Politics deals with power, control, influence and involves the capacity for one person or group to persuade another person or group to behave in a preferred manner. The Curtis piece illustrates the koenkai as political organizations that seem to serve as intermediaries between political leaders and the public. The political function of koenkai in Japanese politics plays an important role in the procurement, retention, and exercise of power for Diet candidates and Diet members. I believe the method by which the koenkai accomplish the procurement and retention of power through the three kais for its Diet representatives tends to overlook and downplay what a politician s positions are on comprehensive public policy issues. But rather the method places more emphasis and importance on what a politician can do for the local constituency in terms of short-term gratification of social networking needs.
Curtis describes the koenkai as a mass membership organization with the function of organizing large numbers of the general electorate on behalf of a particular Diet candidate . Particular koenkai were mentioned to have memberships ranging in the thousands to tens of thousands. Koenkai s are able to attain a broad based amount of memberships because membership is informal, sometimes even to the point of just being a name on the koenkai list is enough to constitute membership. Koenkai s typically are divided into various club groups depending on age, sex, and interest making them inclusive political bodies that cater to a wide range of people groups within the electorate.
Catering to the electorate on a more personal level is what fuels the koenkai s ability to acquire public consensus and approval of Diet members. The perks and benefits that come along with belonging to a koenkai is how support for a politician and his power is continuously preserved. The three kais menkai, shokai, and enkai, along with gift contributions from a koenkai to it s identifiers is what promulgates and enhances the personal relationship between the electorate and political candidates who seek their vote support. The example given in the Curtis piece described how in the U.S. we pay $100 plates of dinner to support a political candidate while in Japan they pay a dollar s worth of yen and in return receive vacations from the candidate they support.
I think the koenkai s uses of the three kai can become dangerous to a democracy s integrity and efficiency when dealing with broader scope national policy issues. It becomes dangerous when voters begin to support a candidate solely on the basis of what that candidate has done for them personally and disregards equally important factors such as where the candidate stands on various national public policy issues. For example, the koenkai provides you with graduate school entrance via influential connections with university officials; therefore you feel a sense of obligation to vote and support the koenkai s candidate out of gratitude.
The more a koenkai does for you, the more obligated you feel to support and advocate the koenkai s candidate. When this sense of obligation and commitment to a candidate stemming from koenkai favors and benefits blinds our view of where the candidate stands on policy issues, morals, and lawmaking, our integrity as a democracy is compromised. Koenkai s are highly influential and successful when it comes to unifying support for their individual candidate. However, I think democracy s purity becomes endangered and representation is corrupted when we let koenkais buy out a consensus of voters and narrow our view of the candidate s positions on national issues.