Analysing Complex Political Change by Applying the Concept of Regime Change: Identifying the Transformations within the Japanese Political-bureaucratic-business Regime

The paper highlights the relevance of the concept of regime change for addressing the challenges involved in analysing political developments and complex, incremental, change. The overall focus is on the occurrence and dynamic of complex political change: Why it happens; what are the drivers and how we identify the impact of domestic and international factors in that process. To demonstrate its application the concept of regime change is applied to the case study of Japan. It is argued that the concept of regime change will enable us to bridge the gap between the political science approach, with its emphasis on identifying law-like regulations, and the area studies approach with its focus on the particularities of specific cases.