However, newspapers, radio broadcastings, lectures, etc., depending on how they are used, can be very powerful tools for creating false public opinion or warping public opinion in favor of one position instead of correctly representing public opinion. If a small number of people, who seek only their own interests and neglect the interests of society, spend large sums of money to buy up companies of newspapers and magazines and make reporters write one-sided opinions and facts that do not exist, they can make what the people disagree with appearing as if the people want it. Then, the representatives of the people are deceived by it. Not only that but even the people themselves become not infrequently convinced that this is so somehow. In that case, people are being taken in by 'propaganda'.

6106 Propaganda conducted through the press does not only work in a negative way, as mentioned above. It should not be called propaganda but news reporting. It is indispensable for the press to convey unfeigned facts or the truth that the people need to know through newspapers, radio broadcastings, and lectures. Based on such accurate facts and information, the people with common sense will decide that this is the way that should be. And that is what is public opinion. However, if abused, propaganda can lead the people to make bad decisions. A plot even of a small group of people can move the National Assembly to enact laws to the great detriment of the people through the power of money and their organization.

6107 Therefore, the people of a democratic nation need to clearly grasp the propaganda's identity and identify whether it is real or fake.

6202 However, human beings have been doing propaganda since much earlier times. In the old days in Japan, when feudal lords fought each other, they would use whisper propaganda, which was passed from ear to ear, in order to gain an advantage in military operations. For example, to instill a strong sense of hostility against the enemy in the people, they would talk about the enemy as cruel and inhumane or make the people believe that their side had justification.

6203 Like this, in the past, verbal propaganda from ear to ear was almost the only way to do that. But since the invention of printing in the fifteenth century, written propaganda has made great strides. Especially since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the spread of education has been remarkable in countries worldwide, the number of people who can read has increased dramatically. And a large number of newspapers, magazines, and other printed materials that target a wide readership have been published, through which propaganda has become extremely powerful. Therefore, it can be said that the progress of printing machines and the spread of general education were the most important factors in the development of propaganda technology.

6205 For example, let's say that certain magazines or newspapers have a special relationship with a certain political party. These newspapers and magazines publish editorials and articles favorable to the party's cause, hiding the fact that the party pays them. In that case, those newspapers and magazines have become the tools for the propaganda of this party. In addition, orators are sometimes sent in order to change the minds of the public. There are also times when a lot of money is invested in making movies, plays, and novels, and the people who watch and read them unwittingly come possibly to believe that only one idea given through such propaganda is true.

6206 In the Pacific War, which brought great tragedy to the Japanese people, the government and the military used their power and money to propagandize the war. As a result, even those who were initially against the war gradually became convinced that the war was unavoidable and necessary. They came to believe that it was their duty for the people to cooperate in the war. In fact, Japan was losing all the time. But the people of Japan were lulled into believing that Japan was winning the war by the plausible Imperial Headquarters Announcement of the Japanese government. After the defeat of the war, the people realized how much they had been deceived. But it was too late. The dreadful power of propaganda is something that the people of Japan must have learned the hard way.

6207 In a democratic world and with the development of parliamentary politics, political parties play an important role. Many of party politicians are serious, and they must have many ideas and plans to help rebuild the economy, revive the industry, and reform society. But it is also true that so that they can legislate in accordance with their policies and seize real power in the government, they publish pamphlets, hold party conventions and speeches, call on the people by radio, and engage in various other activities, in order to get as many candidates of their party elected as possible. Some of them are fair and square propaganda, but there can be mixed with propaganda for hidden purposes. When this happens, the average voters are at a loss as to which to believe, and it is easy for them to lose the ability to make sound judgments, and they end up supporting the wrong claims. It is the 'awakened voter' who can calmly judge the situation. In order to build an ideal democracy, all the people who participate in elections must become awakened voters.

6208 Let's take a more in-depth look at how the people would be deceived by clever propaganda.

6302 Agitating politicians, especially agitating communists, usually focus on the class that has always been disadvantaged and has grievances with the world. People of such a class have a lot of grievances they want to say. But they have nowhere to appeal, and they have no power to influence other people. So, they keep silent. Agitating politicians, aiming at those people's grievances, shout what those people want to say. They win the popularity of those people. They show off a plausible stereotyped theory and make people believe that, if they do in this way, the wealth will be distributed fairly, and the status of minorities will be improved. They promise that they can do this or do that if they are carried up. If there is a riot due to an explosion of dissatisfaction, it will be at their mercy. They will take advantage of it to get into political power. They will ignore their promises and play politics according to their own agenda. In the end, people who fail to see the other side of politics will be the biggest victims.

6303 In the English language, the act of politicians agitating the people is called demagoguery. In Japan, it is called 'dema' for short. In Japanese, the words 'to spread dema' mean to spread falsehoods or bullshits. If one knows that dema is dema, there is no harm. Most people are taken in by dema or false rumors unless being very careful. Some are favorable to some people, and some are unfavorable. Those false rumors jump around in a jumble, and then people start to believe them.

6304 Based on the analysis of this situation a little more, it can be said that there are types of ways in which propagandists deceive people, such as;

6305 The first type. In order to drive away political competitors and other obstructive forces, propagandists give them evil names and try to make the people feel antagonistic toward them. Various evil names are used: conservative reactionary, right‐winger, fascist, traitor, left-winger, red, communist, etc. In Japan, until the end of the war, free-thinking progressive people had been disqualified with a short sentence: 'Those are red.' As democracy takes off, propagandists will try to bury moderate thinkers by saying, 'Those are reactionaries.' And it would be more effective for propagandists to convey the evil mixture of fact and fiction.

6306 The second type. Propagandists, on the contrary, put up a beautiful sign on their position and put a beautiful kimono on what they say. Words such as truth, freedom, justice, and democracy are perfect for such a sign. However, sheep, thinking that the wolf in sheep's clothing is one of them, will easily become the wolf's prey.

6307 The third type. Propagandists link a person they are trying to carry up or a plan they are trying to implement with something that people have long respected so that people will think that the person must be great or believe that the plan should be noble. For example, German people had great respect for their nationality. The Nazi party abused this and made it seem that Hitler was the only person who could express the will of the German. Japanese people have always been grateful to the Emperor. The planners of the war plan abused this sentiment to tell the people that it was in the Emperor's will to carry out the war as they planned, regardless of what the Emperor thought, in fact. They sent the people to the battlefield with a red paper summons, saying it was the Emperor's call.

6308 The fourth type. In order to attract town people, propagandists could write articles that would appeal to people and publish photos in the newspaper that would impress them. For example, if propagandists show a film of their dictator, who usually lives in a luxurious mansion, digging in the ground with a shovel just like the ordinary workers, people would think that the dictator is on people's side. If propagandists publish a photo of the prime minister driving to a distant suburb, changing into a horse at the entrance of a poor village, visiting farmers, and speaking words of consolation, people would be impressed. They would think that the busy prime minister inspects people's situation without even taking a car.

6309 The fifth type. Propagandists skillfully mix truth and lies. In any propaganda, if they only tell lies, people will sooner or later sense their lies. So, by telling the truth and attracting people to believe their story, they can gradually make people think that the lie must be true. Or, even if a fact, they can give people the opposite impression by taking out only one point of the story, depending on how they express it. As an example, there is an interesting story as follows.

6310 On a cargo ship sailing in the Indian Ocean, the captain and first mate took turns in command of the bridge and wrote a logbook for each shift day. The captain was a serious man, but the first mate was an old sailor who enjoyed drinking whenever he could. One day, when the captain was standing on the bridge, he saw an empty bottle of whiskey lying on the deck. The captain thought it was funny, so he noted it in his logbook that night. The next day, when the first officer read the logbook on duty, he was very angry and lodged a protest with the captain.
6311"When we are off duty, we should be able to do what we want. I didn't drink alcohol while on duty. What would the company president think of me if he read this journal? What do you think?"
6312 "I think I know that, too." The captain replied quietly. "But there is no mistaking the fact that you were drunk yesterday. I merely wrote down that fact."
6313 The first officer suppressed his inner dissatisfaction and went on duty. However, he wrote in the logbook, "The captain was not drunk all day, today." The captain was angry when he saw it the next day.
6314 "Isn't it fair to write that I wasn't drunk on that day? It's as if I'm always drunk all day except that day. You know that I don't drink a single drop of alcohol. You write a false report and try to slander me."
6315 "Yes, sir. I know very well that you do not drink. But it is also a fact that you were not drunk yesterday. I just wrote that fact down." Replied so the first officer.

6316 What was written in the logbook was true in both cases. However, depending on how it was expressed, the reader might have got the opposite impression from the fact, which you can see.

6317 Another important thing that must be remembered is that if the people are not careful enough, political parties of various standpoints will use their money to control public opinion in the propaganda war. And at last, the group which has the most money will win. For example, a faction or a party will campaign to prevent legislation from passing through the National Assembly that is detrimental to entrepreneurs, such as corporate control of the nation, and when that doesn't work, it will try to put in amendments that will make the law almost obsolete. If such an attempt succeeds because of the power of money, then democracy has given way to money politics.

6402 Because of the high value that newspapers have as a tool for propaganda, those who want to take advantage of this value will spend a large sum of money to buy up newspaper companies or publish their own newspapers. If it is clear what kind of person or party the newspaper is run by, the readers will read it with that intention, and there will be no serious harm. However, if they use a newspaper with a difficult name to be recognized as having a secret intention, they can influence the public's thinking. It will be even more effective if they buy up several newspapers with different names. In this way, even in a world that is only democratic in appearance, money politics can prevail. It is said, 'Money opens all doors even in hell.' True democracy cannot take place when money has a universal power to sway public opinion as it pleases.

6403 It costs money to run a newspaper. The cost is much more than the amount of money collected from the newspaper bills paid by subscribers. So, how does a newspaper manage to survive? There is no other reason, but the income of advertisements covers the shortage. It means that subscribers can read interesting newspapers at a lower cost than actual. In some cases, more than half of the newspaper publishing cost is covered by the income from advertisers. So, it shows just how effective newspaper advertisements are. The fact that a newspaper's publicity is successful shows that the newspaper has a great deal of power as a propaganda organization. It is easy to imagine how effective a newspaper can be if it publishes skillful, interesting, and eye-catching articles and displays rare photographs. Even when dealing with the same incident, there will be a big difference between the cases with a large headline and a small one in the corner. If a newspaper slanders someone by writing untrue facts, even if it later issues a small retraction, the person's credibility will be ruined. In this way, the power of newspapers to influence public opinion is enormous. For this reason, the responsibility of the people who run newspapers is extremely serious.

6404 The same can be said for magazines and other periodicals. A major magazine with a high circulation has a high utility value as a propaganda organization. Therefore, a large part of the expenses of a magazine company can be covered by the income of advertisements.

6405 What is even more interesting is radio broadcasting. In Japan today, all broadcasting stations are run by a single broadcasting association, and the fees paid by listeners cover the expense. However, in the United States of America, there are more than 600 private broadcasters. And in a city about half the size of Tokyo, several broadcasters compete with each other by producing interesting programs. They do not charge any fees for their listeners. They incorporate advertisements into their broadcasts and operate on the fee of those advertisements. (Translator's note: Commercial radio broadcastings also began in Japan in 1951.)

6406 Thus, newspapers, magazines, and radio broadcastings, which depend on advertisements as their main source of revenue, compete with each other to get as many advertisements as possible. (Translator's note: Private radio broadcastings started in Japan, from 1951. However, NHK, or Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is with listeners' fees and without advertisements.) If they are major newspapers or magazines, they do not have to make any efforts to get advertisements. But if not, they may edit their articles to the liking of big advertisers, or quit publishing articles in a way that might offend big advertisers. Against such minor newspaper companies and magazine publishers, the advertisers can get together and may put pressure on these propaganda companies and order them to write articles and papers, for example, in such a way as to prevent the passage of legislation unfavorable to the advertisers. Such advertisers can force these propaganda companies to highlight the proposed law's bad points or to write bad things about its supporters. It is not difficult to sway the minds of uninformed readers with such techniques.

6407 On the one hand, some reporters of small magazines and local newspapers would blackmail influential persons in the area by telling them that they will write about unfavorable facts and make them pay a lot of money in exchange for not writing about them. On the other hand, some candidates pour a lot of money into magazines and newspapers in order to have them publish articles that are favorable to themselves. With such corrupt reporters and cunning candidates, voters tend to be misled by them, and instead of voting for a good person, they would choose an unsuitable one.

6409 Therefore, in democratic nations, freedom of speech and publication is guaranteed definitely. So, the people can criticize the government's policies and openly protest against injustice. There is no danger of political dissatisfaction exploding into direct action as long as the people have such freedom. If the government suppresses ideas that it deems dangerous, those ideas will surely go underground and gradually grow in dissatisfaction and rebellion, eventually leading to social and political unrest. The government must govern according to the public opinion of the people, but if the government tries to sway public opinion as it sees fit, the spirit of democracy will be trampled underfoot.

6410 Politics must be executed based on truth. Moreover, it is the fundamental principle of democracy that the truth is created through free debate. Let the people freely debate A's claim and B's position. The A's party attracts the hearts and minds of the people through propaganda and wins the majority of votes in elections, thus gaining victory over the B's party. However, if A's declaration was not true, how long would its victory last? If the people of the nation cannot discover the truth, the position of B, who has declared the truth, will remain unchanged. On the other hand, if the people have the power to discover the truth, then A's popularity will eventually fall to the ground. As a result, the position of B, supported by a smaller number of people, comes to prevail. No, if the people are really wise, they will not be led astray by A's propaganda from the beginning.

6411 Therefore, the only way to discover the truth under free speech is to become 'awakened voters' as the people. An enlightened voter is the most reliable lie detector. If the people are wise, the newspapers will report the truth because they cannot sell lies. Since it is impossible to overcome the correct criticism of the people, newspapers and other media such as magazines will reflect true public opinion. It is how politics is always directed in the right direction.

6502 The first: What we have to keep in mind when doing scientific research is to remove preconceived notions. We have become constrained by a certain way of thinking through long experience, through what we have been taught and told from our young ages, through the first books we read with admiration, and through many other causes. Then we have developed a habit of first judging everything from such a standpoint. In some cases, it is good. However, it can also be wrong. Thinking about things without eliminating such preconceptions can lead to being trapped in an unbelievably skewed judgment. In the olden days, people believed that the Wind God caused the wind and that an earthquake would occur when the underground cattail rampaged. Removing such superstitions and preconceptions was the first step in developing science. Even in recent years, Japanese people believed that a 'kamikaze' would blow during times of war. They believed that if the Imperial Headquarters announced something, it should be true. There is nothing more frightening than such preconceptions. Removing them from political decisions is the first step in scientific consideration.

6503 The second: The next important thing is to know from where the information is coming. Believing what you read or hear, as it is, is not only foolish, it is also very dangerous. So, it's better for you always to ask yourself the following questions: Who wrote it? Who said it? What kind of people are they? Are they qualified to say such things? Where and how did they get the information? Do they have any preconceptions? Are they really fair and selfless people? Or is there some selfish motive hidden behind their deceptive statements? Asking yourself these questions will certainly help you to think scientifically.

6504 The third: When reading newspapers and magazines, pay attention to the following points:

A: Read the editorials and get a general idea of the trend of the newspaper or magazine, for example, whether it is conservative or radical, as early as possible.
B: Once you know this, read the publications with the opposite position and decide which one is correct.
C: Look to see if they are publishing low-grade articles, writing in an unusually intriguing way, or slandering people.
D: Compare the headline of an editorial or article with its content. Even if the content of an article is mostly true, it may have a big title that is not appropriate for the article and tries to give the readers a different impression. So, do not make a hasty judgment just by looking at the title.
E. Pay attention to what kind of people run the newspapers and magazines and what kind of supporters they have behind them. A newspaper that panders to the power of the government is called a pro-government newspaper. However, a newspaper that panders to the rich class instead of the government is still a pandering newspaper.

6507 In short, democracy will not work unless every voter becomes wise. If the people are wise and think scientifically, false propaganda will be quickly detected, and no one will be able to say irresponsible things. High intelligence, a love of truth, a will to protect the truth that has been discovered, the ability to carry out correct policies responsibly, and mutual respect and cooperation among such people are the driving forces for building a great democratic nation. There is no other way.

Chapter VII   Politics and the People

7102 There is still a tradition among Japanese people that politics is not their business, dating back to the feudal era. There is an old saying in the East, 'Let people follow. Don't let them know.' It means that a politician should let the people follow his orders but should not let them know the basic policy of politics. If the government lets the people know its political policy, the people will criticize it in various ways, and the government will not be able to govern as it want. Politicians thought so. Japanese politicians have been taking this attitude for a long time. So, the people think they have been in the position fo be governed and cannot think of 'doing politics' themselves. Even if they know in words that sovereignty rests with the people, they don't understand what that means. They can't get rid of the feeling of being confused. It is where the people's attitude of leaving politics to others originates.

7103 But if the people leave politics to others, the result shall be a disaster. In Japan, politicians plotted warfare without the people's acknowledgment, taking their husbands and sons into battlefields, burning their homes, letting them lose their property, and leaving them with little food to eat. Wasn't it just a while ago? The people themselves are the ones who suffer the most because of bad politics. On the other hand, the people themselves are in a position to feel the benefits of good politics. The people must know politics, have a deep interest in politics and have a strong determination to improve politics by their own power. The people are the ones who can realize the difference between good and bad politics based on their real dreadful experiences. Therefore, the only sure way to improve politics is to run politics by the people. Here is the very basis of the political principle of democracy. The people must think of politics as their job and understand the vital points of politics to achieve political results. Politics is not something that the government can do alone. No matter how good the political policy is, it will never produce good results unless the people are determined to cooperate.

7104 At the beginning of autumn in 1947, the Kanto region was hit by a terrible downpour. Several rivers, including the Tone River, overflowed, resulting in heavy flooding. Shortly before that, the Tohoku region was also hit by heavy flooding. These are natural disasters, no doubt, but no matter what kind of natural disaster it is, there is nothing that cannot be prevented by human power to some extent. It is not impossible to mitigate natural disasters if the government makes a firm policy and the people cooperate with it as their job. In the case of the floods in the Tohoku and Kanto regions, it was not good to cut down many forests in the water source areas during the war to use woods as fuel. Instead of reinforcing the weakened levees, the people plowed up to the top, which hastened the breaches. The government was responsible for this, but the people could not escape the charge of negligence to think seriously about flood control and afforestation as their own work. In a year when the mountains and rivers are in a state where floods will occur with heavy rain, contrarily the season of low rainfall will bring about a severe shortage of water. The hydro‐electric generation will go down and the water supply to cities will be shut down. What can we do to improve such a situation? If the people themselves think about it and make the government formulate an appropriate policy, and if the people willingly cooperate with the government, it is nothing but 'politics by the people, for the people.'

