This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—se...

Introduction While the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 allowed East to meet West, the 2000s will see parts of the East joining the West through the process of accession to the European Union (EU). In such a dynamic environment, Eastern and Western institutions, including NGDOs (non-governmental development organisations), will have to learn not only to cohabit but to coordinate and adapt to co...

Situations of conflict giving rise to social dilemmas are widespread in society and game theory is one major way in which they can be investigated. Starting from the observation that individuals in society interact through networks of acquaintances, we model the co-evolution of the agents’ strategies and of the social network itself using two prototypical games, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the S...