午夜剧场

Since March of this year, I have been a visiting scholar at Cornell University in the United States. However, due to the pandemic, the entire state went into lockdown immediately after my arrival, and even now in early November, I am still largely unable to use the university facilities. It was under these circumstances that this book was completed.

At the Juku, I lecture on contemporary American politics and political history, but I take great care when explaining political parties. This is because there is a significant gap between the general image of them in Japan and their actual reality.

It is well known that the Democratic and Republican parties form a two-party system in the United States, and that they are currently ideologically divided into liberal and conservative camps. In reality, however, the cohesion within each party is weak. There are no party leaders, no party membership systems, and no permanent platforms. There is no party discipline in Congress, and each member decides whether to vote for or against a bill based on their own judgment rather than instructions from their party leadership.

The system that allows someone to run for office under a party banner even if they are not a career politician of that party—as seen with Mr. Trump in 2016—also weakens cohesion. Recent political turmoil is caused not only by the conflict between the two major parties but also by the lack of discipline within each party.

However, while the parties themselves lack cohesion, the majority of voters today still strongly support a specific party. Furthermore, political parties permeate every corner of politics, with even judges and high-ranking administrators having substantive party affiliations. Therefore, one cannot understand American politics without understanding its political parties. That said, American parties are so vastly different from those in Japan and elsewhere that supplementary explanations in newspapers and other media are insufficient. In this book, I have attempted to explain, in the form of a general history, why and how political parties came to possess such unique characteristics and how they have characterized politics.

In addition to the pandemic and the presidential election, 2020 was a historic year for the United States, as political and social divisions became even more apparent through the impeachment trial of the president and the resurgence of movements against racial discrimination. Political parties are deeply involved in all of these. I am writing this before the election results are finalized, but regardless of the outcome, it is unlikely that the various divisions will be resolved quickly.

As I have condensed approximately 250 years of history into a consistent number of pages, I leave it to the readers to judge the success of this endeavor. I would be honored if this book serves as a reference for considering the future of the United States as it continues to face hardships.

Hiroshi Okayama

Chuko Shinsho

288 pages, 880 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.