7105 At the beginning of autumn in 1947, the Kanto region was hit by a terrible downpour. Several rivers, including the Tone River, overflowed, resulting in heavy flooding. Shortly before that, the Tohoku region was also hit by heavy flooding. These are natural disasters, no doubt, but no matter what kind of natural disaster it is, there is nothing that cannot be prevented by human power to some extent. It is not impossible to mitigate natural disasters if the government makes a firm policy and the people cooperate with it as their job. In the case of the floods in the Tohoku and Kanto regions, it was not good to cut down many forests in the water source areas during the war to use woods as fuel. Instead of reinforcing the weakened levees, the people plowed up to the top, which hastened the breaches. The government was responsible for this, but the people could not escape the charge of negligence to think seriously about flood control and afforestation as their own work. In a year when the mountains and rivers are in a state where floods will occur with heavy rain, contrarily the season of low rainfall will bring about a severe shortage of water. The hydro‐electric generation will go down and the water supply to cities will be shut down. What can we do to improve such a situation? If the people themselves think about it and make the government formulate an appropriate policy, and if the people willingly cooperate with the government, it is nothing but 'politics by the people, for the people.'

7202 Japan is divided into forty-six prefectures, one 'to', one 'do', two 'fu', and forty-two 'ken'. (Translator's note: In 1972, Okinawa-ken reverted to Japan. The number of ken becomes forty-three. Then the total is forty-seven.) There are also cities, districts, towns, and villages in those prefectures. These are called local self-governing bodies. Under the Meiji Constitution, the rulers of the central government appointed the heads of local governments by orders, influenced local politics, and even forced people to do things that did not fit the circumstances of their towns and villages. Under the new Constitution, however, these things cannot be done. Each local self-governing body has its own voting body and executive body, and the local people elect the people who will be in charge. In addition to electing prefectural, city, village council members, etc., the governor, mayor, village mayor, etc., who execute the matters decided by the prefectural, city, village, etc., are also elected by the local people. By thinking about whom to elect as representatives, what kind of politics to have the elected representatives do, and whether or not the representatives are doing what the prefectural people, citizens, and villagers expect of them, the politics will become 'our work' for everyone. This should never be difficult or difficult to be understood.

7203 For example, there is a wasteland in one village. It does not drain well and is not suitable for cultivation. Even so, cultivating the land is expensive and labor-intensive. For this reason, the land has been left as it is for a long time. But is that enough? Isn't there some way village people can make money available and cultivate the land with the cooperation of everyone? If they block the river's upper reaches to improve drainage, they could have several hectares of rice fields. The blocked water would be useful for irrigation. Let's say that the village people have a good idea of what they want to do, and they choose persons who have the ability to carry out the plan as members of the village council or as the village mayor. The village budget would be in the red for two or three years. However, in the fourth year, there would be a small harvest. In the autumn of the fifth year, there will be bushels of golden ears of rice. Of course, not everything works out that way. So, there will be opposition, and there will be reasons for opposition. All the village people should think about it together. Then, if the plan gets a majority of supporters, they try it. The village progresses, and the people's lives become easier. That is the politics of the village. Whether building a school, upgrading a community center, or repairing a road, it is all the same thing. For the villagers, why should it be a 'job left to others'? In the same way that the work done in the fields by the family is 'our job', the work of the villagers should be 'our work'.

7204 In today's world, there are many difficult problems in the nation, regions, towns, and villages. But who will solve Japan's problems if Japanese people do not try to solve them? In the same way, local, town, and village problems must be solved by local residents, townspeople, and villagers themselves. It is said that 'Heaven helps those who help themselves.' Only after self‐help efforts, the village receives assistance from the prefecture, and the prefecture receives assistance from the national government. In the same way, only after the entire nation has put forth its best efforts, and there still remain things which it cannot reach, the people can expect assistance and cooperation from foreign countries.

7205 The local people should solve the problems of local autonomy. However, townspeople and villagers have their occupations, so they cannot devote themselves to town or village politics. So, they choose representatives from among themselves to work exclusively in that area of politics. But, the people must not take the attitude that, after having chosen representatives, they could leave the rest to those representatives. What does the mayor of town or village do? What are the council members of town or village discussing? Do they get caught up in emotional issues or partisan warfare? The people of the town or village should always pay attention to such things, encourage and criticize the actions of their representatives, and express their opinions in a reasonable manner so that the people can all work together to build a correct and bright town and raise village politics.

7206 Politics should be 'our job' for everyone. However, the most important thing is to have adequate representatives who will be involved in the actual politics. So, if you think you can do it, go for the town mayor or a member of the village council. Even if you are not going to be a representative, you should elect your representatives with as much enthusiasm as standing as a candidate yourself.

7207 However, it is undesirable that people become so absorbed in the election that they lose their cool. In the United States and other countries, elections are the most important events for the people, and sometimes they are held with a lot of fanfare. Some candidates take large-scale publicity by taking a musical band to attract attention and advantageously lead the election. In some cases, it is said that people are so enthralled by the upbeat atmosphere that they vote for a raffish candidate and let a more serious candidate lose. In Japan, no one seems to be going out on the campaign trail with a brass band yet, but it is not uncommon for people to be lured in by flashy propaganda and end up not electing the people they should elect. Politics is not a matter of relying on God. Good politics must rely on the power of good persons. Therefore, it is good that people are putting more effort into elections than they do into local festivals. Still, it shall be also very important to be careful not to be carried away by fake propaganda.

7302 It goes without saying that one of the most important issues in Japan today is the food problem. The farming villages that produce food are engaged in hard labor all year round, with no time to rest. In the United States of America and other countries, the industrialization of farming villages has been carried out on a large scale, and plowing, sowing, harvesting, and threshing are all done by machines. Even sowing seeds from the sky by airplane is being done. It is impossible to directly emulate such industrialization in a country like Japan, where land is small and full of rice fields. But if electric power and cattle power at least could be used more abundantly and effectively, how much more efficient our agricultural production would be? If so, more hydroelectric power should be developed. It is not an issue for one village, one town, or one region, but an issue that can be solved only if the entire nation's governments cooperate with it.

7303 This is just one example, but as you can see from this one example, local politics is closely connected to the politics of the entire nation. Therefore, those who are serious about village politics must also be enthusiastic about local politics. Those who are passionate about local issues cannot help but pay close attention to the politics of the whole nation. An attitude of persons who think that village politics is 'our job' will also let those persons think that national politics is 'our job'.

7304 However, as the scope of politics expands from village and town politics to prefecture and nation politics, it is clear that the issues will become more and more complicated. Moreover, unlike the politics of a village or a town, it is often difficult for ordinary people to grasp the essence of the issues in detail regarding the whole nation's politics. Moreover, in villages and towns, there are many opportunities for people to represent themselves, but in national politics, only a few people are able to become members of the National Assembly or ministers and take charge of politics themselves. Therefore, for the majority of the people, electing the best possible representatives to the National Assembly is the most important way to participate in the nation's politics.

7305 By the way, when it comes to choosing a representative, the voter is well aware of the background, characteristics, and opinions of the candidates for the village or town councilor and can easily decide who to choose. On the other hand, when it comes to the National Assembly members, it is not uncommon to know at the first time the name and occupation of a candidate only by reading the Campaign bulletin. It isn't easy to decide which one is the best. Even when people listen to political speeches or radio announcements, they are not sure whether people should accept them as they are. It would make the voters anxious. And voters would feel that their vote would be controlled by chance, which would be bad. In addition, if the hundreds of elected members of the National Assembly were to assert their own opinions and act according to each judgment independently, there would be no conclusion to the political policy. By what means can such inconveniences be removed?

7402 A political party is a group of people who share similar political beliefs. It is natural for political views to differ from person to person to a greater or lesser extent. But if the common points are got together, political views can be roughly divided into several colors. This way, the common policy can clearly be theorized, and the political party can hold its principle high and proceed or retreat fairly and squarely under a certain policy.

7404 The politics of a country is complex and difficult. Because it is complex and difficult, there are many different opinions on what policies are the right ones to implement. This is why two, three, sometimes even five or six different political parties are formed. It is natural for political parties to divide into several groups. However, it is not democracy to accept only one party's position as being correct and not to recognize other parties. It is a dictatorship.

7405 Dictatorship does not allow for the existence of opposing parties. Therefore, it uses its power to control thoughts by saying such as 'one nation, one party'. On the contrary, democracy respects freedom of speech and freedom of choosing a political party. Therefore, even when the majority party is in power, there will always be one or more opposition parties that will criticize the government's actions without hesitation. By doing so, both the government and the majority party will reflect on their own policies. And the people will know what the problems are and what the possible ways of thinking about them are. Even if the minority party's opinion is rejected by majority rule, if its view is correct, it will gradually gain the support of the people, and the minority party will grow into the majority party. This is the proper way for democracy to operate.

7406 However, this does never mean that the number of political parties should be too large to be welcomed. When there are five or six political parties, it becomes very difficult for any one of those parties to have a majority in the National Assembly. This is not to say that it is wrong for two or more political parties to form a coalition cabinet, but such a cabinet may, if anything, weaken its political power. It is not possible to have a single conviction and a clear and consistent policy. It is easy for the cabinet to lose its inside integrated feeling. If one party of the coalition cabinet betrays, the group of parties will become a minority, and the cabinet will not be able to stand. If the Cabinet is always short-lived, or if its policies are half-hearted and change erratically, the people will gradually lose faith in parliamentary politics, which may lead the people to a reactionary dictatorship in search of a single-tracked, thoroughgoing and strong politics.

7407 Therefore, it must be avoided to be splitting into too many parties in a democracy like Japan's, where democratic politics is still in its infancy. And, it is inevitable to a certain extent that a member of the National Assembly from one party may leave that party at any unnoticed moment or that a new party may be formed with independent members or small gray factions. However, it would be better to settle such a situation as soon as possible. Then there should be only two or three major parties with clear principles, and parliamentary politics should be conducted with dignified manner and no room for tricks.

7502 The most common problem in party politics is 'mudslinging'. Since political parties are always trying to gain a majority, they tend to resort to any means to achieve this goal. Therefore, during elections, a party will launch simple attacks for the sake of attacks in order to deflect the opposing party's power. Some party tries to put their opponent party at a disadvantage by saying all kinds of false facts. Another party even exposes the personal lives of the opposing party candidates, slanders them, and attacks them. Those who are being attacked can't keep quiet either, so they use 'saying tit for tat' (Translator's note: In Japan, 'When you sell the word, I'll buy it.'). And they slander the opposite side, ignoring the distinction between private and public in the same way. In this kind of mudslinging, one intends to smear mud on the opponent's face, but one is actually smearing mud on one's own face as well. In other words, those, who are smearing mud on each other's faces, are smearing mud on the face of party politics and democracy itself. This kind of mudslinging does not end even after the general election but may be carried over until after the National Assembly is opened. When it becomes so, some members of one party will try to chip away at the other party. They try to find facts that will discredit their political opponents to adopt the tactics of exposure scandals. When one party thinks that it loses by numbers, its members make long speeches against the Cabinet's proposed laws. And against supporting speeches of the laws, they disrupt the Assembly by booing the speaker. They ask the same questions repeatedly to prolong the discussion. When the chairman tries to end the discussion, they shout 'tyranny'. In the end, they crowd the chairman's seat and even engage in a brawl. In this way, they try to delay the vote and make it look like the discussion has not been completed. If the session ends with deliberation not completed, even the majority party will not be able to pass the bill. It is not uncommon for the minority party to use such tactics.

7504 What can be done to eliminate these harmful effects?

7505 The first: Political parties should be thoroughly aware of their role as political parties. Since political parties represent the people and seek to realize their political claims, they must set clear policies and strive to implement them faithfully. However, politics is a living organism, and even if the policy is clear, it cannot be a formula that does not fit reality. Therefore, it is necessary for the parties to constantly add freshness and elasticity to their policy to respond to the changing world. If political parties act fairly and honestly based on such policies, and if the people who sympathize with the announced policies put their trust in the parties and support them, then the danger of political parties being driven by money or temporary sentiment will be greatly reduced.

7506 The second: Political parties themselves must be organized in a democratic manner. Needless to say, it is important to have good members in a political party. A political party develops by gaining good members and the support of its policies from the people. In particular, it is impossible to maintain the unity of a political party if the party executives are not strong. However, there is a difference between having strong executives and having executives who give dictatorial　orders. When a political party is driven by money, the most important job of the party executives is to collect money. In this way, the most powerful person to collect money is appointed as its president, and all difficult matters are left to the president.

7507 Since political parties are the center of democratic politics, it is only natural that political parties should be organized democratically. While party discipline must be respected, open debate within the party must also be respected, and its leading figures must be promoted to the top ranks. At the same time, the party's expenses should be covered by contributions from the widest possible range of supporters, not by financial cliques or a few rich people.

7508 The third: Political parties need to have the generosity to understand the other side's position. Since political parties stand on different principles and platforms, it is natural that there will be conflicts and political disputes among them. However, all political parties originally should work together towards the same goal, which is to improve the nation's politics and the lives of its people. Therefore, political parties must be willing to listen to the other parties' arguments and be tolerant enough to adopt their correct opinions. In particular, the majority party must respect the arguments of the minority parties. Suppose the majority party oppresses the minority parties and wins the vote regardless of right or wrong. In that case, the majority party will not be able to avoid being called 'tyranny'. Flowery and fruitful party politics can only be carried out with a spirit of humility, which looks from right to left, from above to below at the issues that divide the people, studies them carefully, and tries to discover a single truth through mutual debates.

7509 However, it is the common sense of the people that forms the basis of all these things. Political parties are like a mirror of the people's minds. If the people's minds are crooked, crooked political parties will be formed. If the people's sentiments are mean, mean political parties will stand side by side in ugly warfare. So, before the people start talking badly about political parties, they need to make sure that they elect truly trustworthy and honorable persons to represent them. There is no other way for democratic politics to flourish than for all the people to become 'awakened voters', take politics as 'our job', and make constant efforts to improve it.

Chapter VIII   Democracy in Social Life

8102 However, democracy is not a mere system for politics. Democracy is a way of social life at its root, and it is a way of thinking for all people who live social lives. If democracy is a mere political system, democratizing that system is not necessarily a difficult task. Of course, it took a long history of human struggles and efforts to develop democratic political institutions into what can be seen today, as outlined in Chapter 2. However, in the case of Japan, the defeat of war led to the collapse of the past political system. And the adoption of a new system, heavily influenced by the advanced political forms of the West, was relatively easy because there were already many examples and precedents to follow. On the other hand, democratizing social life from the ground up is not something that can be done overnight. It takes a great deal of determination and discipline to remove the undemocratic feelings that have been ingrained in people's minds for a long time and to spread the spirit of democracy throughout their daily lives. Moreover, unless this is done, democracy in its political form can never become a real thing.

8103 Before the development of democracy, feudalism was practiced in the West. Feudal lords and nobles became landlords of large areas and ruled over the people of the land. The lords had many retainers, loyal to their lords, but had a big face and wielded power over the people. In this way, the feudal system was characterized by the discrimination of status among people and the large gap between people according to their status. In Japan, the feudal system also continued for a long time through the era of samurai politics. In the center, Edo, there was the shogun with immense power, and in the provinces, there were feudal lords, and the people had to get down on their knees to greet any foolish lord. Retainers of the shogun and feudal lords were samurais (warriors), and there were various ranks of samurai, all of whom were ranked above general people. The hierarchy of social life was clearly determined by status, like classes of 'shi-no-ko-sho', or 'warriors, farmers, artisans and tradesmen'. And a samurai with both swords could kill a commoner with a slight fuss and kept cool about it, saying, 'Kirisute-gomen', or 'immunity of killing commoner'. Although the feudal system was abolished with the Meiji Restoration, traces of it still existed until recently. The privileged class of the nobles was revered, and meaningless family registries such as 'samurai ( warrior class)' and 'commoner' were written on resumes until recently.

8105 Of course, there are differences in talent, experience, and personality among people. It is only natural that people of high character and insight should be respected in this world. It is not strange that people with superior talent and experience should be given higher salaries and higher positions. The democratization of social life does never mean ignoring these factors. It would be vicious equality and never true equality to treat a person who does the job and achieves ten grades and a person who only achieves one grade of efficiency in the same job in the same way. However, such differences in position and treatment should be determined by the true worth of a person. It is not because a person holds a high position that he is great, but because he is a good person, he should take on important work. For example, in schools, teachers should not be respected by all means because they are teachers. Instead, teachers should be in a responsible position to supervise and guide students just because they are learned, have a high character, and have a lot of experience in this world.

8106 In Japanese society, what needs to be democratized especially in our surroundings is our family life. There is no reason at all for a father to force his children to do something unreasonable just because he is their father, or for a husband to demand obedience and unilateral service from his wife only because he is her husband. It is also an unreasonable custom that only the eldest son is treated highly, even though his younger brothers and sisters are similarly children. Such a custom hinders the spirit of respecting individuals equally. Parents do not have authority just because they are parents, but because they sincerely take care of their children with parental love, wisdom, and experience as elders, their children will naturally follow them with respect and trust. The marital relationship between husband and wife, and the relationship among brothers and sisters, can be harmoniously and peacefully ordered only when they recognize each other's personalities. The family is a microcosm of society. In this sense, the practice of democracy in social life must begin at home.

8202 There is a saying, 'You will lose fight with a crying child and a land steward,' which means, 'You can't fight City Hall.' A proverb says, 'Reason gives way to force', which means, 'Where might is master, justice is servant.' There are no sayings that better express the feudalistic mindset that has been so deeply ingrained in Japanese people. How can the world be expected to become a right and brighter place if people cannot assert their own beliefs and are forced to cry themselves to sleep in the face of power? Nothing is more unbearable than living in an abject and damp society where people always exchange backbitings against power. Is there any such atmosphere in the home? Do there remain any such feelings in schools? Isn't there such a tendency in government offices and factories? If there are such things, who will dispel the bad atmosphere over them? No one but people in the home, teachers and students in schools, and workers in government offices and factories will be able to carry it through. There is no other way to create a bright and livable society except for everyone to have a self-consciousness as a human being and 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you. (Bible: Matthew 7-12)'

8203 Every human being has the right to live. Each individual has the right to build up a happy life. It is the ideal of human society that as many people as possible shall be as happy as possible.

8204 In feudal society, the happiness of the majority was sacrificed for the happiness of the privileged few. During tyranny, the tyrant's bad mood killed honest retainers and good people as if they had been worms. When dictatorship was rampant, millions of lives were lost in the violent warfare planned by the dictator. Human life is more precious than anything else. Human happiness is as beautiful as a flower garden. All people shall be able to share happiness equally. That is why democracy overthrew the feudal system, overturned despotism, and fought against dictatorships. The people of the advanced democratic nations of the West have a strong will to protect human freedom and individual rights because they are the spiritual treasures that they have fought for with their own blood, sweat, and tears. Japanese people have little experience of fight for their freedom and rights, so they have not yet developed the inclination to respect them truly. However, the fact that they are so precious is the same in the East as in the West. The horrific war memories are still fresh in our minds, and now is the perfect time to reflect on their preciousness truly.

