Political Culture, Economic Structure and Policy: The Laffont‐Tirole Model Extended to Modern Japan

This paper deals with two issues. By linking culture and political systems, we develop alternatives to the “Developmental State” approach and propose, among other types, the “Bureaucratic State” for explaining the case of Japan. We extend the Laffont‐Tirole (L‐T) model of regulatory capture and propose a “bureaucratic capture” model. Variations of capture are shown to apply, given particular cultural predispositions. The case of atomic energy in Japan and the United States is then studied to assess the predictive efficacy of the extended L‐T model. We conclude that cultural predispositions and the corresponding state types affect the degree to which capture takes place.