On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Philip Hacker wrote:

I would like to add one final word to this discussion. Just as  Amarican 
writers would tend to view a political system similar to their own to be 
preferable, Japanese writers would likely do the same for their 
political system. Americans would bend toward representative democracy 
because they have been conditioned to dislike the concept of royalty, 
but Japanese still live under a monarchy, albeit a restricted one.

Lots of American sci-fi authors have done the same thing, though (space
monarchies).  For an interesting take on Space Monarchy vs. Space
Democracy, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a good series to look at, as
it has characters with which one can sympathize on both sides of the
conflict.

 John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that
was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the
Marring be amended, Manwe and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it,
and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.
--Final Line of The Silmarillion