8205 All human beings have the equal right to seek happiness. However, happiness does not fall from the heavens, nor does it well up from beneath the earth. Happiness is built up through the hard works and efforts of human beings. Therefore, all people living in society must work with dignity. People must experience the joy of working for themselves and at the same time appreciate the labor of others who work with sweat on the forehead.

8206 However, there are many contradictions in the human world. Even with the advent of democracy, there are still many cases where the working people cannot live comfortably, and contrarily the money happens to go into the pockets of those who do not work. Since this is primarily a question of democracy in economic life, it will be discussed in the next chapter. However, apart from the problems of economic organization, many of these contradictions in economic life would be resolved if the spirit of respect for human beings as individuals really prevailed. A system in which those who do not work are squeezing out the profits earned by the labor of individuals emerges as the result of a mindset that betrays the fundamental spirit of democracy which is deeply embedded in society. The philosopher Kant said, 'Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means.' (Translator's note: 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals' written by Immanuel Kant in 1785) Those who are used as simple means to the ends of others are slaves. Using others as means for one's own self-interest is a sin that undermines the dignified worth of humanity. Democracy must expel slavery in every sense of the word from social life. The sin of robbing the fruits of other people's sweat 'as if grabbing the millet with wet hands' (Translator's note: 'like making easy gain' because grains stick to wet hands.) must be banished.

8302 What opposes democracy is dictatorship. Hence, dictatorship excludes individualism. Instead, it insists on totalitarianism.

8303 Totalitarianism does not respect the individual but respects the whole society beyond the individual. It considers the race or the nation as a whole the most precious. It advocates that the race or the nation as a whole beyond the individual has its own life and shall develop as itself. If the whole is respected first, it means that the value of the parts should be subordinate to the whole. The individual is a part of the whole society. Therefore, totalitarianism does not recognize the preciousness of the individual. It advocates that the individual must become a sacrifice for the whole. In Japan during the war, the concept of 'selfless devotion' was widely advocated. It meant that one must sacrifice one's personal happiness, or even one's life, for the nation's sake. Japanese people were required to 'compare life to the lightness of feather'. Fascism in Italy adopted the same extreme nationalism. Nazism in Germany elevated the entire race to a supreme and absolutely precious status instead of the nation. In addition, the Soviet Union and other communist nations today seem to have a similar totalitarian mindset.

8304 Admittedly, races and nations are important. However, where can the prosperity of the nation as a whole be achieved without the prosperity of each and every member of the nation? Sacrificing all the people, how can the nation as a whole develop? The prosperity of race or nation should be nothing but the prosperity of all individuals who belong to that race or nation. To deny the dignity of the individual and to teach that society as a whole is absolutely precious is nothing but a trick of dictatorship.

8305 A dictator teaches the people to be willing to make sacrifices for the nation's sake and then forces the people to follow a policy of 'selfless devotion' for the sake of the race or the nation. In the meantime, the dictator plans and prepares the warfare. Nothing requires more sacrifices of the people than warfare. Those who wish to carry out a major act of warfare will convince the people that it is noble to give their lives for their nation. Morality, religion, and education are all used as tools for this policy.

8306 In order to speak ill of democracy, totalitarians say that democracy is individualistic and that the people of a democratic nation have a weak sense of national identity and lack patriotism. Totalitarians also say that because the people of a democratic nation lack patriotism, no matter how many warships and airplanes they have, they are vulnerable to warfare. The result of the recent war has proven that this is not true.

8307 Democrats know the importance of the nation. They know the love that they have for their nation. However, they oppose any attempt to trample the dignified liberties and rights of the people as individuals underfoot in the name of serving the nation. The nation should be respected only when it is a necessary institution for maintaining the order of social life and promoting the happiness of the people. The motherland is worth being loved because it was built by the people working together, helping each other, and uniting as one. What democracy values the most is the perfection of individual lives and the social life that shall be developed through the solidarity and cooperation of all individuals. The nation is nothing but a political institution that exists to protect and promote the improvement and development of such social lives.

8308 Totalitarianism is dangerous inwardly because it undermines the basic rights and lives of the people as individuals and outwardly because it infringes on the interests of other nations. Instead of respecting the sovereignty and security of all nations equally, totalitarianism believes that only 'our nation' is the best and most precious nation in the world. Therefore, it does not matter what happens to other nations, as long as its own nation becomes powerful. The conclusion to be drawn from here is nationalistic selfishness, which will stop at nothing to strengthen one's own nation, and aggression, which threatens foreign nations by force or takes away neighboring nations' territory by force. Totalitarianism can easily lead to war. In order to avoid a repeat of the horrific war, we must not fall into the error of totalitarianism again.

8309 On the contrary, democracy is based on a deep respect for the worth and dignity of the individual. It respects the people of one's own nation and respects the people of other nations equally as human beings. Therefore, people wish for the prosperity of their own nation as well as the prosperity of other nations. What comes out of here is an honest attitude of international cooperation and a noble spirit of world peace. Only through democracy can the world gradually become united. By each nation making the most of its own characteristics and fulfilling its own duties, a single world will gradually be built up, which should bring peace and happiness to all living human beings.

8402 In a democratic society, all people must take responsibility for their own actions. The attitude of trying to do a job and claiming the right to do it when it is done well, but then blaming others when it fails, is the meanest. The improvement of social life cannot be hoped for unless everyone keeps place, displays individuality, and carries out duties responsibly. By making each individual aware of own responsibilities, it is hoped that all social activities will be carried out smoothly.

8403 In baseball, the pitcher throws the ball, and the catcher catches it. If the batter hits the ball, the shortstop quickly picks it up and throws it to second base, where the second baseman immediately transfers it to first base for a perfect double play. Against a long fly ball between the right and center, if the right fielder takes a step closer to the ball, the center fielder stops competing for fine play and gives up the catch to the right fielder. Nine players, each playing individually, bringing unique characteristics to bear, work together in unison as if moving a single limb, working toward a common goal. It would be great if the social life of democracy could be like the play of a first-class baseball team.

8404 However, social life is different from baseball, played by only nine select players. In a village alone, there are thousands of villagers. In a town, twenty to thirty-thousand people are living together. The entire nation has a population of tens of millions. Some of them are bad people. Some of them do whatever they want and cause a lot of trouble for others. Some are thieves and robbers. If those were left as they are, social life would not be possible. Therefore, there are laws to punish crimes, regulate wrongdoers, and protect the legitimate rights of good people. When property rights are violated, the law restores them. If one suffers unjust damage, one can appeal to the court and ask for compensation. Japanese people think of the law as something scary, and the thought of a court case as something detestable, which is because people still have the habit of being scared of power. The people of a democratic nation should not be asleep over the rights. The people should appeal to the law and have their rights upheld. Laws and courts must be made by the people and for the people, and be supporters of the people.

8405 At the same time, it goes without saying that the people should not be so hurried to assert their legal rights that they neglect to perform their obligations. Furthermore, it is a gross misuse of the law to bully the weak, impose outrageous contracts, and make unfair profits.

8406 Long ago, a good citizen named Antonio was in Venice, Italy. He needed to raise money for a close friend, Bassanio, so he borrowed three thousand ducats from Shylock, a loan shark. The debt bond said that if he could not get the money back, he would be cut off a pound of meat. Antonio could not pay back the money, so Shylock brought a suit against him and pressed him, saying he would cut off a pound of meat of Antonio as promised. Portia, Bassanio's wife, appeared in court disguised as a judge. She said, "The debt bond said Shylock would cut off a pound of flesh but did not say that he would take any drop of blood away." So she ruled, "I would see if Shylock could cut off precisely one pound of flesh without spilling a drop of blood, and if he could, I would let him do it. But if Shylock were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, Shylock's 'lands and goods' would be forfeited under Venetian laws." At last Shylock had to say, "I am defeated." It is a story from Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice'. There is no such thing as this ridiculous contract in today's world. However, the property can be a powerful weapon to torment the weak, depending on how it is used. The legal system that unilaterally protects only the interests of property owners needs to be changed by the will of the people.

8407 Property has an indispensable significance for the maintenance of human life. That is why the Constitution guarantees the property right, and the law protects the right to ownership. However, as people's wealth inequality increases, profits of the rich increase, and the poor are put at a disadvantage. If this happens, the ideal of democracy, to share the happiness of all the people, will inevitably be spoiled. In order to eliminate this evil, it is of utmost importance to democratize economic life. Moreover, at the same time, it is necessary to change the way people in society think about property. Those who own the bigger property have the bigger responsibility to utilize their property to promote the world's welfare. The fact that the protection of rights is accompanied by the social responsibility of individuals is clearly expressed in the modern social concept of property rights.

8502 For example, the train driver must always pay attention to traffic signals and work responsibly. However, many train drivers, not because of being afraid of the law's punishment, but because of being aware of their responsibility to take care of many people's lives, are willing to be careful to avoid any faults. Those train drivers are morally responsible for their legal responsibilities. And, for example, it is a moral obligation to return something you borrowed from someone. For example, if you borrow a book from your friend, you will not forget to return it. If someone lends you money when you are in trouble, you will pay it back as soon as possible, even if you are not obligated to do so by law. However, there are some people who avoid payment of accumulated debts on one pretext or another. In such cases, it is necessary to enforce repayment by law. In other words, it becomes necessary to make moral obligations legally enforceable.

8503 In this way, morality and law are closely connected like two wheels of a cart to maintain orderly human community life. However, in daily social life, it is best to maintain proper order through the power of morality without the need to appeal to the law. By the way, in Japan, 'vertical morality' among people has been highly valued since ancient times. The lower respects the upper, and the upper cares for the lower, which is the vertical morality. In particular, loyalty to the lord and filial piety to one's parents have been considered to be the basis of national morality. On the other hand, 'horizontal morality', the discipline of equal relationships among the people, has not developed as much as it could have compared with 'vertical morality'. There were those who thought that if they went to a place where no one knew them, they would be fine with doing immoral things by saying, 'Shame on a journey can be scratched away.' There were those who would do whatever evil they could if they did not have to worry about being punished by the law by saying, 'Escape punishment and no sense of shame. (Translator's note: Confucius's Analects 2.3)' As a result, Japanese people have tended to gain a bad reputation for being unfriendly to strangers, unsociable, and not observing public morality.

8504 This emphasis on 'vertical morality' and the neglect of 'horizontal morality' proves that feudal elements still exist in Japanese society. In a democratic society, first and foremost, everyone must develop a sense of respect for each other as equal human beings. Those who do not recognize the preciousness of individual freedom and are not aware of the dignity of the individual do not care to violate the freedom of others and harm the character of others. Japanese people are especially prone to such faults. They interfere unnecessarily in other people's private lives, and not only do they not think it is wrong, but in some cases, they mistakenly think it is even kind. They tend to bother about others unduly and are inclined to talk badly about others or enjoy a sense of vain superiority by belittling others. If the people are like these, even if the politics and laws are democratized, it is impossible to say that they have social morality suitable for being people of a democratic nation.

8505 As long as being born as a human being, anyone cannot live alone. People are born into the world of helping each other, working for each other, and then can live a life without inconvenience thanks to the work of others. Therefore, each one has to make the society all the people live in as comfortable and pleasant as possible. In order to achieve this, each one must recognize each other's individuality, and each one makes one's freedom not be unjustly constrained by others and at the same time respects the freedom of others. In addition, each one must always speak the truth, be sincere in carrying out the truth, and have the courage to stand firm for the sake of justice. The success or failure of democracy in social life depends on whether many or few there are people with the will and courage to dedicate themselves to the public welfare.

Chapter IX   Democracy in Economic Life

9102 The modern economy was developed by capitalism or the free enterprise system. Simply speaking, capitalism is an economic system in which individuals, companies, cooperatives, and so on privately own the means of production. For example, land, mines, factories, and so on have the power to produce goods. Capitalism is an economic system in which anyone can own such production goods as private property and use them and run various enterprises. So, in the ordinary form of a capitalist economy, on the one hand, there are capitalists or managers who run enterprises with their capital, and on the other hand, there are the laborers who are employed by capitalists or managers. Capitalists use their property as capital to run their business as they see fit. On the other hand, workers are employed in the business and work for wages. The goods produced there are gathered in the market as commodities, and those who want to buy them and have the power to buy them will purchase them freely. This is how the capitalist economy is run.

9103 Therefore, capitalism first developed as a relatively free form of economy that was not controlled by the nation. A free economy is closely related to political liberalism. In the days of feudalism and despotism, the people had no political freedom. In times of no political freedom, there was little economic freedom either. In feudal times, handicraftsmen and peasants were oppressed under the power of their feudal lords. Following that, when the centralized power of the modern nation was established as despotism, the nation strongly interfered in the people's economic life. However, as the people became more politically aware and feudalism and despotism fell, these pressures and interferences in economic life were removed, and economic activities were left to the ideas of individuals and enterprise owners much more freely than before. This is the trend of economic liberalism in the nineteenth century. Modern capitalism is based on this economic liberalism and has developed by long strides on it.

9104 Of course, capitalism as a living socioeconomic system moves with the times. The capitalism of the twentieth century is not the same as that of the nineteenth century. The laissez-faire (non-interference) economy of the nineteenth century had its advantages, but it also had not a few disadvantages. Appropriate controls must correct the shortcomings of such a free economy. In particular, uncontrolled capitalism had certainly caused serious harm. It is none other than the principles of democracy in economic life that can correct these harmful effects and bring capitalist economic activities in line with the public welfare. However, that will be gradually discussed later, and here let us examine first how capitalism based on the nineteenth-century free economy was managed, and how economists theorized it.

9105 The most significant manifestation of economic liberalism in the nineteenth century is 'freedom of enterprise'. Capitalists invest in the business they want to do and think to be advantageous and run it freely. As more and more capitalists invest in the same lucrative business, there will be competition among them. When competition arises, producers will try to make the best products at the lowest possible cost and sell as many as possible. However, if there are too many products and the demand goes under the supply, the goods will not be sold. Then, capitalists try to run their businesses by targeting other goods that are in high demand. In this way, as if guided by an 'invisible hand', demand and production are well regulated. Capitalists produce for profit, and people living in society can get whatever they need as long as they have money. In this way, production will be greatly improved, the happiness of the people will be enhanced, and it will be possible to maintain a high standard of living that will satisfy the basic needs of all the people. Adam Smith, the famous British economist, argued for the importance of freedom of enterprise in economic liberalism in this way and particularly emphasized the benefits of 'free competition'.

9106 Indeed, free competition is the driving force of a capitalist economy. Whether it is done well or not determines the worth and significance of capitalism. So let us take Adam Smith's theory of free economy as a basis and think more concretely about how free competition can work smoothly.

9108 Not only that. If the competition stated above is so fierce that the same goods are produced more than society's demand, the producer with an inferior position will not be able to profit by continuing to produce the same goods. So the producer will stop producing the first goods and start producing something else. Then, the supply and demand for the first product will naturally match, and the use of unnecessary raw materials and labor will be much less. Meanwhile, if looking at the second type of goods, there has emerged a new producer, which means that both old and new producers shall work harder. And those producing inferior goods will lose out in the competition, and only better goods will be welcomed into the market. And as this keeps repeating, the capital, labor, equipment, and raw materials of society are used most effectively and efficiently, and the productive forces are naturally raised to the highest level. That is why theorists who support capitalism emphasize the benefits of free competition.

9109 Furthermore, from the consumer's point of view, economic liberalism means 'freedom of consumption'. People living in a society are free to choose their goods individually. Therefore, all people try to buy what they want most at the lowest price possible. As a result, as high prices would result in poor sales, there is a tendency for the goods' price to be settled at an easy level for consumers to buy. Thus, freedom of consumption will encourage free competition, and free competition will produce enough goods to satisfy consumers' demands.

9110 Such are the benefits of free competition if it is conducted smoothly. The economic liberalism of the nineteenth century, in particular, placed the highest value on the benefits of free competition and believed that the results should be successful. In other words, it was believed that if members of society act in their interests individually, then the interests of all would naturally be harmonized, the economy would prosper, and the happiness of society would be enhanced. In this way, capitalism developed vigorously, with free enterprises as its foundation.

9202 Historical experience has shown that an economy that is run without being exercised any control at all can produce a variety of adverse effects. There are many reasons for this, but the most important reason can be the creation of a 'monopoly'. A monopoly is that two or more producers in competition with each other enter into an agreement or merger in the middle of the competition, instead of continuing the competition to the end, to decide the price, quantity, and market for their own benefit. In other words, to avoid having the producers suffer from the consequences of the competition, they would end the competition at a reasonable point and monopolize the market under their agreement. The more entrepreneurs are willing to stop competing and dominate the market through compromise, the stronger the power of monopoly becomes. Cartels, trusts, and others are main forms of corporate monopoly.

9203 Monopoly is a very powerful force, and if it can be utilized well, it can do much to promote the welfare of society. That is to say, as monopoly prevails, the scale of enterprises generally becomes bigger. The bigger an enterprise is run, the cheaper its production costs will be. Also, good products can be produced in large quantities by adopting superior technology, introducing new inventions, and having independent laboratories. So, mass production by monopolies should be able to supply good products to consumers at low prices. Regardless of whether it is capitalism or socialism, the scale of enterprises tends to be gradually bigger in industry. Furthermore, the benefits of free competition will not be lost when a single corporate entity does not control the production of certain products in one country, even if monopolies prevail. When several large companies compete with each other to provide better products at lower prices, social life can be greatly benefited. That is especially true for basic and thus public interest-related industries such as steel manufacturing and railroads. It is desirable to have a limited number of corporations in these industries.

9204 However, if the monopolist entrepreneurs do not use their power for good as stated above but instead use it for evil, various harmful effects will result. For example, even though mass production has lowered the cost of production, consumers will continuously be forced to buy expensive goods if entrepreneurs use their monopoly position to decide the price of goods based on their inner circle's discussions. In addition, if the lack of competitors makes entrepreneurs neglect to improve their production technologies, they will not be able to improve the quality of their products. Moreover, the monopolist entrepreneurs, if they want to do so, can also use their mighty money power to exclude newly entering competitors by selling goods temporarily at a low discount price. If this were the case, the benefits of free competition must be compelled to be lost through monopolization. Such a phenomenon like this is a serious obstacle to the development of democracy in economic life. Monopolization is an unavoidable tendency and has its advantages. If so, the major issue for economic democratization is to prevent monopoly power from being abused in this way and to ensure that competition is free and fair.

