爱豆传媒

In this book, the author aims to deepen our understanding of the connections between various political labels and ideologies by citing the findings of empirical research and simple data comparisons, with the subsidiary line of nationalism. Although our society often states that “society is becoming more conservative” or “leaning to the right,” the meanings of these expressions are diverse.
 
For example, left-wing parties in Denmark have anti-immigrant attitudes while economic right-wing parties in Eastern Europe are at the same time socioculturally liberal. In some countries (e.g., Japan in the past), left-wingers are nationalists, whereas in some countries, environmentalism and nationalistic attitudes are linked. This book gives explanations to these (perhaps to some) surprising political phenomena.
 
The book also deals with such questions as the following: What are nationalist attitudes? Do strong nationalist attitudes strengthen or weaken democratic norms? The title of the book starts with the word “nationalism,” but I was also very conscious of the subtitle focused on the left and right wing in politics. In fact, the working title of the book was Political Left and Right with Nationalism.
 
The first three chapters are mainly stories that students who studied or are studying political science at a university will hear at some point. These may not be the most surprising stories for students majoring in the subject, but I hope they will give you an interesting taste of how political consciousness is actually connected differently in various countries. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with slightly more recent phenomena (and findings based on newer academic articles), so you may find the findings surprising or try to raise counterarguments. Of course, those who do not specialize in political science (or social science in the broad sense) can enjoy reading this book.
 
The data used are mainly from the World Values Survey (WVS), which can be accessed by anyone, and the analysis used in this book is just a simple correlation. Therefore, I would be happy if students who are interested in the subject or who want to explore it in greater depth can use this book as a basis for further verification. Although this pocketbook is an easy read, it specifies all the academic sources, so I recommend you to read the original papers as well.
 

(Written by NAKAI Ryo, Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology / 2024)