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The neo-imperialist conservative part isn't too far off from the truth though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Kaigi
I disagree that they are somehow similar though, trivially evident by the fact that the Republicans aren't the only party.
It's also important to note that even though LDP is one party, there are many factions within it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factions_in_the_Liberal_Democr...
The factions can have quite different opinions.
I agree they exert a some influence on narrow areas, but control is too strong a word. World is too chaotic for any one entity to exert any degree of control on anything.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-...
Actually, the above study is just a confirmation of what was known a long time ago as outlined in one of the most famous and biggest study of the US system and social dynamics:
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/class_domination.html
This famous UCSC study found out that ~30,000 people (including women, children) constitute the American elite class and they are extremely class conscious and exclusive. They hold balls to introduce their children into their own society for coming of age, they intermarry within themselves, they monopolize all positions of power among themselves. The study found out that they monopolize everywhere from governors' seats to senate to corporate boards among themselves.
However if we want to talk Oligarchy we can view the US as being dominated culturally by Liberal (classical sense) values. Open Society, all that stuff. This manifests in politics.
Those 'few things' define the oligarchy. As the Princeton study found out.
> Open Society, all that stuff.
That's a false perception. There's nothing open about the existing American oligarchy. The famous UCSC study referenced in the grandparent comment found out that ~30,000 people (including women, children) constitute the American elite class and they are extremely class conscious and exclusive. They hold balls to introduce their children into their own society for coming of age, they intermarry within themselves, they monopolize all positions of power among themselves. The study found out that they monopolize everywhere from governors' seats to senate to corporate boards.
Even the people who are more or less familiar with this think that because there are some 'exceptions' to this in the tech sector due to the existence of startups and also a few upwardly mobile upper middle class personas occasionally marry into that oligarchy, there isn't an oligarchy and the society is 'open' and upwardly mobile. But exceptions don't make a rule. Even the anomaly that is the tech sector is a rule-taker in American economy and politics, not a rule maker. The rules are still made by mostly East Coast 'old money' families and the elite networks that their social groups constitute. Here are the critical findings of the study again:
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/class_domination.html
They are both right wing capitalist parties.
Sure - one of them might talk about LGBT rights or whatever. But when a LGBT person gets in an accident - they will still receive a crippling medical bill. Unlike in "homophobic" countries like Poland, South Korea or Japan.