9205 One effective way to eliminate the negative effects of monopoly and ensure free and fair competition is to prohibit or restrict monopoly by law. The threat of monopoly can be prevented largely if the nation orders the dissolution of harmful monopolies or monitors their management practices and prohibits unfair management. Zaibatsus (financial cliques), which had wielded great power in Japan's economy until now, were dismantled was due to their extremely monopolistic nature and the fact that they had become the center of military-economic power. At the same time, new laws prohibiting private monopolies were enacted, which would help to establish a fair trade system.

9302 Thus, capitalism has gradually progressed and improved over time and is developing toward economic democracy without changing the main tenets of capitalism as capitalism. On the other hand, in the advanced capitalist nations of Europe, such as Britain, the free economy came to a standstill towards the end of the nineteenth century. As a result, there was a gradual shift from capitalism to socialism. So, what is meant by socialism?

9303 In a capitalist society, individuals and companies privately own the means of production, and private enterprises run by capitalists become the center of the economy. And, many of the people without capital are employed by these companies. They maintain their livelihood with wages they earn from their labor. In such a case, laborers are free to choose their workplace and are not confined to a certain job based on descent or status as in feudal society. In this sense, economic liberalism includes 'freedom of labor'. Therefore, capitalism has come to be regarded as conforming to the demands of democracy, which also values freedom.

9304 But then, do laborers have the true freedom?

9305 Under capitalism, the cost of living for laborers is covered by the wages they earn from their labor. The term 'laborer' includes farmers and ordinary wage earners, but in this chapter, 'laborer' will mainly indicate laborers working in factories. If these laborers cannot find jobs or lose their jobs, they will quickly find themselves in dire straits, so they look for a place that will provide them with work above all and work there. If they are not hired, they will not be able to make a living, so they have no choice but to accept the terms offered by the management side, even if they have various complaints about the wage. With the development of labor unions, laborers have gradually come to be able to conclude labor agreements on an equal footing with entrepreneurs. But in earlier times, freedom of occupation or freedom of contract was in name only, and freedom in economic life tended to be used mainly to the advantage of capitalists. Thus, although capitalism has helped to raise the standard of living of the people by increasing the productive power, it should be inevitably said that the benefits it has brought have been unilaterally concentrated in the hands of the capitalists.

9306 Of course, capitalism guarantees the freedom of enterprise, so the path to becoming a capitalist is not closed to laborers, as long as they have the opportunity. However, even if you have the opportunity, you cannot become a capitalist without capital. Therefore, under uncontrolled capitalism, a clear distinction ends up being made between those who privately own capital and those who have no choice but to work for it. This will inevitably lead to greater and greater economic inequality. Moreover, since the laboring class constitutes the majority of society, capitalism, when left to its own natural tendencies, would contradict the fundamental spirit of democracy, which seeks to improve the well-being of as many people as possible.

9307 There are two possible ways to correct these defects associated with capitalism.

9308 One is to implement 'social policies' to alleviate the gap between capitalists and laborers, while leaving the capitalist system itself unchanged. Namely, wages and other labor issues should not be left to promises made only between management and laborers, but measures would be taken to ensure that laborers are not placed in an unfairly disadvantageous position, such as setting minimum wage or limiting maximum working hours in advance by the law. However, these alone are not enough. Therefore, it is important to create an organization where laborers can unite and bargain collectively with the management. If a large number of laborers have the means to unite, they can become a very powerful force. So, the position of the laborers will be much more favorable if they can collectively negotiate with the management. Laborers form unions so that they can make efforts to improve their lives and prevent unemployment through the power of the union. In postwar Japan, the new Constitution guaranteed the right of laborers to organize and bargain collectively, and the Labor Union Law and the Labor Relations Adjustment Law were enacted, leading to the rapid development of various labor unions. In addition, with the enactment of the Labor Standards Law and the establishment of the Ministry of Labor, measures to protect the interests of laborers were implemented, and at the same time, the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Insurance Law and the Employment Insurance Law were established, and efforts were being made to eliminate the anxiety that accompanied the lives of laborers. If, on the one hand, these social policies are thoroughly implemented, and, on the other hand, if cooperatives and consumer cooperatives develop, as to be seen later, so that medium and small traders and manufacturers, farmers and consumers can protect their own interests on their own, the goals of democracy in economic life can be achieved without changing the main principles of capitalism.

9309 In contrast, another way to remove the flaws of capitalism is to implement socialism. According to those who advocate this idea, social policies such as the ones just described above will not fundamentally improve the status of workers unless the capitalist principle of private ownership of the means of production is changed. It would be a lukewarm approach and could not easily resolve the conflict between capitalists and laborers. Therefore, socialists argue that the only way to truly realize economic equality is to abolish capitalism, which allows private ownership of the means of production and transfer capital to the ownership of the state or public organizations. And that the conflict between capitalists and laborers should be eliminated, and the productive forces should be increased in the form of public enterprises.

9310 Thus, socialists argue that the most advanced way to equalize economic distribution is to fundamentally change the economic organization of capitalism. However, from capitalism's standpoint, if all production is transferred to the state‐owned enterprises, it is doubtful for the state‐owned enterprises' management to be able to increase production in the same way capitalists did under capitalism. Because the state‐owned enterprises' management will not have such stimulus that capitalists had when they worked hard to pursue profits through free competition. As production declines and the enthusiasm for high utilization of resources and cost reduction decreases, the standard of living of the laboring masses may decline as a whole even though the distribution is equalized. Also, the automatic adjustment of the economy through free competition is not available. So, a socialist economy has no reliable clue to determine what and how much to produce. As a result, much productive power may be wasted. In addition, the socialistic management of enterprises tends to be done not in accordance with actual conditions, as seen in such as the so-called bureaucratic control and state-run enterprises' management. Here is the weakness of this kind of national socialist approach. These are the main points of criticism against socialism from capitalism.

9311 On the other hand, socialist theorists say that there is no such concern and explain as follows.

9312 Under socialism, the stimulus of the pursuit of profit will be lost, as mentioned. But laborers will feel a sense of duty and responsibility to the people and work harder to produce. Socialism does not necessarily mean that all the competition will disappear and production will decline because there are many ways to promote competition within the national production business. Furthermore, in a socialist economy, instead of the autonomous adjustment between supply and demand, which is said to be a characteristic of a capitalist economy, the nation comprehensively plans the entire production and operates the economy rationally based on it. Thus, only what is necessary for people's lives can be produced in the necessary quantities, avoiding waste and overspending. In this respect, the free competition of capitalism is much more wasteful of productive power because it produces more luxury goods than necessities, and the costs of advertising and storage of goods for the competition are much greater. This can only be eliminated by a socialist planned economy.

9313 The debate on whether capitalism is better or socialism should be the way to go is thus widely divided, as stated above. However, when judging this issue, it must be carefully noted that capitalism and socialism are not distinct as two completely incompatible thoughts usually written in books or emerged in discussions away from the actual issue. There are several intermediate forms, with varying degrees of difference between them.

9314 Namely, speaking in a formalistic manner, capitalism is an economic system that operates on the basis of private ownership of the means of production, whereas socialism does not allow for private ownership of the means of production. Suppose private ownership of the means of production is not allowed. However, what extent of productive goods is meant by that? If private ownership of all means of production is forbidden, and all industries are turned into public enterprises, then, of course, which would be complete socialism. However, for example, simply making the land state-owned and making mines and a few other important industries managed by the nation could be considered a sufficiently socialist policy. Even if so, private ownership of other productive goods is still allowed, and therefore, even in the so-called socialist economy, capitalist or near-capitalist production is still taking place. On the contrary, even in a society with an overall capitalist economic system, if the nation imposes controls on some enterprises closely related to the welfare of the people and implements state control over them, it can be said that socialist elements have already been added to the society. Yet, comparing nineteenth-century uncontrolled capitalism with extreme socialism and arguing about which is better or worse does not really help at all.

9315 Therefore, what is important as a practical matter is to consider what kind of policy to adopt and to what extent these two elements should be connected are proper to democratize the nation's economy among these various ways of managing the social economy. For that, one needs to take everything fully into consideration about the economic conditions under which one's society operates and the international environment in which one's nation currently finds itself. There is nothing more useless or dangerous than to make decisions based on empty theories alone, ignoring the practical conditions of reality. Also, in today's complex world, it shall be impossible to rebuild the economy and improve people's lives by ignoring relations with foreign countries.

9316 Under democratic politics, following the principle of majority rule, it is possible to use the advantages of capitalism, or implement socialist policies to a greater or lesser extent, or use a combination of both. Suppose a more concerned party with the interests of free competition becomes the main political force. In that case, it will try to democratize the economy without changing the basic system of capitalism. If a party with a parliamentary majority passes nationalization bills for key industries, it will be that much closer to the socialist line. Therefore, the people must calmly assess the current domestic and international situation in Japan, pay close attention to the movements of each political party, and decide what policies should be supported.

9317 At that moment, however, particular attention should be paid to the attitude of communism, which tries to realize socialism through totalitarian methods. Communism, which first aims to make socialism thorough, is characterized by the fact that it assumes that capitalism is fundamentally evil from the beginning or that it will soon perish with history. Therefore, communists are inclined to run in the undemocratic direction of violent revolution and so-called proletarian dictatorship, instead of being satisfied with adopting policies suitable to the practical circumstances of the moment by means of majority rule. Depending on majority rule, which is the fundamental political principle of democracy, the people can take the advantages of the free enterprise system or can eliminate the negative effects of the free economy, correct its excesses, and realize a high level of economic democracy. Therefore, the people need to be deeply cautious not to fall into the error of totalitarianism, which seeks to enforce the will of the few through violence and dictatorship by being suspicious of this resilient approach to politics.

9402 Even in a capitalist society, there is a need for some degree of a nation's control and interference in the economy of the nation. Of course, under capitalism, the freedom of enterprise must be respected in principle. However, this does not mean that unlimited freedom is promised to it. In order to prevent the harmful effects of the free enterprise system and to protect the general welfare of society, it is sometimes necessary to impose controls on private enterprises. Control imposes restrictions on economic freedom. However, as mentioned before, the freedom that democracy values does not mean that it allows each one to do as one pleases. Therefore, the imposition of controls on the free economy in the public interest does not violate the principles of democracy. The question is for what purpose the control is exercised and to what extent it is administered democratically.

9403 In Japan, economic controls were actively enforced during the war. The purpose of these controls was to increase the production of military supplies for the war by drastically reducing production to meet the needs of the general public. It goes without saying that such controls should no longer be used for this purpose. At present, and in the future, if economic controls are to be implemented, it must be solely to stabilize the people's lives and improve their standard of living. Of these, the two generally recognized as necessary are those for social welfare and economic stimulus.

9404 It has been mentioned before that various social policies are aimed at improving the status of laborers in order to achieve democracy in economic life. Among them, the establishment of minimum standards for labor wages and other labor conditions through nation's laws is a kind of control over economic life, in the sense that it does not leave these matters to free promises between employers and employees. In addition, it is necessary for the nation to generate financial resources through methods such as heavy taxation of those with large property incomes or the issuance of public bonds, and to provide measures such as unemployment allowance, social insurance, and poverty relief assistance to help the disadvantaged. The gap between the rich and the poor becomes greater due to deficiencies in the economic system, then, the need for social policies and the heavier their mission becomes greater. As a result, the nation's control over the economy must also increase.

9405 Another type of control is designed to reduce the fluctuation of the economy, which is often associated with capitalist economies, and to remove unemployment and other hardships especially caused by the recession. In an uncontrolled free economy, there can be a sudden business downturn due to too much production, a decline in demand, or the effects of domestic and international business fluctuations. As a result, there will be a large number of unemployed people at once, and the people's lives will be plunged into a state of distress. The monopoly based on an agreement among entrepreneurs can help prevent the recession to a certain extent by expanding or contracting industries according to the business climate, but such self-governing control is subject to the negative effects of monopoly, as mentioned before. Along with that, when the economy is in a slump, the nation will initiate public works projects to attract the unemployed to work in that field, or lower the interest rates to stimulate industry. The New Deal policies done by the United States of America are a good example of this type of control. In any case, unemployment deprives the people of their right to work and even threatens their right to live, so the nation must always consider countermeasures and make every effort to achieve so-called 'full employment'.

9406 Under capitalism, the other purpose of the nation's control can be thought to be emergency control to get through urgent situations. For example, in severe inflation or destruction of production due to war, it is necessary to apply drastic controls to restore production capacity, stabilize prices, and prevent a crisis in people's lives. That is exactly what is happening in Japan today (in 1948). Even if this restricts the freedom of enterprises, it does not violate the spirit of democracy as long as its purpose is to rebuild the people's lives. If the freedom of enterprises is thought to be so valued that the necessary controls are not exercised, and the people become even more miserable, this would be contrary to the purpose of democracy.

9407 Now that it has become understandable that some degree of control is desirable, how should that control be implemented? How can the control be democratized?

9408 These points are very difficult to deal with. The reason is that if control is left to the autonomy of enterprises' management, the negative effects of monopolistic management mentioned earlier cannot be avoided. Then instead, the only way to control the situation is to make the nation do it, which in turn, however, leads to the negative effects of so-called bureaucratic control. Namely, there is a danger that government officials will implement inflexible control based solely on the law without sufficient knowledge of the actual conditions of the people's lives and the actual problems of industry. In addition, there would be fraud by public officials, which tends to accompany control and illegal undercover transactions that go through the web of control. If these things happen, no matter how appropriate the control system is made, it will never fully achieve its purpose.

9409 There are various ways to get rid of such shortcomings. First: It is necessary to strengthen the supervision and voice of the National Assembly, which is the representative of the people, instead of leaving the control to the government agencies alone. If this is done well, excessive or inadequate control will be eliminated, and control will be implemented according to actual conditions. Second: It is also important to appoint a large number of reputable persons from the private sector and academics to the government agencies so that they can use their experience as the people to control the economy. And thirdly: It would be appropriate to set up an organization to monitor whether or not the nation's control of the affairs is being carried out thoroughly, and to have representatives of the general public, especially consumers, participate in the organization. In this way, it is most important for the upcoming economic control that, while the people understand the necessity of control and the people's eye can see the implementation of the control, to be carried out in a democratic manner.

9410 This also applies to nation-run enterprises that the nation takes into its own hands. Even in capitalist societies, businesses with a strong public interest flavor, such as railroads, telegraphs, and telephones, are often run by nation. As the nation moves closer to socialism, there is a tendency for the steel industry, coal mines, and electric utilities to be transferred to the nation. Since they are some of the most important industries, if they were to be transferred to the nation's monopoly, which would result in the double negative effects of monopolistic management and bureaucratic control, the negative effects would be very great. Therefore, in these cases as well, the organization must be created where people with superior knowledge and representatives of consumers with a strong sense of responsibility can fully express their opinions and monitor the proper management of the nation-run enterprises. The principle of democracy, in which the people participate in politics for their own benefit, must also be applied to this point.

9502 The most effective way to deal with this problem is for medium and small traders and manufacturers of the same type to come together to form a 'cooperative'. And they use the power of this cooperative to make up for their weakness to compete with the capital power of large corporations and at the same time rationalize their businesses.

9503 For example, medium and small manufacturers who are engaged in the same kind of production can form a cooperative to jointly purchase raw materials and sell products. They will make facilities that they could not easily build by individual entities, and the cooperative members use them jointly. When they cannot meet their financial obligations, the cooperative will jointly borrow money from the bank. If they step forward more, they can jointly use the factories owned by the members to conduct intensive production, calculate profits and losses together, and share the profits. In this way, the cooperative would have a great deal of control over its members, which would take away some of the fun of free enterprise, but it would also give them a great deal of competitive power as a whole over large companies. In the past, medium and small traders and manufacturers could not hold up their heads before wholesalers. For finance, purchase of raw materials, supply of products, and sales, they had relied all on wholesalers. So, they had to accept even unfavorable terms. Since now, such a situation would be greatly improved, and the cooperative could promote the healthy development of medium and small traders and manufacturers.

9505 It is not only the commercial and industrial sectors that need the healthy development of cooperatives. In agriculture, which directly supports the lives of the people, it is important to democratize the economy through the organization of cooperatives. Agriculture occupies a very special and important position in the nation's economy. Agriculture is in a position to supply food to all the people. In Japan, rural issues are of particular concern because nearly half of the country's population is rural (in 1948). In addition, the labor force devoted to the industry is supplied mainly from rural areas. Therefore, if the standard of living in the countryside is low, the wages of factory laborers are also affected and cannot be raised beyond a certain level. So, improving the living standards of the peasants will also improve the status of the urban laborers.

9506 One of the biggest problems in rural areas is the relationship between landowners and tenant farmers. It was quite unnatural that a small number of landowners owned large tracts of land and obtained high rents without working, while tenant farmers worked hard and paid a large portion of their harvest as rent in kind, enduring up with poverty. Besides, as the saying goes, 'The magic of ownership turns sand into gold,' if a tenant farmer becomes a landed farmer and cultivates the farmer's own land by oneself and will naturally put more effort into farming than before. Therefore, the root of rural democratization is to turn tenant farmers into landed farmers as much as possible. In order to solve this problem, the agricultural land system was reformed so that the nation purchased the landowners' land and then sold it to previous tenant farmers. It has surely brought about a great change in Japan's farming communities and promised to improve the lives of working farmers. (Translator's note: 'The reform of the agricultural land system allowed the nation to purchase land from the landlords and have it purchased by previous tenant farmers.' This was actually implemented in that way. If the nation 'liberated the landlords' land and gave it to tenant farmers,' it would deviate from the 'guarantee of property rights' in Article 29 of the current Constitution. This is also different from the idea of democracy. So, the nation bought up farmland from the landowners and sold it to tenant farmers. However, since the price was in the process of extreme inflation, the acquisition price was said to be less than the price of 'a pair of rubber boots' for about one hectare, effectively a free acquisition. It led to a series of unconstitutional lawsuits from the landowners' class who had their farmland taken over.)

9507 However, even with the recent farmland reform, tenant farming of less than one hectare (one hundred meters square), and in Hokkaido, less than four hectares, are still allowed, which means that tenant farmers still remain. In order to stabilize the status of these tenant farmers, either they should be more widely converted to landed farmers, or they should be given clearer rights to their tenant farmings, and their tenant fees should be reduced. In particular, tenant rents in Japan have always been in the form of payment in kind and at a very high rate. It was a remnant of the tradition of peasants paying annual tribute to their feudal lords and was a major factor in the feudal nature of farming villages. With the recent farmland reform, this was changed to the payment by money, and its rate was substantially lowered.

9508 In this way, the farmland land system is being greatly reformed, but this alone will not help the fundamental weaknesses of Japanese agriculture. The reason for this is that in Japan, the average area of cultivation per household has been about one hectare, and the most common area is between 50 ares and one hectare. With such a small scale of farming, the development of agricultural productivity is inevitably limited, even if tenant farmers become landed farmers, and it is difficult to expect stable farming management. Therefore, in order to improve the status of these small independent farmers, it is necessary to develop 'agricultural cooperatives'.

