Economic Accountability and Strategic Calibration in Japan's Liberal Democratic Party.

The article proposes a new explanation for the dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan. Mori's low ratings in 2000 were especially low and Koizumi's popularity in 2001 was impressively high. Yet the ways in which the LDP managed those two years are consistent with a more general strategy of calibration. The Mori cabinet was frequently reshuffled to raise public support for the prime minister and his party. When those efforts failed, Mori stepped down, after less than a year on the job. Koizumi, in contrast, managed to serve a year and half in office before juggling the cabinet. Though he sometimes irritated fellow LDP politicians by challenging party norms, they tolerated the changes in exchange for greater public support for the party.