How democracy work?

I was involved in a study group on "widening gap" with some scholars and politicians.
It was an attempt to clarify what exactly is "gap" and how harmful for our society.

Prof. Jinno's talk at the last meeting reminded me of a role of civil society. He admitted that "gap" is actually widening regionally and economically. They were caused by several reasons including deregulation of labor market and foreign investment, he said.

As a solution of this widening gap, prof. Jinno mentioned a keyword, "social capital", which consists of individuals' ability and trust in society. According to him, that can build a blank of limiting social services such as adult or child care, education, and re-training, etc.

That's also said a decade ago by R. Putnam, who questioned a reason of economic gap between North and South Italy.

OK. Maybe we can also find some examples within the country to highlight the cause and effect.
Next question is "how can we raise social capital?". That's a key for revitalization of local communities.

Thinking about democracy with French cuisine

Time flies so fast..

The meeting with an editorial chief of an English journal was interesting.
We had a wonderful dinner at a french restaurant in top floor of a hotel. The course with seafood appetizer, onion soup, roasted duck and two desserts were great. The volume was not enough for me, though..

Anyway, we discussed over energy, pension, relation with China and of course Japan-US relation. Among them, there was a deep topic, "is democracy universal?". Maybe not, as we could see many different institutions over the world. However, as some scholar commented in the dinner, "liberalism should be universal". He gave us an example of the case, Iran. Well, while Iranian people could vote, it is not democracy. But in terms of liberalism, they have some of them even though still limited.

The talk was abstract but rare opportunity for me to think about.
Actually, it could be linked to a fundamental question of American foreign policy.