9509 Agricultural cooperatives are self-sustaining organizations of working farmers. Therefore, farmers manage their farming independently but will work all together to purchase seeds, fertilizers, and farming tools, to make capital available, and to market agricultural products. When farmers are isolated in farming business, their profits tend to be exploited by urban industry, commerce, and finance. Farmers are often forced to buy expensive industrial products, suffer from a bargain with merchants for their products, and agonized by high-interest debts. Moreover, with the meager profits they generate from their small businesses, it is hard to imagine how they can fully utilize the machinery and equipment. This is the work of cooperatives. Not only are cooperatives democratic organizations in their own right, but they also play a vital role in stabilizing the status and livelihood of farmers.

9510 But, after all, the great worry of Japan's farming villages is that the land is too small and the population too large. If the population continues to overflow into the countryside as it has in the past, there is a risk that arable land will be further subdivided, and the rent for tenant farming will continue to rise as high as before. Therefore, to make the lives of the farmers truly better, the overabundance of the population in the countryside must be somehow managed. This would also require the development of industry and mining to absorb the rural population in that direction. At the same time, however, rural industries that process agricultural products need to be developed and use the surplus population. It is a difficult task, but every effort should be made to implement it to develop a sound agricultural economy.

9602 In considering the interests of consumers, the most important thing is to allow as much 'freedom of consumption' as possible. As a rule, people themselves know best what they need most and what they want to buy first. Since each person has different tastes and needs in life, it should be avoided to control them as little as possible uniformly. Of course, when supplies are scarce, quotas or restrictions on consumption are unavoidable, but the spirit of freedom of consumption should still be kept alive as much as possible.

9603 The best way to allow freedom of consumption is to leave sales to the free competition of the stores and let the people buy whatever they want from whatever store they want. However, in a system where the merchant stands between the producer and the consumer and makes a large profit in the middle, the interests of the consumer are likely to be compromised. In this case, it is advisable to develop consumer cooperatives to directly protect the interests of consumers. Since consumer cooperatives are non-profit organizations, the middle margin is minimal. In addition, as consumer cooperatives develop, merchants will try to compete with them by saving costs and offering products as cheaply as possible, thus increasing the benefits to consumers. Therefore, it is quite fine to have both stores and consumer cooperatives side by side, and there is no need to limit this to one or the other.

9604 If consumer cooperatives develop from a small local unit to a regional or nationwide federation, they can become a very powerful force. In Britain, the United States of America, Sweden, and other countries, consumer cooperatives have grown to the point where they own large factories and run their steamships to transport their products. It will take a lot of work to grow to that level, but the development of democratic consumer cooperatives will greatly help to brighten people's consumer life.

9605 The functions of a consumer cooperative are not limited to the joint purchase of daily necessities. With the backing of a large federation, they could set up barbershops, bathhouses, day nurseries, hospitals, and even run communal kitchens. Moreover, if consumer cooperatives develop, it will be able to select consumer representatives for the various meetings from members of consumer cooperatives. Since they are representatives based on a strong organization, they are very suitable for reflecting the intentions of consumers, and they will naturally make the opinions of consumers more significant, which also has a significance that cannot be underestimated for the improvement of the economic life of the people in the future. It is the important meaning of consumer cooperatives that protects the interests of consumers by solving the problems that cannot be solved by consumers individually through the power of cooperation and by advocating its necessity through the power of unity.

9606 However, what sustains consumer life is fundamentally production. As long as production does not improve, no matter how fully developed the organization of consumer cooperatives may be, there will be no hope for improvement in consumer life. So, to what extent on earth will Japan's production develop? Will it be able to provide jobs to all the people and sustain the lives of all eighty million people in Japan? Whether or not Japan's economy can be fully democratized will ultimately depend on this. Democracy in economic life cannot be realized if the standard of living of the people is getting low due to lack of production, and if unemployment is everywhere. On the contrary, the economic slump and turmoil will eventually jeopardize political democracy and make it difficult for Japan to become a democratic nation. What will be the prospects for the indispensable Japanese economy? Whoever thinks about it, the future of the Japanese economy can never be reassured.

9607 First: In Japan today, all the population is concentrated in four small islands, and overpopulation is becoming more acute. Second: Due to the destruction of domestic facilities and the decline in industrial technology, the recovery of production has not been easy. In addition, rebuilding an economic framework that has been damaged by war destruction, compensation, and inflation is not an easy task. Third: Although the status of laborers will improve and the lives of farmers will be getting better, it is not so easy to say whether these will mean an immediate improvement in the lives of the people. This is because Japan's economy will have to be supported by trade with foreign countries more than ever before. In this case, it will be much more difficult than before to export our goods in competition with foreign countries. The higher the wages of the workers, the higher the cost of production, and the more difficult it will be to compete with products from Europe and the United States of America. In addition, it must be anticipated that Japan's sales channels will be limited, as the Oriental countries, which has been important exporters of Japanese products, will gradually become more industrialized. In this way, if exports do not do well, it becomes difficult to import raw materials from abroad, which will inevitably put our resource-poor industries in an increasingly difficult position. In view of these, it will not be easy for the eighty million Japanese to be able to work and live. However, there is no other way to do our best to overcome this difficulty with the kind assistance of the Allied nations. To do so, as the first step, it is necessary to restore productive capacity and stabilize economic life through the proper application of economic controls. And then, the development of peaceful industry and the improvement of trade must be pursued by putting science to advanced practical use and by utilizing the fine technology unique to the Japanese people. Furthermore, in order to solve the problem of overpopulation and the difficulty of making a living, the issues of raising the marriage age and birth control should be earnestly taken into consideration. The Constitution of Japan stipulates in Article 25, 'All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living.' How the spirit of this constitutional requirement can be realized and to what level the so-called minimum standard of living can be raised will solely depend on the future efforts of the Japanese people. Until the standard of living can improve, all Japanese people will have to live in hardship. It must be natural for the people of a defeated nation to endure it. If economic life does not get any easier against the expectation, it must be said that economic democracy will not be easy to achieve. However, adversely again, that is precisely why it is important to strongly advocate democracy in economic life and make efforts to realize it.

Chapter X   Democracy and Labor Unions

10102 In short, in an economic society where capital can wield its power almost without limit, laborers are generally employed in factories and other places according to terms set by the capitalist sides. Under these circumstances, it is unavoidable that a large part of the production value obtained by labor will be absorbed into the hands of the capitalists. Of course, even in such a society, labor terms are freely determined by the contract between employer and laborer under the law. However, suppose the capitalists can come up with terms and conditions that are convenient only for them, while the laborers accept them out of necessity to earn a living. In that case, the contract between them can never be the truly free one. In addition, it is against the principle of democracy to leave such a situation.

10103 This is because the fundamental spirit of democracy is respect for human beings. No matter who they are, all human beings have the right to enjoy the welfare of life. If so, it would be a serious matter if those who are working hard would lack the food, clothing, and shelter they need to live as human beings. Therefore, all human beings should have the right to work for themselves and their families and should be able to demand equally that their labor earn enough to support their families. That is one of the fundamental human rights that are equally guaranteed for all the people of the nation. It shall be said to be only natural that democracy that gives weight to fundamental human rights above all else should strive to eliminate the various evils and irrationalities of economic life.

10104 These are, in the end, the problems of democracy in economic life as explained in the previous chapter, but especially when considered from the perspective of improving the status of laborers, they become the so-called labor problems. There are various ways to deal with labor problems, but the way to resolve them fundamentally must be to remove unfairly disadvantageous conditions for laborers. Labor unions, which are formed by the unity of laborers, are the organizations that have the most important meanings in terms of such demands.

10105 In today's industrial organizations, laborers are spread out over many factories and workplaces. And if there is no labor union, even those who work in the same workplace are hired individually by the corporate owner and have to negotiate wages and other labor conditions in an isolated position. They have no way of knowing specifically how much value the labor they provide, where it is most needed, or what a fair wage is about. Even if they are told of the dismissal for the company's reasons, there is no way for them to protest individually, and even if they did, it would not be taken seriously. If they lose their job, they will be in trouble for the next day's bread. So they have to get another job wherever and with whatever terms. So, being in such an isolated position can be said to be the most disadvantageous for laborers.

10106 In addition, as the scale of industry increases, the division of labor becomes more and more detailed. Laborers in a single place are assigned only one simple, stereotyped work, such as hammering rivets or oiling machines, and they repeat it throughout the year. When it becomes so, there is little room to devise a new way by using the head, and humans are left to work like machines. And then, the creativity of the mind is gradually worn away because there is no opportunity to utilize it. Here is the point where today's factory laborers differ from the artisans of the handicraft era. The more human beings work like machines, the more they crave entertainment, comfort, and cultural education. However, if laborers spend most of the day working in a factory, earning low wages, and then go home getting so tired that they have no choice but to sleep, they have little chance of fulfilling these needs. When laborers are in an isolated position, it never occurs to them to take measures to improve their education with their own limited power from the beginning.

10107 However, such disadvantageous conditions can be at least partly overcome by the group's power if many laborers are united. And, the larger the group becomes, the greater the power of unity it will show. Then, laborers who were dispersed in different workplaces and were in an isolated position gradually came to feel the disadvantages of being dispersed and isolated and have begun to make efforts to unite with each other to establish proper labor conditions. As large corporations developed and their economic power grew, labor unions also began to grow from small ones to form powerful local and nation-wide organizations. The correction of labor conditions and the improvement of the living environment of laborers are largely expected to the activities of such labor union organizations. At the same time, as a democratic nation's system, the recognition of the right of laborers to organize and the encouragement of the development of labor unions by law have been major advances in the direction of economic democratization.

10202 If labor unions, voluntary organizations of the laboring masses, do not exist or are forbidden to exist, the principles of modern democracy could not be fully realized practically, even if they were recognized in the form of laws and established as institutions. Therefore, labor unions embody the principles of democracy in modern industrial organizations. They are an indispensable condition for the development of democracy, not as a simple legal system but as a living principle that moves and lives.

10203 Therefore, the first duty of labor unions is to create proper labor conditions. However, as to simply improving the labor conditions, even a self-righteous bureaucrat or a 'benevolent' dictator can do it. For example, Hitler once tried to lure laborers into forming an organization called the 'Kraft durch Freude (KdF) - Strength through Joy' in order to make the laboring masses feel happy. However, the improvement of labor conditions granted in this way is incorrect. The reason for this is that the autonomy of laborers is ignored. During the feudal era, the principle of ruling people was, 'Let people follow. Don't let them know.' In contrast, the ideal of modern labor unions is for the laboring masses to voluntarily realize the correction of labor conditions through the power of their own organizations. The great mission of labor unions is to develop economic democracy not through orders from 'above', but through organization and the rising power from 'below'.

10204 Careful and deep thinking about this view point concludes, 'Democratic politics is politics for the people.' However, it does not mean that, if it's 'politics for the people', it can be conducted in whichever way. It is not democracy if the people's happiness is promoted by orders 'from above'. True democracy is one in which politics is conducted with the people's efforts, by the people themselves, and for the people. In the same way, the real way of labor unions is to improve the conditions of laboring people not by the power of politically ambitious people or bosses hiding behind the laborers, but by the power of the laborers themselves and by the unity of the laboring masses themselves. Through such voluntary union activities, laborers can educate themselves socially and politically. In this sense, labor unions are a big school of democracy with autonomous organizations.

10205 Therefore, the mission of labor unions is not only limited to the economic purpose of demanding higher wages, shorter working hours, and other improvements in labor conditions. Labor unions also have other important social and cultural missions.

10206 As mentioned before, modern laborers in large factories do only stereotyped works, which not only makes it difficult for them to develop their knowledge in an amicable way, but also may cause them to become mentally disabled. This is almost inescapable in the form of large corporations, whether capitalist or socialist, which require an extreme division of labor. Against it, preventing the erosion of laborers' intelligence and enriching their spiritual lives are extremely urgent issues from protecting fundamental human rights. It is not enough for human beings to eat only food to survive. All people have equal rights in obtaining mental food. The economic organization centered on large corporations may hinder the spiritual growth of laborers, as stated before. So, it must be said that labor unions are very important to enable laborers, through their power of voluntary association, to acquire culture and absorb the further new culture that they cannot obtain individually. It is a very important mission of labor unions.

10302 In order to achieve 'industrial peace', first of all, the management must correctly understand the real position of laborers. At the same time, laborers must also fairly recognize the real problems of corporate management.

10303 In a capitalist economy, private enterprises are made for profit at the same time as a rule, even if they have any other purpose. However, suppose capitalists or managers ignore the position of laborers and try to make them work as much and at low wages as possible with the sole purpose of profit. In that case, laborers will have to use their power of unity as a weapon of warfare. If this happens, the management side will increasingly view the laborers' movement with hostility. However, since it is primarily through the power of labor that factories operate, production takes place, and profits are made, it is natural and right to give importance to the laborers' voice. If the management side has a democratic spirit of respecting the fundamental human rights of laborers and their legitimate demands, there will be no reason why various problems cannot be resolved through peaceful discussions. It will inevitably pave the way to 'industrial peace'.

10304 Secondly, in order to achieve the goal of 'industrial peace', the management side and workers need to be aware that they stand on common ground by themselves.

10305 As seen before, the management and laborers are in different positions. However, in order to run the business, it is important to have the cooperation of both parties, and not just one party's power can carry out the work. Therefore, the management and laborers must avoid emotional estrangement and political confrontation, and work together for the common good. If they can find a common interest in eliminating the negative effects of corporate management and improving the business itself, there will be no need for the management and laborers to engage in a mutually unpleasant struggle. In particular, all production is not carried out for the benefit of the producer alone, but has an indispensable meaning in order to enrich the lives of the entire people and promote its welfare. If this purpose is considered as the main objective, it is quite obvious how important it is to find a point of agreement between the two sides.

10306 If, in this way, the management side and laborers understand each other's position well, work together to improve the business through cooperation and responsibility, and work hard at their respective jobs, the performance of the business will probably improve and profits will increase. In such a case, if the management side values the merits of laborers properly, then the profits will be fairly distributed to laborers by raising the wages. This does not only mean that the idea of capitalism has been socialized. If business owners have far-reaching ideas, they must know that doing so is the key to successful business. The policy of paying higher salaries and getting higher profits will not only develop the enterprise, but also bring prosperity to all people involved in the enterprise. It can be argued that the best way to realize the ideal of economic democracy under capitalism lies here.

10307 On the other hand, the adoption of socialist management methods meets the demands of socialism in that it treats managers and laborers alike. However, from the standpoint of making the best use of the advantages of capitalism, such an organization may diminish the strong driving force of each individual to work hard in better production. Them, if the strength of capitalism, which is that the more one works, the more profit one makes, can be demonstrated, and if laborers can also share in the harvest of their hard work in the form of higher wages, they will be able to improve production as well as manage their business in a way that is consistent with social justice. In this way, we will be able to improve production and management in a socially just manner. Only then will there be amicable cooperation between management and workers, and industrial peace can be expected to be realized.

10402 Until the development of labor unions, labor conditions were usually determined by the unilateral will of the management. On the contrary, now with the development of labor unions, working wages, working hours, holidays, and other matters are decided through collective bargaining between the management and union representatives. In the past, individual laborers had to negotiate with their employers separately and generally had to abide by the terms set by the employer. However, according to collective bargaining, the main content of labor clauses can be reasonably determined in view of the general standard. Therefore, the right of workers to unite and the right to bargain collectively are indispensable preconditions for realizing the purpose of labor unions. For this reason, Japan's new Constitution emphasizes these two rights and guarantees them in a dignified manner.

10403 In order for proper labor conditions to be determined through collective bargaining, the management must be deeply aware that improving the living standards of labor union members is absolutely necessary for the sound operation of the business. The labor union side must also fully understand that without rationalization of management and promotion of production, the business itself will fall into financial difficulties, and proper labor conditions and the prosperity of both sides will end up as simple words.

10404 If such mutual understanding facilitates collective bargaining smoothly, the result will be a 'collective agreement' between the management and laborers. In the case of handicrafts and small enterprises, it is extremely difficult to determine a general standard for labor conditions because of the different types and nature of labor. On the contrary, with the development of large-scale management, the living environment of laborers will become more standardized gradually, and it will be possible to determine the appropriate level of labor conditions in general from a broad perspective. In particular, if the minimum standards for labor are uniformly established in the nation's legislation, it will be even clearer where the goal of collective bargaining should be. The Labor Standards Law was enacted (Translator's note: in April 1947) for the purpose of determining the minimum standards for labor conditions and guaranteeing a humane life for laborers.

10405 In the next, it is advisable that labor agreement which will be negotiated by collective bargaining should set the labor conditions for a period of about one year. By doing so, labor conditions will be stable, at least for the time being, and laborers can plan their lives based on that. Also, as a manager, it will be easier to make calculations for management because it will be clear how much labor costs will be incurred. This is extremely important for both sides. The significance of collective bargaining done between labor union and the management is that it is useful for the rationalization of management in this aspect as well.

10406 However, it is not always possible to predict that the outcome of collective bargaining will always be an amicable agreement. Suppose the labor union side submits reasonable demands that are in line with the actual situation of the business, and the management makes a sincere effort to realize them. In that case, it is good, but if not so, the negotiations get closer to breaking down. However, suppose the possibility of a breakdown in negotiations becomes too great. In that case, the parties must try to avoid a conflict that would gain nothing on both sides employing mediation or arbitration. Even so, if no breakthrough is found, aside from government workers, ordinary laborers have the right to appeal to a 'strike' as a last resort.

10407 The strike is a way to protect the legitimate demands of workers. However, the strike should not be abused as a weapon simply in a struggle, and strike action for strike's sake should be avoided to the utmost. Needless to say, economic and social losses caused by a strike are immeasurably greater. Today, one country's industry is an organic unity of various fields that are interconnected with each other. Therefore, if production stops in one region or one industry, it could paralyze the functioning of the nation's economy as a whole. There will be a case that one labor union's imprudent decision to go into strike can endanger the economic life of the entire people. So, in exercising the right to strike, labor union leaders must act wisely and prudently to avoid even the slightest abuse of that right. This needs to be emphasized especially for public utility works such as railroads and coal mines.

10408 To avoid strike action as much as possible, as mentioned before, it is essential that the management respect the legitimate demands of the labor unions and that the labor unions submit demands that are not unreasonable in light of the actual conditions of the nation's economy and the nature of the management. However, if both parties are adamant about their claims and refuse to make any concessions, it is not easy to find a way to compromise. So, it is inevitably necessary to coordinate labor disputes from an impartial and objective standpoint. Namely, the Labor Relations Commission, composed of equal numbers of persons representing employers, persons representing laborers, and persons representing the public interest who are not affiliated with either side, is established to prevent the occurrence of disputes and to mediate or arbitrate if one does occur.

