Why the People Seek Democracy?

From the Viewpoint of the Land Tax and the People's Rights Movement in the Earlier Stage of Meiji Period

Abstract

On the economic background of the People's Rights Movement, there has been contradictory between the “Agriculture Commercial Economy Theory” and the “Middle-zone Theory”. This paper aims to resolve this contradictory by combining the fluctuation of land tax and the local characteristics of the movement. Assuming that the agriculture in the earlier stage of Meiji period was a transitional economy, we built a model to describe the dynamic process of the land tax fluctuation. Furthermore, using the land tax data from 1875 till 1887, we deduced the values of parameters α and θ, which measuring the speed and the friction cost of the capital transfer respectively. As a result, the “Middle-zone Theory” is more reasonable if we focus on the intensified events. However, the “Agriculture Commercial Economy Theory” is more persuasive if we observe the movement from the whole picture.