Abstract

In the first decade and a half following the Meiji Restoration, the burgeoning public discourse in Meiji Japan became increasingly dominated by parliamentarianism, the belief that a national assembly should be created in order for Japan to complete its transition to a modern nation-state. This dissertation examines the interrelationship between the state and civil society in this formative phase of modern Japan, focusing on the development and flourishing of public discourse on parliamentarianism. ;Following the seikanron crisis of 1873, some ex-government members began to promote parliamentarianism, combining the latest theories of liberalism and representation imported from the West and the discourse of "public deliberation" inherited from the Tokugawa period. In metropolitan regions, the drive toward Westernization and urbanization produced the urban intelligentsia, including "legal bureaucrats," journalists and lawyers. These men contributed to the growth of associational activities and the dissemination of parliamentarian discourse. In rural localities wealthy farmers and other "notables" gained autonomy and power through the participation in limited representative institutions originally set up by the state to elicit their cooperation. These groups together constituted civil society which actively sought to intenrene in the formation of national policies and other matters of public interest. ;Meanwhile, the leaders of the Meiji state did not agree among themselves on the degree to which a representative system could be permitted in Japan, some leaders being more open to the gradual implementation of parliamentarianism than others. They ultimately responded to the pressures from civil society not by opening up the system for greater participation, but by fortifying their ranks and consolidating their ideological hegemony over civil society. ;In telling this story, the present dissertation not only uses a wide range of published and unpublished sources, but also assumes an interdisciplinary perspective that embraces recent developments in other social science disciplines. Specifically, it draws upon the concepts of "civil society" and "public sphere" to analyze the sociopolitical changes in early Meiji Japan. The application of this new theoretical perspective shifts the focus of historical inquiry from state policies and marginalized acts of defiance to the complex relationship between the state and civil society and the resulting development of public discourse. Thus, this dissertation presents a more comprehensive, more nuanced and more informative portrait of early Meiji politics than those given in the existing studies