How people perceive Japanese representative democracy: An analysis of Web survey experiment with 'deliberation within'.

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03562
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: Sojo University
• Principal Investigator: Imai Ryosuke 崇城大学, 総合教育センター, 教授 (80345248)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 一票の較差 / WEB調査 / 熟慮

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A principle of ‘one person, one vote’ is not fully fulfilled in the Japanese National Diet elections. Do voters want their votes count equally? Or, do they allow the disparity in the relative weight of a vote? To approach this research question, I conducted a WEB survey in which half of respondents were presented a pros and cons of means to lessen the disparity. By analyzing this data, I reached following three conclusions. Firstly, only about one-third of voters are interested in the lawsuit to request a declaration of invalid election. Secondly, few voters really want their votes count equally, and more than half of voters allow the disparity of two to one. And finally, respondents who saw the information of how to realize a principle of ‘one person, one vote’ become to tolerate their view of this principle, because they recognize the difficulty of correcting disparity.

Free Research Field

政治学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

いわゆる一票の較差問題について、これまで研究の俎上に載せられることのなかった有権者の視点からの検討を加えることを目的として、較差問題への対処法をその短所とともに回答者に示し、それについてよく考えるよう促す熟慮型世論調査を行った。その分析から、較差問題に対処するには「副作用」も伴うことを熟慮を通じて理解するため、「一票の較差」の許容範囲について、より寛容な態度を示すようになる傾向があることを明らかにした。また、一票を投じる主体である有権者は、一票の較差をめぐる訴訟にあまり関心を寄せておらず、重要性も認めていないこともあわせて確認した。これらの点に、学術的・社会的意義があると考える。