10409 Mediation and arbitration are two words that sound almost identical, but they have very different meanings as systems. Mediation is the process of examining the contents of a dispute, listening to the arguments of both sides, and coming up with a compromise between the management side and the labor union side to bring about an amicable settlement.

10410 If mediation is unlikely to resolve the dispute, the parties may request for arbitration to resolve it. In arbitration, the parties must submit to the decision of the arbitrator, which is different from mediation. The Labor Relations Commission also mediates and arbitrate disputes, but the parties can also ask a third party to mediate or arbitrate the dispute due to consultation between the parties. The procedures for mediation and arbitration are set forth in a law called the 'Labor Relations Adjustment Law'. This law, along with the Labor Union Law (Translator's note: It was enacted in December 1945 and fully revised in 1949), which provides for labor unions, and the Labor Standards Law, which clarifies the minimum standards for labor conditions, aims to resolve labor problems and to maintain industrial peace and promote economic prosperity.

10411 What is stated above are common ways to resolve labor disputes, but it is important to note that there are important limitations to this. The first is to restrict labor disputes in public services. Namely, when there is a labor dispute over a public service such as transportation or electric power, the dispute must be referred to the Labor Relations Commission for mediation as required by law. No strike shall be permitted until thirty days have elapsed from the date of the decision to submit the matter to arbitration. Since public services are most directly related to the welfare of the people, it is only natural that the law prohibits such unannounced proceedings of the dispute.

10412 The next is to restrict the labor union movement of government workers. Nation's public officials are in a position to have a deeper relationship with the public interest than general public service employees. So, because of the heavy responsibility they bear, measures are taken to restrict or prohibit the right of government workers to negotiate with their organizations or to take strike action so as not to endanger the public welfare of the people. In particular, police officers and firefighters are forbidden to form or even join labor unions.

10503 If the members are motivated to build a good labor union by themselves, each of their activities will be a training and education for them. On the contrary, if the union members merely sign their names to the union list and leave its management to others, then a few people in the union will be able to seize the real power and rule autocratically based on their own ideas. It is the source of allowing the bosses to hide and act in the name of democracy.

10504 Due to the long tradition of feudalism, Japanese people have a tendency to follow the strong opinions of others without saying what they should say. It is like, 'The spirit you do not approach will not curse you. (Let sleeping dogs lie.).' When such a tendency appears in a labor union, a few bosses will eventually occupy the union. What drives a labor union must be the uplifting will of the entire members. All the members must remember that it is the great responsibility of all the members to ensure that their labor union is not simply a tool of the bosses or a weapon of struggle but an organization that fulfills its original economic and spiritual mission.

10505 In the three years since the end of the war, the number of labor unions in Japan has grown to over twenty-eight thousand, with the membership of over six million. From the standpoint of sheer numbers, this is an astonishing development. However, the situation is still far from satisfactory in terms of quality. (Translator's note: At the time of the defeat of the war, the number of members in the eight-hundred fifty-five unions was six hundred thousand, but in reality, they were inactive.)

10506 The reason why the union movement in Japan has made such rapid progress even only superficially is that the nation which was responsible for the overall and thorough democratization of Japanese people's life, abolished all laws and regulations that had hindered the establishment and growth of labor unions, and at the same time, provided various assistance to labor unions and asked the management to cooperate with them. This, of course, was never done to turn labor unions into 'company-controlled unions'. However, growth encouraged from the outside tends to show only superficial growth and a numerical increase, and is not accompanied by the true awareness of the members. For Japanese laborers to truly own the organizations that have developed under such circumstances, it is necessary above all for each of them to acquire firmly the democratic spirit of the union movement.

10602 Nevertheless, since labor unions are not political parties, there must naturally be certain limits to their political activities. This must be reminded at all times. Namely, a political party has a set of political principles. Those who sympathize with those principles join the party, and if they are dissatisfied with the way the party is doing, they can leave it and join another party. Therefore, in the case of a political party, it is possible to demand that party members act under the party's platform. On the contrary, a labor union is a voluntary association of people who share a common interest in improving labor conditions and the lives of laborers. So, it should be up to members to decide individually what political principles they sympathize with and which political party they support. However, suppose the political awareness of union members is insufficient. In that case, it tends to be easy for a few people with a biased political ideology to take control of the union, exercise dictatorial power, and use the union's unity to achieve their arbitrary political goals. Suppose a labor union is allowed to be dominated dictatorially by such a few people or used as a tool of a political party. In that case, it is totally contrary to the purpose of the union's origin, and the members themselves should always be on high alert against such tendencies.

10604 Namely, the mission of labor unions is to protect the fundamental human rights of the working masses, obtain appropriate labor conditions, and improve the spiritual and cultural level of working people. So, unions should demand that the National Assembly enact laws that meet these objectives and strive to block any legislation interfering with these objectives. In addition, even if laws are enacted to protect the position of laborers, the government must not lack the enthusiasm to apply the spirit of those laws in its administration. In this sense, unions must keep in touch with the government and encourage it to administer the labor administration properly. In this way, reflecting the voices of the working masses in the nation's politics through the unions' activities will be a major force in promoting the realization of economic democracy.

10605 As mentioned before, a labor union is a school of democracy with an autonomous organization. But, even if it is a school, there are no special teachers there to teach democracy. And, even if there were teachers, one can never acquire the spirit of democracy simply by being taught by teachers through words. Democracy can only be truly the people's when the people build it with their own strength, operate it themselves, and experience how much it can improve the lives of all the people. In this sense, in a labor union, every member must be a student as well as a teacher. If the teacher is bad, the students will be bad. The spirit of democracy, which should be based on peaceful cooperation, will be destroyed if union members see unions as a simple means of struggle. If many union members forget that they themselves are teachers and are dragged around by a few bosses in a passive position, people will learn dictatorship politics instead of democracy. Let labor unions become organizations for laborers themselves created by laborers' own power and. The democratization of Japan's society, economy, and politics will rise by labor unions and surely flourish together with them.

Chapter XI   Democracy and Dictatorship

11102 The principle of democracy, which respects all human beings as individuals and therefore seeks to guarantee the freedom and equality of all individuals, is the same everywhere and will always be the same. However, democracy is the product of a long history of development, and its specific forms have changed over time and will continue to develop in the future as well. At the same time, the scope of its application is becoming wider and wider. As a result, today, three aspects of democracy are distinguished and considered. Democracy in politics, democracy in social life, and democracy in economic life are these three.

11103 The first is democracy in politics. It is the most basic form among these three aspects. Therefore, it was also the first to be recognized in history and has been very strongly advocated from the beginning.

11104 The idea that all human beings are born free and equal has its origins as thoughts already in ancient times, but since the beginning of the modern era, it has gradually become more and more clearly recognized politically, and people have made every effort to achieve political freedom and equality. The results of these efforts were steadily materialized after two major events occurred at the end of the eighteenth century: the independence of the United States of America and the French Revolution. The purpose of truly democratic politics is to improve public welfare and to provide all people with equal opportunities and conditions for the pursuit of happiness. This kind of 'politics for the people' can only be realized if the people themselves determine the basic political policy and if as many people as possible participate in the election of their own representatives. When there is a conflict of opinions among the people or their representatives, majority rule should be used to decide which opinion should be adopted. This is the basic policy of political democracy, and the various institutional forms of democratic politics are merely different ways of realizing this basic idea.

11105 The second thing is democracy in social life, which has developed along with political democracy.

11106 It denies the existence of privileges based on the differences status or race among people living in the same society, and calls for the abolition of feudalism in every sense of the word. A social system in which those born into the noble or the wealthy families are naturally accorded a higher status than the general population, or in which there is discriminatory treatment on the basis of race or faith, is contrary to the principles of human freedom and equality. Democracy in social life not only rejects such status discrimination but also rejects the notion that women should be subordinate to men because they are women. And it expels the system of the family in which husbands have privileges over their wives, parents, especially fathers, enforce obedience to their children, and the eldest sons only receive special treatment. Of course, in social life, it is only natural that people with superior abilities and deep experience should be promoted to leadership positions on the recommendation of the surrounding people. But, when it comes to developing each person's abilities and individuality, it is nothing less than the position of democracy in social life that equal opportunities should be provided to all human beings regardless of race, gender, faith, or age.

11107 The third is democracy in economic life, which is an important issue that has emerged after democracy in politics and democracy in social life.

11108 Democracy aims for a society where all people can seek and build happiness. In this case, happiness does not mean simple 'material' happiness. However, if many people are suffering from a situation where they lack food, clothing, and shelter, they will not be able to seek 'spiritual' happiness. So it is only natural from the beginning that democracy should seek to improve the economic life of all the people. In the beginning, however, it was thought that the most appropriate way to achieve this goal was to adopt a laissez-faire policy, avoiding political interference in economic activities as possible. As a result, contrarily, the monopoly of capital was gradually established. Then, the disparity in wealth between the capitalists and the working masses became larger and larger. Economic democracy seeks to mitigate this divide by providing equal economic opportunity for all the people. Thus, among the three aspects of democracy, economic democracy is the one that is most acute today and the one that has yet to be fully resolved.

11109 However, Economic democracy cannot be achieved without relations with other aspects. As long as there is an attitude of respect among the poor for the rich, saying things like, 'A person of high rank', and the rich also take this attitude for granted and force the poor to work for hours at low wages under unfavorable labor conditions, the economic inequality will not be corrected. What should be honored is human beings and their labor to build a human life, not their property. If a great industrialist deserves respect in a capitalist society, it is because of his outstanding managerial talent, his devotion to his business, and his efforts to serve the public good, not because he is a millionaire. In order that equal opportunity in economic life can be realized, the notion of measuring a person's worth by wealth must be first broken down. In this sense, economic democracy must be linked to democracy in social life.

11110 But the most important condition for the realization of economic democracy is political democracy. It is because if only those with property have the right to vote and choose representatives who will protect their interests only, the working masses will fall into an increasingly disadvantageous position. And, even if universal suffrage with gender equality is held, the evils of money politics will not be reversed if the voters are driven by propaganda made with the power of money or if financial cliques buy up political parties. Therefore, unless all the people understand the purpose of democratic politics, unless all the electorates become 'awakened voters' and elect worthy representatives, and unless those representatives sincerely consider the welfare of the entire people and conduct appropriate politics, an economic life that truly meets the demands of democracy cannot be built. Thus, the fundamental solution to the problem of economic democracy must wait for the thorough implementation of political democracy as well.

11111 Moreover, how to realize economic democracy is the most controversial issue where opinions are divided. Which is better to choose, capitalism or socialism? In what way and to what extent should policies be implemented to suppress the monopoly of capital? What measures can be taken to guarantee the right to work and eliminate unemployment? It is said that all the people must work, but what should be done for those eating without working? Should the obligation to work be the moral responsibility of each individual, or should law enforce it? There are various other issues besides mentioned above. Each of them will inevitably lead to a versatile and sometimes fierce conflict of opinions.

11112 In such cases, democratic politics adopts the opinion of the 'majority'. For example, in a representative democracy, the party with a majority in the National Assembly plays the largest role in legislating on economic matters, and the government, supported by a majority of the members of the National Assembly, implements economic policies based on the policies set by the majority vote of the National Assembly. Therefore, the goal of political democracy is just 'politics for the people', and the public welfare of the people, and the way to choose the way to reach this goal is by majority rule. Therefore, political democracy cannot be achieved by denying the principle of majority rule. In other words, it is not democracy at all to conduct politics that ignores the opinions of the majority, no matter how much the banner of 'politics for the people' is raised.

11202 Contrarily, it should also be memorized that democracy has never been simply supported and praised throughout history but rather has been developed under all kinds of criticism.

11203 When the democratic reform in Britain, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution occurred in succession, democracy met with hatred and outrageous condemnation from those who had been enjoying the previous privilege. Later on, criticism against democracy was made by various thinkers and critics. In particular, when the political situation in Europe after the First World War turned sour, 'crisis of democracy' became almost a popular phrase. This led to fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, and those two began to do an all-out assault on democracy.

11204 What opponents against democracy condemn most strongly is the principle of majority rule. In a democracy, when there are conflicting opinions about which is the most valid political policy and how to promote the happiness of the entire people, the opinion supported by the majority is adopted and implemented. In addition, the right to express opinions and vote on political issues will be expanded as much as possible so that as many people as possible can participate in politics. However, according to the opponents against democracy, the result based on majority rule would be a political policy influenced by the opinions of an ignorant mass of people without foresight. Driven by the herd mentality and obsessed only with immediate interests, the masses, simply because of their sheer numbers, settle important political issues willfully. In contrast, the thoughts of those with superior insight must be buried because they are few. "It is 'majoritarianism' or 'mobocracy' (politics by an ignorant crowd)." By saying so, those who oppose democracy try to knock down democracy triumphantly.

11205 What is generated from such condemnations against democracy is dictatorship. The position that condemns democratic politics based on majority rule as mobocracy advocates the 'Führerprinzip (or leader principle)' as the basis of politics that should replace it. According to the leader principle as asserted by authoritarians, "Any policy that is contrary to the interests of the whole, no matter how many people blindly agree with it, must be rejected." Also, "If the government tries to implement drastic policies, but the opposition party is trying to hinder it by asking for numbers, the nation will not be able to get through the crisis of politics." And, "Therefore, instead of such majority rule, the best thing to do is to promote the most capable, wisest, and most decisive person, give absolute political power to that 'leader', and let the people follow this leader's orders in unison." Thus, dictatorship shuts down the people's criticism against politics, forbids political party conflicts, denies parliamentary politics, and leaves everything to the dictator who holds absolute power. And that dictator pursues his policy with full drive.

11206 Another object of condemnation that dictatorship makes against democracy is 'individualism'. Democracy respects all human beings as individuals equally and guarantees each person's freedom insofar as it does not infringe on the freedom of others. However, authoritarians would say that if all the people are allowed to claim their own freedom and seek their own interests individually, the unity of society as a whole will be disturbed, and the interests of the nation and its race will be neglected. They say, "It is not the individuals who should be respected, but the nation as a whole and the race as a whole. And the individual is a part of the whole and can have only a value as a part of the whole." Authoritarians attack individualism and liberalism by arguing that way and instead advocate 'totalitarianism'. It is nothing but a conclusion of such totalitarianism that it demands that the people, at the dictator's command, individually must be willing to give up their own interests, or even their own lives, for the good of the whole.

11207 Just as democracy dates back to the Greek and Roman eras, dictatorship also has a long history. There were tyrannical kings in the Greek era, and even at the end of the Roman Republic, a militaristic dictator emerged and finally established an absolute monarchy. As all know, modern dictatorship emerged in Italy and Germany after the First World War, overwhelming democracies of those countries where the bases of democracy had been weak and seizing political power. It was around the time of the Manchurian Incident in 1931 when a similar trend began to dominate Japanese politics. This political dictatorship was further strengthened by the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and accelerated more and more at the start of the Pacific War in 1941. Moreover, Japanese fascism, while advocating totalitarianism similar to that of the Nazi regime, put on a nationalistic facade, attacked democracy and liberalism, and forced the people to follow the morality of 'selfless devotion'. Such an attitude like this was not different from the dictatorships of Italy and Germany at all.

11302 Dictatorship condemns the method of majority rule used by democracy. Admittedly, it is true that there are many cases in which the opinions of the majority are not necessarily correct, and the thoughts of a single forerunner are more true than the opinions of the majority. However, if that is the case, who can guarantee that the decision of the dictator will be in the best interest of the entire people? In the summer of 1939, Hitler decided that now was the time to conquer Poland by force and ordered Germans to march on the country. Was his decision right? Was it not this dictator's outrageous disregard for international principles that brought German people and race to the depths of misery and doom? If democratic politics is 'mobocracy' (politics by an ignorant crowd)', isn't dictatorship 'arbitrary politics' that cannot be undone once one mistake is made?

11304 On the contrary, democracy, through freedom of speech, is able to constantly correct political errors. If it turns out that the decision made by the majority was wrong, then the correct minority opinion will be supported even by the majority and implemented. In the meantime, as the people gradually become wiser and train themselves politically, the results of the majority vote will gradually conform to the correct course and be less likely to be wrong. The education spreads among people, and the more people become well educated, the better the political policies supported by the majority will be fitted for the welfare of the people. The finest merit of the principle of majority rule, combined with the freedom of speech, is that majority rule allows the people to constantly keep the political process moving in the right direction in this way. The reason why democracy is the only way to bring hope and light to the entire human beings is just at that point.

11305 Dictatorship attacks individualism and condemns liberalism. Instead, it advocates a philosophy of totalitarianism that places the development of the entire nation and the prosperity of the entire race as the supreme imperative. But, what on earth do the development of the nation and the prosperity of the race mean? A nation, or a race, is, in fact, nothing more than what consists of a large number of individuals. Therefore, the development of an entire nation or race can never be achieved without the cultural and economic improvement of all individuals who are its members. Nonetheless, when a dictatorship preaches that the whole should be respected and asks individuals as only parts of the whole to make sacrifices for the whole, it is only to forcefully drag the people along with the dictator's orders issued wearing the mantle of the authority of the whole. There is hidden an underlying intention to enforce the dictator's plan, even if it means depriving the people of their freedom and happiness as individuals.

11306 Democracy respects individuals and values individuals' freedom. However, the position of democracy is of 'individualism' in the proper sense of the word, and never of 'selfishness'. The spirit of democracy, which seeks to realize the greatest possible happiness for the greatest possible number of individuals, is the exact opposite of selfishness, which seeks only one's own interests and cares nothing for the fate of others. So, the happiness that the people individually build through their efforts is the true happiness of human beings. Therefore, democracy allows all people to have the freedom to pursue happiness equally, as long as not at the expense of others' happiness. If the lives of the people are improved through the efforts of each individual, then the nation shall naturally develop. When each one of the race builds up the common happiness of its race, then the race will naturally prosper as a whole. Thus, if all peoples and nations prosper in their own way and cooperate with each other in peace, the welfare of mankind as a whole will surely be enhanced. From each seed of rice shall grow a fine ear, just as the fertile fields are filled with golden waves as far as the eye can see, which is sure to yield a rich harvest.

11402 No, it hasn't. There is still one more unique form of dictatorship left in the world today. It is the so-called 'Proletarian dictatorship' or 'dictatorship of the laboring class'. Unlike fascism and nazism, this kind of dictatorship is based on 'communism'. In principle, communism is a form of thorough socialism. Since socialism, in general, is not contradictory to the spirit of democracy in itself, it may mistakenly be thought that communism is not contradictory to democracy either. However, communism connected with the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' has a very different character from democracy, which embraces a wide range of intermediate forms between capitalism and socialism and tries to decide which form to adopt by the will of the majority of the people. Therefore, what kind of thing communism, practiced by the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' is, must be considered by entering into the true spirit of democracy to clarify this issue.

