In recent years, leftist commentators and public figures have lamented the “disregard for democracy” with a sense of crisis that national sovereignty is being trampled upon. Pointing to the current administration's heavy-handed parliamentary tactics relying on sheer numbers and its authoritarian dismissal of dissenting voices, they sound the alarm that democracy in Japan is right now on the brink of collapse.
I, however, do not agree with this. Democracy is by no means being disregarded. On the contrary, what we are witnessing might just be the most shameless form of pure democracy in the world.
Their own approval of their own acts appears to them as a public judgment in their favour. A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world—and also the most fearless: no man has a sense that he personally can be subjected to punishment.
(Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France)
We hardly need to revisit the history of the Nazis seizing power through legitimate elections under the Weimar Republic and hurtling toward the Enabling Act to realize that dictatorship and xenophobia often establish themselves by exploiting "democratic processes." What we see in present-day Japan is populism; the legal order is not being overthrown by a coup or military subjugation. Rather, those in power, having absorbed the exclusionary sentiments, anxieties, and ressentiment of the majority, are effectively privatizing the state through the democratic mandate of elections. This is not the erosion of democracy, but the inevitable consequence of democracy without its bulwark: constitutionalism.
The government of Prime Minister Takaichi, with the slogan "Make the Japanese Archipelago Strong and Prosperous" has an emphasis on the 国体 (kokutai, national polity) rather than the citizens themselves, but her approval ratings are still high. This is because the structure of modern society, based on the inviolable rights of each individual, is being marginalized, while the masses, immersed in the abstract community of the state, voluntarily choose subjugation. Simply put, it is an "escape from freedom." Whether it is the masses over-identifying with the state to gain a sense of security, or taking aggressive, escapist actions to overcome their own powerlessness by eliminating foreign enemies in a world reduced to a simplistic dualism of good and evil, this is not a tyranny forced upon them by someone else. It is a tyranny the masses have willingly created themselves.
Freedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless. This isolation is unbearable and the alternatives he is confronted with are either to escape from the burden of his freedom into new dependencies and submission, or to advance to the full realization of positive freedom which is based upon the uniqueness and individuality of man.
(Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom)
What stands out in recent years is the rise of populists who call themselves conservatives yet act like far-left revolutionaries, stirring up the masses and advocating demagoguery.
Traditional conservatism, on the other hand, fundamentally respects the order and wisdom cultivated through history and tradition; it avoids destruction wrought by flawed individual reason or abstract theories. It is a stance that protects the healthy parts of society while realistically repairing the flaws that arise. This philosophy is the exact polar opposite of the self-proclaimed "conservative" populism we see today.
What we should be afraid of is not a weakening of democracy but pure democracy itself, populism.
From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.
(The Federalist Papers 10)
By the way, It has been raining a lot lately. In central Tokyo, it rained for 37 consecutive days, from August 27 through October 2, setting a new record for the longest rainy spell since statistics began in 1886.
