La patrimonialisation des charges parlementaires au Japon
Éric Seizelet
The issue of « patrimonialization of Parliamentary office »
is at the core of the reflection on the mode of production and reproduction
of Japanese political elites since the 1990s. Though the phenomenon may be
relatively old, the increase of power of “hereditary members of parliament”,
both in the Diet and government, is often presented as one of the major elements of the Japanese political system and is largely criticized in the national
media as a proof that the mode of formation of the political class is both
archaic and hermetic. What reasons can explain among the political culture,
the voting system and the electoral behaviours, the space occupied in the corridors of power by “heirs”, and singularly big parliamentary dynasties? This
paper questions the electoral results of hereditary members of Parliament,
and analyzes the typological evolutions of their family and socio-professional
backgrounds from a diachronic point of view. It also assesses the complexity
of their political role, considering that they are both factors of stabilization
for the conservative elites in a context of greater volatility of electoral attitudes, and specific but essential elements of political stimulation. Hereditary
members of parliament are indeed the only ones to possess political and
financial resources as well as a network of contacts that enable them to
engage structural reforms without having to pay the electoral price. More
than just a conventional image, there is a complex configuration: if these
members of Parliament are numerous enough to offer a diversification of the
political class excessively described as being dominated by the bureaucratic
apparatus, they are not enough to be able to escape from the tacit rules of
political promotion. But if they participate, in a way, to the consolidation of
elites in power, the forces that sporadically have made things change in the
Japanese political system came from their ranks.
• Les parlementaires héréditaires occupent les allées du pouvoir
• Un phénomène qui prête à controverses
• Les héritiers comme ressource politique stable ?
• La construction de l’identité politique des parlementaires héréditaires