11403 From the end of the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, when the system of democracy gradually spread, the economic organization of capitalism developed rapidly along with it. The organization of capitalism, based on the freedom of enterprise guaranteed by democracy, has been instrumental in bringing about extremely rapid and large-scale production and a high standard and rich content to human economic life. However, on the other hand, as a result of the monopoly of means of production by capitalists, profits brought about by capitalism were unilaterally concentrated in the hands of capitalists, and the working masses who bore the production were often forced to fall into poverty. This harm can be reduced or eliminated, of course, by implementing economic democracy while acknowledging the principles of capitalism. However, those who believe that it is impossible to realize economic equality fully by that way forbid capitalists from privately owning the means of production, such as land, factories, raw materials, etc., and try to transfer them to the nation or the nation's management. That is socialism. As mentioned in Chapter 9, the distinction between these two types of economic organization is not as clear-cut in practice as in theory. However, whatever economic policy is actually adopted, as long as it is well suited to the circumstances of the nation, is based on the free will of the people, and is the result of a fair debate in the National Assembly, it is never inconsistent with the principles of democracy to proceed according to that policy.

11404 By the way, communism, which is the new issue here, rejects capitalism, nationalizes all means of production, transfers all enterprises to the nation's management, and is a sort and an utmost form of socialism. However, ever since Marx and Engels published the 'Manifesto of the Communist Party' in 1848 and the word communism came into common use, it has been thought that there is a significant difference between communism and socialism that goes beyond a simple 'difference in degree'. What is that difference? It is nothing but the difference of 'means' that socialism and communism employ to transform the social organization of capitalism into a world in which there are no classes other than the laboring class.

11405 In order to understand this point clearly, it must be necessary to briefly review how Marx and Engels formulated the theory of communism, what methods they considered, and what paths they actually took to put it into practice.

11406 It says that the history of humans has always been marked by class warfare when it was to move into new eras and that the underlying causes of class warfare have always been changes in production methods in the economy. For example, in the feudal era, agricultural production was the main source of income, and feudal lords controlled large tracts of land, collecting heavy annual tributes from peasants and living a luxurious life. With the invention of the steam engine and the rise of mechanical industry, society's wealth was concentrated in the hands of those who managed industries using the new production methods and those who sold the industrial products, and a new class with economic power emerged. This newly emerging class will challenge warfare against the ruling class of the feudal era. The result is a revolution and the downfall of the old ruling class.

11407 Having thus succeeded in overthrowing the old ruling class of the feudal era, the emerging class at that time created a social system that was convenient for them to protect their interests and property. This is, roughly speaking, the social organization of capitalism. By the way, Marx and Engels' theory says that, as the economy of capitalism develops, class warfare will begin on a much larger scale than before. Because, in the capitalist world, many laborers work in factories and other places where production is actively carried out, but, under this production method, the worth and profits made by the laborers are unilaterally absorbed by the capitalist class, and as a result, the number of exploited laborers increases. At first, these so-called proletarians (exploited laborers) were held under the control of capitalists, but gradually they realized the injustice of their oppression and began to unite and fight against the capitalist class. Thus, if countless proletarians unite to wage class warfare, the stronghold of capitalism will inevitably be shaken. In the end, a revolution will occur, and capitalism's social organization will collapse from its very core. Marx and Engels, preaching like above, predicted the coming proletarian revolution and its conversion to a communist society.

11408 However, according to Marxist theory, even if the proletarian revolution is accomplished, it does not mean that the world will immediately become a communist world. Before the transition from a capitalist to a communist society can be completed, it must go through a socialist stage as the first step. Even at this stage, of course, capitalism has collapsed, so all private ownership of means of production is abolished. Thus, all production will take place in the form of public enterprises. However, the production is still not enough to meet the needs of the people, so they must work and earn an income from their labor to live on. Therefore, at this stage, private ownership is allowed for consumer goods such as food, clothing, and daily necessities.

11409 Needless to say, the prediction of Marxism does not end there, of course, but goes much further in explaining the outlook for the future. The prediction says that pushing the society forward with this form of socialism will make this society eventually reach the second, more thorough stage, which is the stage of pure communism. In a purely communist society, private ownership of not only industrial products but also consumer goods will be completely eliminated. In a socialist society, there is a corresponding earned income for labor, but in a communist society, there will be no earned income. As long as people work, communist society will provide them with whatever is necessary. According to Marxism, the communist economy will increase its productive forces of society, and society's wealth will become so abundant that there will be no need for the people to worry about living without a private income. In his article, 'Critique of the Gotha Programme', Karl Marx wrote, "When such a state is realized, human society will be able to write on its banner, 'From each according to ability, to each according to need. (Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen.)'"

11410 This is a very brief outline of the theory of communism as expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. So, how to put such a theory into practice? There emerged soon two different arguments within the same Marxist camp on this important question.

11411 According to the first argument, the first step toward communism is socialism, and the transition from capitalism to socialism will take place through revolution. But it does not have to be done with violence. Rather, the transition should take place through the parliamentary system, which is the representative political organization of capitalist society. Of course, there are several capitalist parties in the National Assembly, and they hold large sway. However, in the parliamentary system, it is the 'number' that counts. Therefore, if a socialist party is established and its representatives are sent to the National Assembly with the support of the proletarian masses, it can gradually occupy a large number of seats. Once the socialist party has a majority in the National Assembly, it can abolish the capitalist legal system by peaceful means and instead makes socialistic laws. This is how the relatively moderate adherents of Marxism thought and argued that a gradual transition to socialism was better.

11412 However, the supporters of the second argument made a fierce denunciation of the moderate position. According to this second argument, to gradually implement socialism using the parliamentary system is the idea of those who do not know what strong ground capitalism is built on. Since the bourgeois class holds political power with the power of huge capital, it will surely try to prevent the expansion of socialist forces with the help of money and power. Therefore, any attempt to transform capitalism through parliamentary legislation by way of majority rule is like waiting one hundred years for the waters in the Yellow River to clear (If the sky falls, we shall catch larks.). The first argument that, yet, it is better to take advantage of parliamentary politics is, in the eyes of those in the position of the second argument, nothing more than opportunism compromising with capitalism. The last weapon to put an end to bourgeois domination must be violent revolution. Those in the second position, who opposed the moderates, argued in this way and stressed the need for a radical proletarian revolution.

11413 When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, these two factions fought bitterly against each other. The relatively moderate Mensheviks formed the first revolutionary government, but this government, led by Kerensky, soon fell and was replaced by the radical Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. They implemented socialism as the first stage of the transition to communism, in Marxist theory, and established the political organization necessary to achieve this goal. The social system in place in the Soviet Union today (in 1948) is socialism in this sense. And the political organization adopted to push forward socialism in this sense is none other than 'proletarian dictatorship'.

11414 According to this, socialism, when compared to communism, has two different meanings.

11415 One of them is socialism as the first step to communism. There is only a difference in degree between socialism in this sense and pure communism, and therefore communism can be said as a kind of socialism or a thoroughgoing form of it. In Article 12 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Soviet Union of 1936, there is a phrase, 'From each according to ability, to each according to labor'. It means that each person is obligated to work according to ability, and at the same time, each person is rewarded according to labor, which shows that today's Soviet society is at the stage of socialism. There, socialism in this sense is strongly promoted by the political organization known as 'proletarian dictatorship'.

11416 In contrast, socialism in more broad sence has nothing to do with the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship'. Socialism, which aims to abolish private ownership of means of production, can be achieved through parliamentary politics and does not require any violent revolution in the first place. The socialism preached by the moderates who belong to the Marxist camp is roughly the same. There is not only a difference in degree between socialism in this sense and the communism advocated by Lenin and others, but there is also a huge difference in the means to achieve the goal. The reasons are as follows. This communist standpoint excludes the standpoint of realizing socialism through parliamentary politics. And it makes it unavoidable to resort to violent revolution for this purpose. Moreover, it requires the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' even after the revolution is accomplished.

11417 Therefore, even if the communism practiced in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a kind of socialism, it is different from socialism in the broad sense of the term, and is inseparably connected with the political form of 'proletarian dictatorship'. In order to know what communism is and to compare it with democracy, this point has to be kept clearly in mind.

11502 According to Marx and Engels, the system of the nation was basically developed in order for the ruling class to hold down the ruled class and squeeze out the profits generated by the labor of the ruled class. Therefore, according to the Marxist argument, the laws and political organizations of the modern nation are also nothing but tools of large-scale class domination set up by the bourgeois class to oppress the proletarians and take into their own hands the economic value generated by the proletarians' labor. Therefore, the proletarian revolution leads to the collapse of the existing organizations of the nation. The society passes through the stage of low communism, that is, socialism, to the society of high communism. Then, there will be no class warfare at all, and there will be no need for the nation as a means of class domination. Marx and Engels believed that the nation would naturally wither and die in such an age. In other words, they predicted that the organization of the government to exercise power and govern the people would become useless.

11503 However, the difference between communism and ordinary anarchism is that communism sees that a world without such a government is still a long way off and that even after the proletarian revolution is accomplished, it will be necessary to keep the organizations with great power alive for the time being. The nation's power has been in the bourgeoisie's hands, the ruling class before, but after the revolution, the power will be in the proletarians' hands. However, the bourgeois class is not immediately exterminated by this. Instead, it is building its strongholds in various parts of society, waiting for an opportunity to rise again. Therefore, the proletarians who have seized power in their hands must strengthen their power more and more, and this time, finally suppress the remnants of the bourgeoisie and eradicate them. Communists think this way. Lenin was the most vociferous exponent of this theory of warfare. The political organization of the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' established by the Russian Revolution of 1917 can be said implementation of this theory.

11505 However, is the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' really the politics that laborers and peasants, who make up the majority of the people, do by their own free will? Judging from the facts really done in the Soviet Union, what communists call 'proletarian dictatorship' is actually 'dictatorship of the Communist Party'. Furthermore, a closer look at the reality of this dictatorship reveals that it is not simply a party dictatorship, but is in fact a 'dictatorship of Communist Party leaders'. In the Soviet Union, there is currently (in 1948) Politburo (Political Bureau) of the Communist Party Central Committee, consisting of 13 members and candidates. Politburo decides all the important policies of the Communist Party. Therefore, the decisions made by Politburo become the decisions of the Party, which in turn determines the fundamentals of the nation's politics.

11506 Can freedom of speech in a legitimate sense really be granted under such a form of 'proletarian dictatorship'? Communism is clearly distinguished from moderate socialism regarding the methods they employ. In this sense, it is absolutism. Absolutism is the belief that one's position is the only one that is absolutely correct and therefore does not allow for the existence of opposing positions in the first place. Therefore, if there is to be freedom of speech even in a society dominated by absolutism, it is to be free to assert absolutism and exclude positions opposing it. Therefore, once the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship' is established in a society, it will no longer be allowed to oppose communism or criticize the nation's policies. If a person's speech goes beyond the bounds of communism or conflicts with its theories, the person will be immediately branded a 'counter-revolutionary' and ostracized.

11507 Under such a political organization that strongly adheres to an absolutist stance, because political assertions will result in only one, there is no room for two or more parties to compete for power or criticize each other's positions. Therefore, democratic parliamentary politics, where there are two or more political parties and the people freely choose one of them to support, and the parties supported by the people debate each other and decide according to majority rule, cannot occur. Under the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship', only one party can exist, which is the Communist Party. Any party other than the Communist Party would be banned as a bourgeois party.

11508 Then, in the case of a so-called 'proletarian dictatorship', how would the leaders of the government be chosen to assume dictatorial power? Looking again at the actual situation in the Soviet Union, the people, even those who are not members of the Communist Party, have the right to vote and to be elected to a wide range of public offices. And the members of the Supreme Soviet of the Union, which is the equivalent of the National Assembly of normal democratic nations, as well as members of other important central and local legislative, administrative, and judicial bodies, are elected by the people. But, in many cases, only one candidate is nominated for each district to be voted on. So, the voters can only choose to either vote for this nominated candidate or vote against it and cannot write in the name of any other person they wish to choose. If another name is written, this vote will be invalid. Therefore, although the people of the Soviet Union have equal voting rights regardless of gender, education, property, housing, and other conditions, their freedom to vote is, in fact, very limited.

11509 There are seemed to be various reasons why the Soviet Union today has roughly this form of politics. Originally, unlike a free economy, a socialist economy often requires strong control by the nation, even if the level of socialism is of a relatively low degree. And, the organization of the economy in the Soviet Union, even if it belongs to a lower stage of communism, is more advanced than in any other nation as far as socialism is concerned. It must be said that there are ample grounds to imagine how strong central political power would be needed to implement such a high level of socialism in a country with such a large territory and complex historical and social circumstances as the Soviet Union and to keep it intact. At the same time, in order to prevent opposition and criticism, it is explained that this kind of dictatorship is only necessary while it is necessary and that the situation will be different when communism becomes more advanced.

11510 However, the question is not for what reason such a political form is practiced in the Soviet Union, but whether or not such a political form can be consistent with democracy in the first place. As mentioned earlier, from the standpoint of communism, a high level of socialism combined with 'proletarian dictatorship' is said to be a true democracy. But is this really so? This is the question that must be asked.

11602 Of course, excessive economic inequalities should be corrected. However, it is not permissible to abandon individual political freedom for the sake of economic equality, no matter how important economic equality should be valued. Communism tries to achieve equality even if it makes political freedom to be a mere formality. Democracy, on the contrary, persistently seeks to achieve equality based on freedom. Indeed, democracy makes the people possible to do politics with their free will, tries to promote the people build a society in which people can pursue happiness equally. It should be obvious that there is a big difference between dictatorship and democracy.

11603 In a true democracy, it is up to the people themselves to freely choose the best way to achieve the greatest possible happiness for all. Therefore, all people involved in politics can elect a party or a person they think is 'the one' to represent them. Even after the election of representatives and the formation of the government, the people can continue to criticize the nation's policies by freely expressing what they believe to be right. Of course, there will be many conflicting opinions among the people and also among the people's representatives. At that time, democracy adopts the opinion of the 'majority' and makes it the political policy. As mentioned before, the principle of majority rule combined with the freedom of speech is an important element that should be said as the essence of democracy.

11604 On the contrary, in communism by the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship', there is no freedom of speech in the true sense of the word because only the claims of communism are considered correct, and no criticism is allowed. The dictator's orders have absolute authority there, and majority rule is respected formally but denied practically. The people have no choice but to follow the dictator's orders in silence. Where will they be taken to if they follow in silence? From the standpoint of communism, the destination is a paradise that will one day bring equal happiness to all working people. Therefore, communists say this is the true 'politics for the people'. However, even if the goal is 'for the people', it can be called neither 'people's politics' nor 'politics by the people' unless the people freely seek and open the way to reach the goal. How can there be true democracy if freedom of speech and voting and the law of majority rule are kept just as formalities, with no room for people to vote freely for candidates with various and different ideas?

11605 Moreover, the goal of communism is never a proletarian revolution within a single nation. Marx and Engels taught that the communist revolution is not limited to a single nation but must develop into a world revolution. In his 'Principles of Communism', written in 1847 as a draft of the 'Manifesto of the Communist Party', Engels predicted that there would be revolution at least in Britain, the United States, France, and Germany at the same time. In reality, however, this prophecy was wrong, and instead, a communist revolution took place in Russia that was backward regarding the development of capitalism. Therefore, Lenin taught that it was impossible for proletarian revolutions to take place in all countries at the same time, and Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party also advocated socialism in one country. (Translator's note: As of 2020, the nations of Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union had already left communism. So, five nations in the world are socialist nations ruled by a single communist party advocating Marxism-Leninism. These countries are China, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam. Communist parties hold seats in the National Assembly in 56 countries, including Japan.)

11606 However, based on past trends, it should be clear that communism by 'proletarian dictatorship' includes the goal that the entire world will eventually be of the same economic organization. Today (in 1948), most of the countries in the world have a communist party, which competes with other parties for a parliamentary majority where there are many members and engage in various tactics where there are few members. From the standpoint of democracy, there is no reason to prohibit the Communist Party as long as it follows the principles of parliamentary politics, decides its course of action in a fair and just manner, and tries to implement its policies by a fair and honest majority rule. This is because democracy respects each person's freedom of political belief and freedom of speech.

11607 If the Communist Party of a country respects the discipline and order of parliamentary politics, and once it gains a majority in parliament, it will govern the country, and if it becomes a minority party, it will obey the majority, then it is returning to the moderate position in the Marxist camp, which was bitterly criticized by Lenin and others as opportunism. On the contrary, it only compromises with parliamentary politics while it is in the minority, but once it wins an absolute majority, it has the ulterior motive of denying the principle of majority rule itself by majority vote and transforming it into the so-called 'proletarian dictatorship', then, as shown in Chapter 5, it must be said that it is trying to create 'little cuckoo eggs' in the parliamentary system.

11608 It is the position of economic democracy to seek to realize the economic welfare of the entire people based on political freedom. It will certainly take time to implement economic democracy by the will of the people themselves, to exchange opinions on how to do so freely, and to decide political policy by majority rule. The communist position is to grow weary of this 'Make haste slowly.' attitude and to solve the problem at once by a so-called 'proletarian dictatorship'. But if, in return, the people have to give up their political freedom and become driven by 'orders from above' that do not allow for criticism, can it be the result of acting with reason? In view of the principles of democracy already mentioned in the previous chapters, it is very clear that there is no other way for the people of a wise democratic nation to go except to build up a correct economic democracy as well as political and social democracy as quickly and rationally as possible while respecting freedom and loving peace.

11609 In fact, this is the way forward for all decent people living on this planet. It has to be chosen. Dictatorship is based on a philosophy of violence. The philosophy of democracy, on the contrary, is based on the principles of peace, order, and security. The ideal of democracy is to build a happy society, not for the privileged few, but for all living people, not through warfare and destruction, but based on peace, order, and understanding. This ideal is not depicted in the world of stars, but shines on this earth where we currently live. If we continue to make unceasing efforts in our actual lives while keeping our eyes firmly fixed on it, the ideal will not only shine forever as a simple ideal, but will surely become a living reality, and the day will come when the lives of all the people and nations of the world will be enhanced and enriched.

Chapter XVII   What Democracy Brings

17102 However, in order for the people to live democratic lives in harmony, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of what democracy promises for the future of the nation and what democracy can bring. If this point is not clear, the determination of the people to try to implement democracy will be dulled, and everyone will not fall into step. Then the construction of democracy will not go well. Japan, in particular, does not have a solid democratic tradition. It is still hard to get over the feeling in the minds of Japanese people that democracy is something that is somehow 'given from the outside'. If we go forward with this kind of dependence on others and half-confidence, rebuilding our country, which should be possible, may end in failure. Democracy will not really flourish unless the people are fully convinced that the best way to live is through democracy, believe in their own strength, and cooperate with each other with an uplifting spirit.

