Opinion

Every week the only newspaper I read from cover to cover is The Nikkei Weekly, an English language Japanese newspaper. Since the general election of August 30th, the editorial writers have discussed the end of the die-hard bureaucratic dominance of the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) that has served as the ruling party for over 50 years. The landslide victory in August by the DJP (Democratic Party of Japan) has an opportunity to remake the old bureaucratic system. How they intend to do that is not clear at this point.

Masahiko Ishizuka, in the September 28, 2009 Editorial & Opinion pages, so eloquently stated, the Japanese government was in a situation far from the government Abraham Lincoln envisioned in his Gettysburg address in 1863, when he famously referred to “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” It was more like a “government of bureaucrats, by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats.”

Ishizuka also stated that Japanese bureaucrats…were seen as serving not only lobbies closely linked to LDP members, but also building up a machine that accommodated their own interests.

I can’t help but see a definite resemblance to the United State’s own two-party system. It is becoming clear that our own bloated bureaucracy has outgrown its usefulness. With proposals to grow bureaucracies even more under the guise of “health care reform,” proposed cap-and-trade legislation, and a wealth of other programs only designed to “grow government” and not our economy, I wonder if it isn’t time for a new party system and a new focus for the U.S.