Maruyama Masao and postwar democracy

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370088
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of thought
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Shimizu Yasuhisa 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究科(研究院), 教授 (00170986)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 丸山真男 / 戦後民主主義

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this historical study I have illuminated the political thought of Maruyama Masao in relation to Japanese postwar democracy. Maruyama wrote in 1964, when postwar democracy was criticized as a sham, "I bet on the sham of postwar democracy rather than the reality of the Empire of Greater Japan." The Empire had had been the regime of ultra-nationalism for him that violated freedom of conscience. After he finally chose the idea of sovereignty of the people in postwar Japan, he advocated democracy as "permanent revolution" that was eternal democratization. Admitting well that postwar democracy had an aspect of sham, he continued to make an intellectual effort to root democracy in Japanese society. However, his effort was not easily conveyed to the younger generation who had not experienced the Empire of Greater Japan.

Free Research Field

日本政治思想史