17103 Therefore, it is quite natural for us to ask ourselves the following questions.

17104 Why do the Japanese people need a democratic nation and a democratic society? What do democratic institutions offer us that other institutions do not? Where is the evidence that democracy brings security, happiness, and prosperity to the people who practice it? Democracy is said to liberate the people from poverty and fear, but how does it actually do this? What is described here is certainly the ideal of democracy. However, any political system has beautiful ideals, at least on the surface. In this context, why is democracy suitable for realizing the ideal? Why can't it be dictatorship? Why should it be democracy?

17105 These are all very natural questions. This is because, when you try something, it is natural to doubt whether it will work or not. It is a dictatorship that forbids doubt and tries to drag the people under the command of one or a few. To follow the system as it is presented to us, without having the strength or awareness to question it, is nothing but feudalistic obedience. Therefore, we all, the people of Japan, have such questions in our minds. Then, let's try to answer them from the standpoint of democracy.

17202 Moreover, trust in human beings in democracy is not so much a trust in heroes, superhumans, or extraordinary people, but rather a trust in 'ordinary people' who live and work here. Holding heroes in high honor or setting a general returning from a victorious campaign up to the throne was the beginning of every tyranny and absolute monarchy. The people's attitude of believing in Hitler's extraordinary power and shedding tears of joy at Mussolini's words became the basis for making dictatorship possible even in the culturally advanced world of the twentieth century.

17203 Of course, even under democracy, it is necessary and important to choose the right persons to represent the people and to abide by their decisions. However, the people in democracy do not give unconditional trust to the persons the people have chosen. It is the freedom, right, and responsibility of the people of a democratic nation to criticize and correct the actions of those persons whom the people have chosen because of good character when the people believe their choice to have been wrong. Here is where the sovereignty of the people lies. At the root of this sovereignty is the people's trust in themselves. If the people lose their trust in themselves, they will always resort to dictatorship, relying upon others. The people themselves build democracy. The efforts of the people themselves can only bring about democracy.

17204 All human beings want to live. As long as people are alive, they all want to live a life that is worth living as much as possible. Not that there are not people who want to die, but it is because they think they no longer have any hope of living a life worth living. Therefore, one may safely say that even those who would commit suicide have been seeking a life worth living. The desire for survival, happiness, and prosperity is the driving force of all human life.

17205 This is true not only for individuals, but also for organizations organized by many individuals. Brothers and sisters who belong to a family hope that their family members will continue to live healthy and happy life. It is because they are members of that family, and that family is their family. Similarly, the boys who organize a baseball team and the girls who make a volleyball team want their teams to be strong and win games. Because those are their teams. Farmers who belong to agricultural cooperatives wish for the survival and development of the cooperative for the simple reason that it is their cooperative. If the cooperative's members do not merely wish so, and if they do not remain in the attitude of leaving the cooperative's management to a few executives, but if they all work together for its development, the members' wishes will gradually be realized, despite the various difficulties. At the same time, it would enhance the welfare of each individual member. By this very same principle, families thrive, and teams perform better. And there is no other secret to making social life progress.

17206 This is a very simple and obvious matter. And yet, many people are unaware of the simple fact that all human beings seek to live a life worth living and have a strong desire for the betterment and development of the community to which they belong is the most certain reason to promise what democracy can bring.

17207 In a democracy, many individuals who form a society or a nation try to realize these demands and aspirations, which all human beings have, by their own power through politics. Democracy belongs to the people, not to the king or a dictator. The politics of democracy belongs to the people. Therefore, even if the people think only of their own interests and nothing else, their politics would promote the welfare of the people at least. Of course, there will be various conflicts of interest among the people. But even so, since democratic politics is based on the opinions of the people's majority, the politics of the people are due to be at least in line with the interests of the people's majority. It is the fundamental conviction of democracy that 'politics of the people' and 'politics by the people' will always become 'politics for the people' if the people know, in addition, that their own individual interests are not separate from the interests of society as a whole and always act in harmony with their individual interests and the public welfare.

17208 Against it, those who doubt democracy would say as follows.

17209 "Democracy is said to be 'politics of the people', but it is really a 'politics of the people with property'. The class conflicts within the people are very deep-rooted, so the rich will do everything they can to protect their status. Therefore, parliamentary politics is valuable, but if it is left to its own devices, even political parties that ostensibly have economic democratization policies will, behind the scenes, be manipulated by the money provided by the newly rich. So the warfare between the classes becomes more and more violent, and the movement to deny democracy itself, where wrong things are done, becomes stronger. And yet, isn't it extremely optimistic and naive to assume that the spread of democracy will inevitably lead to all the people's welfare and prosperity in the nation?"

17210 Indeed, even if a democratic constitution is created or parliamentary politics is established, the danger of dictatorship or money politics will not disappear. It has been mentioned many times here. However, this is not a fault of democracy itself, but the result of the people being carried away by the motives of a few people who want to drag politics as they want, or thinking that voting in elections is the only way to have democracy, and leaving the rest to others. In many democratic countries today, the right to participate in politics has been extended almost without limit, except in terms of age. Suppose all the people who have that right are distinctly aware that those who steer politics are the people. When choosing representatives, they elect persons who will truly protect their interests. Also, the people add criticism and scrutiny for the activities of the National Assembly and the government so that the operation of national politics is always fair. Then, what is the reason why the result does not appear as 'politics for the people'? When the king is in power, the king and the privileged class surrounding the king will run a politics convenient for themselves. A government controlled by the rich to do what the rich want will do the politics for the best interest of the rich. That is a matter of course. If so, it should also be obvious that politics is 'politics of the people', and when the people decide the direction of politics by carefully considering their interests and disadvantages, the result must be consistent with the people's interests.

17111 However, this is, of course, a different story if the majority of the people have an attitude of apathy, thinking that they do not understand politics. When the majority of the people have such an attitude, schemers and fanatics are sure to appear and try to pull the people along imprudently based on their unilateral judgment by making false propaganda and raising a sense of crisis beyond necessity. In this way, they take power into their hands based on the majority of votes of the deceived people. The result will surely be a dictatorship.

17112 On the other hand, the people, who do not want the dictatorship to take away again the right to decide politics that has been given to them at great pains, will strive to build a society that is worth living in by deciding the direction of politics by themselves. Democracy is based on the trust that ordinary people, who are everywhere among the people, have the power to do what they want. In other words, democracy is developed by the self-reliance of ordinary people to create a better society through their own will and efforts. Namely, democracy will surely bring about the best for the people through the simple and natural law that the people will make their own efforts for their own good.

17302 In this way, after many years, politics has become the people's politics. Namely, it has become a politics that is run by the people, serves the people, and focuses on the interests of the people. This form of politics will continue as long as the people are definitely aware that politics belongs to the people, and as long as the people are deeply conscious that the primary purpose of politics is to protect the rights of each of the people, to give the people the opportunity to develop themselves individually fully, and to enrich the lives of the people at large.

17303 Thus, democracy is the surest basis for security, happiness, and prosperity. What democracy brings about shall be the result that the people work hard to build on this foundation with tireless efforts. The fact that politics is not a haughty master who reigns over the people, but a loyal servant who serves the people can be guaranteed only by democracy. As long as political power is in the hands of the people, there is no need to worry that politics to make the lives of the people as happy, prosperous, and safe as possible will end up being with an empty promise.

17304 Of course, the extent to which the people of a country can become wealthy depends on the size of the country, its resources, and other natural conditions. Many countries have long suffered, and still suffer, from a lack of raw materials and poor natural resources. For example, Asia as a whole is suffering from food shortages, and the world as a whole is suffering from housing shortages (no place to live), which is the reality of today. But no government, no matter how truly democratic, can create a land where there is none or turn a mountain without veins into a mine. Democracy promises to bring about the best way of life for the people as far as possible. It cannot, however, create something out of nothing.

17305 In a country like Japan, where the land is small, resources are very limited, and the population is too large, it is especially important to take this point into account from the beginning. Democracy is not magic or a trick to build a fairyland on the ruins of a war-torn country in a few days. Therefore, the attitude of expecting that democracy will bring as much peace, happiness, and prosperity as possible, expecting that such circumstances will soon arrive, and then contrarily giving up on the ideal of democracy by seeing that things don't go as expected, is very short-sighted and extremely dangerous. It is natural that the Japanese people, who brought upon themselves the greatest defeat in history, will have to walk a difficult path filled with hardship for the time being, and it is inevitable that there will be temporary confusion and unfairness of fate that cannot be easily removed. However, if the people despair of this, and are caught up in the feeling of curse against it, some political movements emerge and will make bad use of this to promote discontents, increase confusions, and try to change the social structure rapidly.

17307 It is an unavoidable fact that Japan lacks natural resources and has fallen into a drastically devastated state after the defeat of the war. Nevertheless, Japanese people don't need to despair about Japan's future or have a sentiment to seek salvation by faith in Amitabha (others' help) simply. In Europe, for example, Switzerland is a small country full of mountains with no natural resources worth mentioning especially. However, due to their diligence and technology, the Swiss have become world leaders in the precision industry, especially in the production of watches. Denmark is also a small country with an area almost equal to that of Kyushu Island, and it had lost its two most fertile provinces, Schleswig and Holstein, in the war with Germany and Austria in 1864. Despite this, Denmark succeeded in development and afforestation in the wastelands of the Jutland peninsula. It rebuilt itself as one of the leading agricultural industry and livestock farming countries in the world, thanks to the ideas and efforts of a forerunner named Dalgas. It should not be forgotten that, at that time, the peasant education at the national high school, which was unique to Denmark, was very effective in quickly spreading and improving agricultural technology, promoting the high level of development of agricultural cooperatives. So, Denmark could become a European paradise in both material and intellectual aspects.

17308 Nothing can come out of pessimism and despair. Creation and construction can only take place when the people face the difficult reality and try to find ways to overcome it. It is democracy that provides a path and organization for the solid efforts of the people.

17309 Of course, the reconstruction of Japan cannot be done by the Japanese people's power alone. For that, it is necessary to receive foreign countries' favorable assistance, and also especially to focus on promoting trade. It is becoming increasingly necessary for countries to depend on one another in today's world. The effort to systematically order this relationship is manifested in the international democracy described in the previous chapter. It is the Japanese people's sincere hope that Japan will regain its status as a normal member of the international community as soon as possible. However, for that, the first priority is for the Japanese people to stand up by themselves. It is said, 'Heaven helps those who help themselves.' Those who do not have the will to overcome their own predicament will be abandoned by both heaven and man. Although Japan lacks natural resources and is greatly troubled by overpopulation, the Japanese people also possess outstanding technology. If the people make use of this technology, and at the same time make advanced use of the ever-advancing science in industry, it will not be impossible to raise the level of the nation's economy by boosting exports. Again in those cases, the spirit of self-reliance is the primary key to determining what democracy can do for the future of the Japanese people.

17402 Here is an example of how the power of democratic cooperation has been used to overcome a natural disaster that was thought to be beyond the control and successfully build prosperity and welfare.

17403 The Tennessee River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, flows through the mountains near the eastern part of North America. For centuries, this river has flowed in its natural state along arbitrary paths. Then, at a certain time of the year, the waters of the Tennessee River would come raging out of control. Millions of tons of well-fertilized soil were washed away by the flood. Towns and villages were destroyed, and over the years, thousands of people drowned or lost their homes. Natural disasters were left to happen as they would happen, and people could only hold on, helplessly watching the natural disasters and devastation that would come at the given time.

17405 Therefore, with the help of the United States government, the residents of the Tennessee Valley set about the great task of stopping the great flood of the Tennessee River. Of course, there were many major obstacles to this. Among them, some conservative politicians and representatives of the power companies opposed the project as much as possible. But despite all the obstacles and oppositions, the plan was built and steadily put into action. In this plan, twenty-eight dams are to be built in total, of which twenty-six have already been completed (by 1948). The construction of these dams has fundamentally raised the standard of living of the Tennessee Valley residents, ensuring their safety and making a great contribution to the welfare of the nation in general.

17406 Thanks to these dams, the water of the Tennessee River, which had been destroying a great deal of property and even taking not a few lives year after year, was redirected to hydroelectric power generation. It is well-known how power helps to save labor, enhance efficiency, and increase production. The Tennessee Valley's hydraulic power generation system provides 15 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. As a result, the available power has increased tenfold in just fifteen years, allowing the farmers of the Tennessee Valley to use 60% more power than the average per capita power consumption of the entire United States for their farming and other businesses at a price of 16% less. On the flood control, water, which had become a raging, destructive force in the form of floodwaters, is kept fully in the reservoirs, thus avoiding the eight million dollar damage caused by flooding in a year. The soil, no longer threatened to be washed away year after year, was fertilized more with an abundance of chemical fertilizers produced by electricity. The farmers in the region could double their corn and wheat crops and increase their barley crops by about 75%. In the past, malaria was prevalent in the swampy belt, which never dried up due to flooding, and residents suffered. In 1938, the infection rate of malaria was 10 percent of the population, but by 1948, it had dropped to 1 percent.

17407 The project, which has brought such benefits and welfare, is managed by Tennessee Valley Authority. Despite being such a large project, it has not been a burden on the Federal treasury in the slightest. On the contrary, the project has been very successful in finances. In fact, even though the company sells electricity at a much lower rate than the average rate in the United States, it has used the income from the sale to repay 23 million dollars of the total amount it borrowed from the treasury and to allocate 132 million dollars to the improvement and expansion of its business, and is still generating a profit of more than five percent of its invested capital.

17408 Moreover, Tennessee Valley Authority is not a commercial corporation from the beginning. It is owned by the people, managed by the people's executives, and all its profits are used to enrich the lives of the people, not as specific personal income. Therefore, this project can be said a wonderful example of the successful democratization of economic life by adopting a public enterprise management policy different from that of capitalist organizations.

17409 In Japan, for example, rivers such as the Tone River often cause large floods that cause great damage to the region. Suppose a dam is built upstream to hold the water and a large-scale power station is built. In that case, it will not only prevent floods and regulate irrigation water appropriately, but also use the abundant electricity to produce nitrogen fertilizer, power various factories, and electrify rural life.

17410 In such a case, it would also be a good idea to undertake such work as a public project, like the Tennessee Valley Authority. However, in order to raise a large amount of capital required for such a project, it may be easier to organize the project as a company and encourage the public to invest in it. Even if this type of work is carried out as a company, if a large amount of profit is made, it will be possible to provide sufficient wages to employees and play a major role in helping the unemployed. If the stocks of the company are not monopolized by the financial cliques (zaibatsu), but distributed among the local residents who have a direct stake in the company, as well as the people of the entire country, the distribution of profits could be prevented from being one-sided. As long as the project enhances the welfare of the people, it does not matter whether it is carried out as a public project or entrusted to the management of a private company. It has been explained in Chapter 9 that capitalism and socialism are not necessarily opposites in terms of democratization of economic life. The question is not whether public works projects are good or whether private corporate management is good, but how to make such projects flourish and manage such projects democratically with the government, which represents the people, taking the lead.

17502 This is the fundamental attitude of democracy, as we have seen from all angles. However, some people, unfortunately, renew their suspicions about this time and time again. Namely, the political policy of trying to approach the ideal gradually by doing things wrong and then doing them again is the story of a country and a time when there is enough room to try and error again and again In a desperate situation where there is no room for such carefree thinking, is there no other way but to find the single best policy quickly, the single absolute course, and concentrate the power of the entire people on that single course? In order to do so, it is not enough to decide the direction of politics by the majority's will of the people at the time. Instead, is it better to leave all the power to a few wise persons? Or perhaps the people will have to follow the inevitable laws of history and go straight ahead without a second thought. That's how people doubt. And where there is such doubt, the temptation to dictatorship creeps in again and again.

17503 The current situation of Japan is ripe for many people to have such suspicion. Defeat and war disasters have hit the Japanese industry hard gravely. As a result, Japan's economy is in dire straits. The resulting social unrest may, in some ways, reinforce the distrust of parliamentary politics and raise the question of whether democracy, as described here, will be able to save Japan. Some of those who seek to implement their radical political agenda will use this as a chance to create more and more social unrest. They spread propaganda that a crisis is imminent and try to convince the Japanese people that there is no other way to survive but to follow their agenda. In this way, the Japanese people will be encouraged to engage in strifes on all fronts.

17504 Surely, Japan today is in a very hard and difficult position. In such a situation, it is unavoidable up to a certain point that the people may have violent disagreements about what political policy should be adopted.

17505 However, no one has the right to say that any one of these opinions is absolutely right and all others are absolutely wrong. The reason is that human thinking is inevitably fallible. And yet, those who believe that their policy is the only one that is absolutely correct, once they have taken control of politics, will only lead the people by that one policy, and will not allow criticism or opposition to it. Therefore, if the policy is wrong, it will not be possible to correct the error. Furthermore, if one position is held as absolute and no other position is tolerated, there will be an uncompromising struggle between different opinions. At a time when the lives of the people are in such a difficult situation that not even a single day can be lost, intensifying such a struggle is to lose forever the opportunity to seek and overcome difficulties. Conflicts of opinion and struggles of conflicting views should not be allowed to exceed the scope of debate so that the people may use their collective strength to overcome difficulties. This is the discipline of democracy.

17506 It is obvious to all that Japan faces many difficulties ahead. It is only natural that the people would want to have serious discussions on how to overcome them. However, for the Japanese people, whose history as a modern nation is short and who have little experience in democratic social life, debates often turn out to be an impractical discussion on the table. For example, people often argue about the negative effects of capitalism, but today's advanced capitalist countries are taking various measures to democratize their economies without changing the fundamentals of the capitalist system. In some countries, policies are being implemented that take advantage of the strengths of both capitalism and socialism while avoiding radical change. In order to protect the position of medium and small-sized businesses against large capitals, extremely well-organized cooperatives have been developed, and large-scale consumer cooperatives have been established to serve the interests of consumers. Japan has not had much experience in this area. Therefore, it is better for Japanese people to study the experiences and examples of other countries and try to implement them in a way that is suitable for Japan, rather than to argue for argument's sake. Discussions are important, but they become more effective after implementation. It is clear that the Japanese people are facing great hardships, but these hardships are not so insurmountable as to prevent them from making constructive attempts.

17507 Thus, Japan's hope for the future shines through the independent will and efforts of all the people of Japan, who are willing to debate and implement, implement, and debate, making the most of the experience that human beings have had so far. It is good to discuss. But first, let's work. Let's try it. As long as the Japanese people do not abandon Japan, the world will not abandon Japan. The ideal of democracy is far away. But whether or not the road to it can be opened depends on whether or not we can work together to pave the way for it. Where there is a will, there is a way. Let us seek that way with the will of all the people of the nation, open it with the power of all the people of the nation, and build the security, happiness, and prosperity of all the people of the nation as promised by democracy.