Photo/Illutration The Upper House passes a bill to revise the Political Fund Control Law at a plenary session on June 19. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Canadian-American political scientist David Easton (1917-2014), who became prominent in the United States in the 1950s, defined politics as the "authoritative allocation of values for a society."

He was also renowned for being the first to apply systems theory to the study of political science.

I am recalling his abstruse works now because his model of the political system was called the "black box," and we are hearing a lot about that now—albeit only in the context of slush funds being jealously guarded by certain Japanese politicians.

The political system is the black box that cannot be seen through. Into this go "support" and "demand" as inputs, which are transformed inside the box into "decision" and "execution" as outputs.

As I understand it, the inputs consist of the people's demands for a better society and easier life while they support the government by paying taxes and obeying the law. As for the outputs, I'd say they are policy decisions and legislation.

And since the inside of the box cannot be seen, the public should be able to trust the government.

However, the Japanese black box that's in the news has produced no outputs, despite inputs of public anger and election defeats.

The revised Political Fund Control Law was approved by the Diet on June 19. But this legislation neither bans, nor requires full disclosure of, the controversial "political activity expenses."

The legal revision was supposed to have made the movement of political funds more "transparent." But there was nothing transparent about the manner in which the revision bill was discussed, and the black box is obviously going to remain just that.

How the political activity expenses were used will not be disclosed until 10 years later, and the receipts to be presented at the time will likely be blacked out.

All we could see were the Liberal Democratic Party's self-absorbed senior executives who are obsessed with protecting their huge slush funds. The box is full of holes, but what is inside cannot be seen.

Is this scandal, which began with the return of funds to lawmakers raised through fund-raising parties, going to die in the black box? No, we just cannot allow that. The future depends on our inputs.

—The Asahi Shimbun, June 20

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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