This research is concerned with the ways in which a coun try's political structure and development influence the major trends in the economic development of the country. In this research, the development in Japan during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries is compared with that in Malaysia.
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."1 The ways of organizing the direction of government are numer ous. 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 centralize authority, such as the United States, in which a single individual is elected nationally as chief executive, or such as Britain, where the
1R. Rose, "Presidents and Prime Ministers," Transaction Social Science and Modern Society, 25 (March April 1988): 61 70.
2nationally elected parliament is supreme. At the other end of this democratic spectrum are the countries with collective leadership, such as Switzerland, where a federal council is elected separately from each of the cantons, and in which the presidency rotates annually among the members of the federal council.
Within any particular governmental system, the approach to leadership also tends to vary. Westerners tend to favor highly partisan political structures, where there are clear winners and losers, and where the winners force their will on society to the extent that a particular political system permits. Asians, conversely, tend to favor consensus politics, where there are no clear winners and losers.2 Within such societies, decisions are often much longer in coming than they ar...