A Study on the Interaction Between “State Learning” and International Structure from the Perspective of Comparative Politics: A Case of Japan’s Taika Era Reforms and China’s Westernization Movement in the Qing Dynasty

Abstract

This paper attempts to take Japans Taika Era Reforms and China’s Westernization Movement in the Qing Dynasty as positive and negative cases to explore the role of “state learning” under the pressure of different international structures and how it leads to changes in state formation. In the positive case of Japan’s Taika Era Reforms, the international structure is not a balance of power system, so Japan’s “state learning” behavior is not dominated by the consequence logic and adaptive logic of the balance of power system. Japan’s Taika Era Reforms are more due to the “elite struggle” Reformists, desire to obtain political power and “state learning” within the country, which enables Japan to feedback to the international structure through “state learning”. This case shows that the international structural pressure of the balance of power cannot effectively explain all the situations of the transformation of state formation. In the negative case of China’s Westernization Movement in the Qing Dynasty, although the pressure of the international structure forced the emergence of “state learning”, the “elite struggle” reformers in the country could not have a stable power base and their willingness to “state learning” was not strong, which led to the change of the state formation that could not be positively fed back to the international structure. The hypothesis of “cognitive structure institutional change interaction” in this paper can effectively explain that “state learning” is a situation in which China and Japan have different behaviors in the face of different international structural pressures and highlight the importance of “state learning” will and the struggle between elites within the country.