Jeffrey Broadbent | University of Minnesota (original) (raw)
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Papers by Jeffrey Broadbent
Journal of Political Power, 2024
What theories explain a dynamic political field and its outcome? Can we judiciously combine theor... more What theories explain a dynamic political field and its outcome? Can we judiciously combine theories into a better hybrid explanation? To be valid, a theory's claimed causal factor must manifest in the field as a representative mode of micro power used between actors in dyads (its mechanism). The modes' relative presence indicates the theories' relative causal validity. The Integrated Structurational Analysis method analyzes (hundreds of) actor dyads to find evidence on the relative presence of the modes. The results indicate a shifting, multidimensional causal timescape driving the field and its outcome. Findings from a Japanese case study illustrate the method.
Policy Sciences, 2000
Social capital, derived from voluntary cooperative relationships and memberships, is thought to e... more Social capital, derived from voluntary cooperative relationships and memberships, is thought to enhance a group's capacity to attain a common good. Japan enjoys plentiful social capital, which affects all aspects of society, even politics. One would expect that social capital would facilitate parties to arrive at equitable labor policies and reduce overt political conflict in Japan. Has this cooperation occurred, or has labor been coopted? My study addresses this question through the analysis of networks among organizations active in labor-related policy decisions. I focus on Japan with some reference to the United States. The analysis shows that, indeed, networks of social capital weave together government, business, and labor very tightly in Japan (but only labor in the U.S.). The more tightly social capital ties labor to the state, the less it differs from the state's preferred policy. Intense differences of material interests, though, as indicated by the case of a health care policy decision, weaken this integrative capacity of social capital. The Labor Ministry tries to use social capital to build consensus between labor and business, but diverging interests erode such consensus. These findings indicate that even under favorable conditions, social capital exists in tension with more instrumental interest patterns.
Sociological Forum, 1989
Political conflict poses questions about social cohesion, power, and change that culturalist and ... more Political conflict poses questions about social cohesion, power, and change that culturalist and materialist theories answer very differently. Comparative sociology requires a method for the integrated and weighted use of their answers. The following case study of environmental politics in Japan develops and illustrates the use of such a method. The types of sanctions used to build influence relations, analyzed through graphs and network matrices, indicate the relative validity of different theories. In this case, a class structure determines the main direction of environmental politics, but cultural legitimations sometimes divert it to other tracks.
Japan's rapid industrial development and economic growth in the decades after World War ... more Japan's rapid industrial development and economic growth in the decades after World War II brought dramatic environmental damage. Japan diverges from the typical story of industrial democracies, however, in the scale and speed with which it was able to reduce air and ...
Journal of Civil Society, 2007
This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growt... more This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—set the conditions towards the growth of civil society, responding to global influences during the 1990s. We argue that the successful implementation of ‘social expectation’ played a central role for creating a social flow towards non-profit organizational activities and for the passage of the Non-Profit Organization Law (NPO Law) in Japan. Social expectation is an internalized social norm for individuals and organizations, thus for society as a whole, about what people should do. It operates on two different levels—first on particular elite groups and then on the general public—driving the dramatic growth of associational activities in Japan. It is a general societal climate where people's imagined reference groups or communities affect their behaviours. ‘Social expectation’ is a future vision leading Japan towards a citizen-based society through dynamic collaborations among activists, NPOs, and media. We suggest in incorporating a ‘social expectation’ perspective in the study Japanese civil society development.
Through the promulgation of science, norms and rules about climate change, the United Nations has... more Through the promulgation of science, norms and rules about climate change, the United Nations has been trying to build a global community of agreement, concern and action. This essay compares the changing response of five Asian societies, namely, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to the emerging UN global climate change community. Data comes from the content analysis of Asian newspapers from 1997 to 2010, with a special focus on 2007-8. The global average and the Asian societies paid increasing attention to climate change, but only episodic focus to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The relatively low level paid by Taiwan indicates the positive effect of membership in the UN system on global climate change coverage. The Asian societies framed climate change in different ways, indicating the effect of divergent domestic factors with data from the international project Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (Compon).
