2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
A Cross-National Analysis of Regional Strongholds for Statewide Parties
| Project/Area Number |
17K03536
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
Hijino Ken 京都大学, 法学研究科, 准教授 (90738311)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Nationalization / Party systems / Electoral reform / Multilevel / Strongholds |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The project investigated the extent to which Japan's partisan competition has become "nationalized" (homogenizing of partisan support and swings across districts) and the extent to which partisan strongholds (regions or districts dominated by one party) have changed, since electoral reform in 1994 and compared to other majoritarian systems.
The project found that Japan's party system since 1994 has not become more nationalized as measured by different indicators (static, dynamic, and multilevel, etc.) as some previous studies claimed. In addition, there has been a greater number of regions and districts that are less competitive over multiple elections, forming extensive partisan strongholds.
Japan's nationalization and stronghold levels were compared with other majoritarian systems. We found that Japan's lopsided partisan competition was unique in that only one of the two major national parties in Japan sustained such extensive strongholds.
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| Free Research Field |
Political science
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
Territorially unbalanced partisan suport and entrenched strongholds in Japan's party system highlight the challenges of generating competitive
elections across differing regions and districts, necessary for improving accountability and responsiveness for all voters, regardless of where they live.
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