entation. Buddhism is not incompatible with Shintoism, and approximately 93 million Japanese practice Buddhism (Paxton, 1989). Obviously, a sig nificant overlap exists between the country's Shinto and Bud dhist adherents. Rather than divide the country's population, however, the Shinto/Buddhist overlap further unifies the coun try, unlike the divisions between Protestants and Catholics which plague the British Isles.
While a variety of folkways and accents are found in Japan, these differences are not causes of divisions within the population. A sharp division among the population along lan guage lines, such as the division between Gaelic and English speakers in Britain, is not found in Japan.
The "need to give direction to government is universal and persisting. Every country . . . must maintain political insti tutions that enable a small group of politicians to make auth oritative decisions that are binding on the whole of society" (Rose, 1988, 61). The ways of organizing the direction of government are numerous. The distinctions between democracy and totalitarian states are evident. Just as significant, however, are the different approaches to government found within the family of democratic states. At one end of this democratic spectrum are the countries which attempt to central ize authority, such as the United States, in which a single individual is elected nationally as chief executive, or such as Britain, where the nationally elected parliament is sup
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