Journal of Political Power, 2024
What theories explain a dynamic political field and its outcome? Can we judiciously combine theor... more What theories explain a dynamic political field and its outcome? Can we judiciously combine theories into a better hybrid explanation? To be valid, a theory's claimed causal factor must manifest in the field as a representative mode of micro power used between actors in dyads (its mechanism). The modes' relative presence indicates the theories' relative causal validity. The Integrated Structurational Analysis method analyzes (hundreds of) actor dyads to find evidence on the relative presence of the modes. The results indicate a shifting, multidimensional causal timescape driving the field and its outcome. Findings from a Japanese case study illustrate the method.
Policy Sciences, 2000
Social capital, derived from voluntary cooperative relationships and memberships, is thought to e... more Social capital, derived from voluntary cooperative relationships and memberships, is thought to enhance a group's capacity to attain a common good. Japan enjoys plentiful social capital, which affects all aspects of society, even politics. One would expect that social capital would facilitate parties to arrive at equitable labor policies and reduce overt political conflict in Japan. Has this cooperation occurred, or has labor been coopted? My study addresses this question through the analysis of networks among organizations active in labor-related policy decisions. I focus on Japan with some reference to the United States. The analysis shows that, indeed, networks of social capital weave together government, business, and labor very tightly in Japan (but only labor in the U.S.). The more tightly social capital ties labor to the state, the less it differs from the state's preferred policy. Intense differences of material interests, though, as indicated by the case of a health care policy decision, weaken this integrative capacity of social capital. The Labor Ministry tries to use social capital to build consensus between labor and business, but diverging interests erode such consensus. These findings indicate that even under favorable conditions, social capital exists in tension with more instrumental interest patterns.
Sociological Forum, 1989
Political conflict poses questions about social cohesion, power, and change that culturalist and ... more Political conflict poses questions about social cohesion, power, and change that culturalist and materialist theories answer very differently. Comparative sociology requires a method for the integrated and weighted use of their answers. The following case study of environmental politics in Japan develops and illustrates the use of such a method. The types of sanctions used to build influence relations, analyzed through graphs and network matrices, indicate the relative validity of different theories. In this case, a class structure determines the main direction of environmental politics, but cultural legitimations sometimes divert it to other tracks.
Japan's rapid industrial development and economic growth in the decades after World War ... more Japan's rapid industrial development and economic growth in the decades after World War II brought dramatic environmental damage. Japan diverges from the typical story of industrial democracies, however, in the scale and speed with which it was able to reduce air and ...
Journal of Civil Society, 2007
This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growt... more This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—set the conditions towards the growth of civil society, responding to global influences during the 1990s. We argue that the successful implementation of ‘social expectation’ played a central role for creating a social flow towards non-profit organizational activities and for the passage of the Non-Profit Organization Law (NPO Law) in Japan. Social expectation is an internalized social norm for individuals and organizations, thus for society as a whole, about what people should do. It operates on two different levels—first on particular elite groups and then on the general public—driving the dramatic growth of associational activities in Japan. It is a general societal climate where people's imagined reference groups or communities affect their behaviours. ‘Social expectation’ is a future vision leading Japan towards a citizen-based society through dynamic collaborations among activists, NPOs, and media. We suggest in incorporating a ‘social expectation’ perspective in the study Japanese civil society development.
Through the promulgation of science, norms and rules about climate change, the United Nations has... more Through the promulgation of science, norms and rules about climate change, the United Nations has been trying to build a global community of agreement, concern and action. This essay compares the changing response of five Asian societies, namely, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to the emerging UN global climate change community. Data comes from the content analysis of Asian newspapers from 1997 to 2010, with a special focus on 2007-8. The global average and the Asian societies paid increasing attention to climate change, but only episodic focus to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The relatively low level paid by Taiwan indicates the positive effect of membership in the UN system on global climate change coverage. The Asian societies framed climate change in different ways, indicating the effect of divergent domestic factors with data from the international project Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (Compon).