Politics in Meiji
- During the tokugawa shogunate and for much of Japan's history, democracy was never a conceivable option. It was a symbol of the deplorable west and thus Japan was ruled by a select group of individuals who obeyed the emperor. The best way to describe it is an oligarchy that used the omnipotent word of the emperor to fulfil their bidding. During the Meiji period, whilst this system was still effectively in place, we can see institutions of democracy making their first appearance.
1. A constitution was drafted in 1889, establishing certain elements of a democracy. This constitution was written by a smaller "privy council" which was a select group of people that posed as the oligarch to review the actions taken by the house of representatives.
2. Article 33 of the constitution stated that there would be a house of representatives within the government, effectively forming the parliament.
3. Article 35 of the constitution stated that there would be elections to decide the representatives within this house of representatives - and for the first time elections were introduced to Japan.
4. Out of the 300 seats in the House of representatives, 130 were taken by the liberal party and 41 taken by the "constitutional reform" party. This means that for the first time in Japan's history, there was now a legitimate opposition in government.
5. The first act of the new house of representatives in 1890 was to reject a budget submitted to them by the privy council. They asked the privy council the reduce the budget by 10% before they would ratify it. Incidentally, 10% was the same amount of funds proposed in the new budget allocated to "bonuses" for members of both the privy council and parliament.
6. The first elections took place in 1890, however, there was a catch. Only men paying 15 yen a year in taxes were allowed to vote. Therefore, this meant that only 2% of the population was allowed to vote, making us question the legitimacy of the Meiji democracy.
Historiography:
Paul Handley "The privy council became a locus of power obstructing any opposition that was gaining strength"