TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan is a wealthy and modern country and a stable and peaceful democracy -- so why has it been a virtual one-party state for more than half a century, almost as long as communist China?

The answer lies in the long electoral success, unrivalled in any large democracy, of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the “iron triangle” it forged with big business and the powerful state bureaucracy.
Since 1955, the LDP has kept a stranglehold on Japanese politics, its rein broken only by one 10-month stretch, while guiding the nation from post-war gloom through its economic miracle but also the “lost decade” of the 1990s.
Now, with Japan again in deep recession, the LDP's once unbeatable political machine seems in disarray and, according to most opinion polls, likely to lose to the main opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
The opposition -- with LDP defectors in its mixed ranks -- has not offered a radically different agenda but deep voter fatigue with the government may help one of the “perennial opposition” parties take power.
As the era of LDP dominance may be nearing an end, experts are divided over its legacy, a mixed bag of rising national prosperity but also graft and money politics, pork-barrel spending and political stagnation.
“Japan may not have become an economic power without the LDP, which forged the so-called iron triangle with business leaders and bureaucrats,” said Takehiko Yamamoto, politics professor at Tokyo's Waseda University.
The special relationship of patronage, cosy deals and protection nurtured world-beating industries from autos to high-tech in a system that was sometimes derided as more socialist than the former Soviet Union.
“The role that the LDP played towards that objective was not insignificant, but it is also true that the party left behind a lot of negative consequences, such as corruption and social disparity,” Yamamoto said.
The LDP was formed through the merger of the Liberal and Democratic Parties under the first premier, Ichiro Hatoyama, whose grandson Yukio Hatoyama is now, ironically, seeking to defeat the party as the DPJ leader.
As Japan Inc. started taking the global economy by storm in the 1960s, the party strengthened its grip, subduing labour and student unrest and Vietnam war-era protests against the Japan-U.S. security alliance.
The party backed major corporations which in turn lavished money on Nagata-cho -- the Tokyo district that is home to the prime minister's residence and LDP headquarters and which has become a byword for money politics.
In rural areas, the party created another vote-gathering machine with farm protection and huge public works projects which brought jobs and helped companies but also left much of the countryside covered in concrete and steel.
“The party focused on pragmatism rather than political ideals or philosophies, which can be described as a form of economic nationalism,” said Yoshikazu Sakamoto, emeritus professor of politics at Tokyo University.
With the LDP as the only show in town, its main factions effectively performed the role of political parties, while their powerful bosses acted as kingmakers, rotating the premiership between them every few years.
The opposition Socialist Party, now part of the DPJ, was never seen as a viable alternative by Japan's notoriously risk-averse electorate.
“Socialists provided an outlet for criticism, but the people long thought they could never run the country,” said Masaki Taniguchi, associate professor of politics at the University of Tokyo.
The LDP paid a price for its murky style of politics when former premier Kakuei Tanaka was arrested in 1976 over a payoff scandal involving U.S. aeronautics giant Lockheed, one of the worst of many corruption scandals.
It was not until 1993, however, that the party lost government for the first time, when a seven-party coalition, including many LDP defectors, took power -- although their reign lasted only 10 months due to internal rifts.
The LDP again flexed its muscle under charismatic premier Junichiro Koizumi, who took office in 2001 with a reform promise and the slogan “Destroy the LDP.”
This golden run, however, ended when Koizumi stepped down in 2006, triggering a leadership vacuum. The struggling LDP has had three premiers since, including incumbent Taro Aso, who took office last September.
Experts say that while Japan's one-party system may soon be history, the LDP style of politics is here to stay.
“Since many of the DPJ leaders, including Hatoyama, are former LDP members, the party can be called another LDP,” Yamamoto said. “In that sense, the LDP politics won't die out even if power changes hands.”