Building of Political Parties Post-World War 2

                 Our research examines the effects the United States had on the political parties of the Axis powers as they reformed their governments after the end of World War 2. We divide the U.S. actions into several groups: writing of constitutions, promoting a party, promoting a candidate, financial backing, banning parties, and election timing.

In Japan and Germany, the U.S. played a major role in the writing of new constitutions. The U.S. helped dissolve the Japanese Empire and dismantled the feudal system and put a democratic system in place. This allowed for the very existence of political parties in Japan, something that had not ever been seen before. In Germany, political parties were mentioned in the constitution, meaning that the German constitution recognized the importance of political parties in order for democracy to function. This allowed the German political parties to have strong influences on government and maintain good standing in the eyes of the people.

The U.S. also insisted that Germany have single-member districts in its electoral system. Germany had originally proposed a system of proportional representation, where a person votes for a party instead of a candidate. After the votes are tallied, each party gets the same percentage of seats in parliament as the percentage of votes they won. A single-members districts involve voting for a specific candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins. This system means each German got two votes, but more importantly, that candidate selection by parties could be tightly controlled. Parties no longer needed to choose a candidate that could win the majority of votes, but only the most votes. Parties also get to choose who gets in on proportional representation, allowing them to greatly control who is in parliament.

The United States also backed the idea of an article allowing political parties to be banned in the German constitution. This article would be significant in the 1950s as the German constitutional courts banned the Communist Party of Germany as well as the Socialist Reich Party.

Before the formation of the German government, the U.S. already started influencing candidate selection in Germany. As U.S. forces liberated Cologne, the U.S. military appointed Konrad Adenauer as mayor. Adenauer, who had been the mayor before the reign of the Nazis, had long been an outspoken critic of the Adolf Hitler and his Nation Socialists. By appointing Adenauer as mayor of a large German city gave him a prominent role in German politics and exposed him to the public eye. Although the U.S. never endorsed him in later campaigns as Chancellor, it is hard to imagine that appointing him as mayor of Cologne did not give him the public exposure he has on his way to being Chancellor for 14 years.

Likewise, the first Japanese prime ministers were appointed by U.S. military leaders. Yoshida Shigeru was selected by his previous experience with the United States and his pro-American policy. The U.S. set the precedent of the governing party being pro-American and would only choose prime ministers from parties that would work with the U.S.

In Italy and Japan, the U.S. backed specific parties in elections. U.S. government agencies, in particular the CIA, funneled millions of dollars into parties’ coffers to ensure that they could win elections. The Christian Democrats in Italy were given supplies by the U.S. that they could then disperse among the Italian population to gain popularity and support from the Italian people. In Japan, the U.S. gave the Liberal Democratic Party millions of dollars. Both of these parties dominated politics in their respective countries for decades.

The only party banned in Germany were the Nazis, although a ban on the communist party was considered. The process of denazification in Germany ensured that there would be no support for far-right parties in the German population. The U.S. also led campaigns against communism, especially out of fear of the Soviet Union in the east. This led to politics being dominated by center-right and center-left parties for decades. The U.S. did not proactively ban any parties in Japan or Italy.

The last effect America had on German politics is the timing of the first elections. The U.S. had received millions of applications from German refugees to return to the country after the war ended. Out of fear that the refugees might vote for undesirable parties, the U.S. purposely delayed accepting the applications until after the election. Doing so allowed the U.S. to help guarantee a win for Konrad Adenauer and his CDU.

Although the types of interference by the United States were different, an analysis shows that different forms of interference still lead to stable democracies, particularly in the Germany and Japan. The analysis shows potential rebuilding policies for the U.S. in the future as it attempts to build democracies in other countries.