ABSTRACT
In the moderate middle were advocates of democracy. Riding a wave of popular demonstrations, their arguments bolstered by the growth of literacy and expansion in the ranks of eligible voters successfully hurdling the annual earnings qualification bar, using as a selling point their ability to deliver on a growing chorus of demand for pork barrel infrastructure projects, promoters of government responsible to the voters, not to the good will of the emperor, made substantial headway during the 1920s. Erecting the foundations for cabinets formed from the dominant parties in the Diet, they pioneered an alternating two-party system that vigorously debated many of the key decisions facing the nation during the decade.
