The rival economic platforms are actually fairly similar.
Not surprisingly, this early in the election campaign, the Democratic candidates do not have fully formed economic platforms.
There was never much distance between the economic platforms of the principal candidates, and throughout the campaign Mr. Fox avoided laying out a detailed program of economic change.
In addition, personality tends to trump ideology, and the resulting vacuum stymies growth of political parties that promote sensible social and economic platforms.
Their economic platforms are not that different, however, so the bitter campaign has mostly focused on Mr. Berlusconi and his potential conflicts of interest and alliance with Umberto Bossi, the volatile right-wing leader of the Northern League.
There is thus a risk that reform "without the hard bits", as the economic platforms of both men could arguably be described, could descend into old-fashioned pork-barrel politics.This would be unhealthy for Japan's poor fiscal position.
