Ideology, Politics and Revolution

Abstract

The Edo era witnessed significant economic, social and intellectual developments. The forces at work, in all these fields, were mainly of a centripetal character. In objective terms it is clear that national unification was in the process of formation. In order to weld these forces together, however, two further conditions were necessary: a national ideology and external pressure. Both of these emerged in the latter part of the Edo era. The element of hostility from the outside, real or perceived, is a sine qua non for the reinforcement of the sense of a common identity, namely Ibn Khaldoun’s concept of ’asabiyya. Internal differences diminish significantly in proportion when the interior is under siege. The crucial factor in being able to resist external pressure, however, is that of timing. If the external threat is not properly perceived and especially if there is no consensus on the means to be used for withstanding it, then the forces of coalescence will be dispersed and possibly counter-productive. In a word, this is what happened in China under the impact of the West; China possessed a cultural ideology, not a national one. Japan’s remarkably rapid response to the West was greatly facilitated by the fact that the national ideology had been evolved, it was there, it was simply a question of effectively projecting it.