| NOTA |
(★)(In a recent article in ´The New Yorker´, the noted economist and historian Robert Heilbroner handed down his final verdict : ´Less than seventy-five years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over : capitalism has won. Indeed, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, as well as the accelerating economic reforms in China, do seem to signal the end of socialism. Yet do these developments really imply a victory for capitalism? True, in most cases the marketplace has proved to be far more efficient than the ´queues of the planned economy´, business civilization has turned out to be ´less worse´ than state bureaucracy, and commercialism --however cheap and mindless-- is much better than the ideological stifling of individual freedom. What, however, is capitalism? Do we in the non-socialist world all live under capitalism? The author´s answer to this question is an unequivocal no. Perhaps the United States offers us a relatively pure case of capitalism, but the European and Japanese models differ substantially from that of the United States, or from capitalism in any ideal form. Setting aside the European case, the author intends to argue here that Japan has developed a somewhat unique model of a mixed economy during the past sixty some-odd years (the Showa period) and established what might be called a non-capitalistic market economy with a pluralistic political regime. Thus the real choice now facing the world seems to be not between capitalism or socialism, but between a capitalistic market economy or a non-capitalistic market economy. The non-capitalistic nature of the Japanese economy has recently become the source of various international frictions, including those involving merger and acquisition issues. A non-capitalistic regime has a built-in safety mechanism against classic capitalistic takeovers, as well be described later, and is basically closed to such attacks from outside. For many Americans and Europeans, this basic structural characteristic of the Japanese economy has become a symbol of Japanese ´closedness´. Indeed, there are many closed aspects that remain in the Japanese market that could be rectified with some effort, but this closedness cannot be opened unless the Japanese wish to change their regime from a non-capitalistic to a capitalistic economy. Over the past ten years, the uniqueness of Japan´s system has been debated at length by economists and business administration scholars. These specialists have developed a series of theories purporting to explain the Japanese economy, starting with the Japan Incorporated theory, and continuing with the Japan as Number One, and Japanese management theories. More recent ideas involve labor market theory, corporate theory, and ´peoplism.´ For example, according to Keisuke Itami, professor of business administration at Hitotsubashi University, and others, the Japanese firm is regulated by humanism rather than capitalism, and is characterized by the sovereignty of the employee, the decentralization of information, and the internalization of the market. Some, like Itami, believe that employee sovereignty supersedes both the pursuit of profit and shareholder gain. Others, like Kyoto University economist Masahiko Aoki, characterize employee sovereignty as nothing more than one of several goals. Yet most analysts have correctly concluded that management for the stakeholders rather than management for the shareholders is an especially widespread practice in Japan. When we add the public sector to this non-capitalistic corporate sector, the result --at least on the surface-- is a well organized but extremely competitive market economy with considerably egalitarian income distribution and high social mobility. Indeed, the system is quite internalized and, to the mind of individualistic Westerners, too well organized. To date, however, it has proved to be highly efficient and competitive. The author does not wish to compare the merits and demerits of the two systems here, but only to describe in full the structure of this non-capitalistic market economy as a legitimate socioeconomic regime that is not necessarily a unique outgrowth of Japan´s unusual culture. The system is a legitimate heir of the revisionist moves towards a mixed economy taken after the Great Depression. It was primarily formed in the Showa period (1925-1989), reaching full maturity in the period of high growth following World War II. [from ´Prologue´]) |
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