Author : Rieko Kage
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139492160
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)
Book Synopsis Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan by : Rieko Kage
Download or read book Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan written by Rieko Kage and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite reduced incomes, diminished opportunities for education, and the psychological trauma of defeat, Japan experienced a rapid rise in civic engagement in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Why? Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan answers this question with a new general theory of the growth in civic engagement in postwar democracies. It argues that wartime mobilization unintentionally instills civic skills in the citizenry, thus laying the groundwork for a postwar civic engagement boom. Meanwhile, legacies of prewar associational activities shape the costs of association-building and information-gathering, thus affecting the actual extent of the postwar boom. Combining original data collection, rigorous statistical methods, and in-depth historical case analyses, this book illuminates one of the keys to making postwar democracies work.