The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (Triangle Papers)
Language: English
Pages: 220
ISBN: 0814713645
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Book by Crozier, Michel, Huntington, Samuel P., Watanuki, Joji
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The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America
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Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction
those of the depression, and when its needs for order were met by recourse to the fascist and Nazi regressions. Fascism and Nazism can be analyzed as a return to older forms o f authority t o restore or impose the indispensable order. This was associated with a sudden shift in patterns of behavior reactivating those which were closer to earlier types. Can Western Europe suffer another such setback? Certainly not in the sam e form and in the same direction. There is little left in the present core
crisis from within and a crisis from without. European nations have different capacities and some of them at first glance seem m ore likely to succeed than others. But none of them has the leeway and resources of the United States or the collective capacity of action of Japan. Furthermore, they are so interdependent that, while they can help and emulate each other strongly, they are partially dependent on the vulnerability of the weakest link in the chain. The crisis from within revolves, of
time Finland� ization would appear as the least evil. Such a disastrous drifting of Western Europe is not inevitable. It is not even likely , but the fact that the possibility must be taken seriously is a measure of the present vulnerability of Europe. To prevent it, European nations should try to go beyond their present dire constraints and face at the same time the challenges of the future. First, they should try to accelerate the shift away from Western Europe 55 their old m odel of
Japanese case, sometimes democracy should still be emphasized at the cost of governability. Moreover, the cost can be partly covered by learning and efforts on the side of bureaucrats to be more 'careful and humane in doing their business. Fortunately, Japanese bureaucrats-both national and local-nowadays have such a learning capacity. Another factor which has worked so far in Japan 1 45 recent years is the financial ability of government to afford additional spending in order to appease the
relation to the constructive discharge of the responsibilities of citizenship? If 1 84 The Crisis of Democracy this question is answered in the affirmative, a program is then necessary to lower the j ob expectations of those who receive a college education. If the question is answered in the negative, then higher edu{;ational institutions should be induced to redesign their programs so as to be geared to the patterns of economic development and future job opportunities. In Japan, the