2023 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Electoral Coordination in a Multi-level Context: Analysis of Candidate Manifestos in Japanese Subnational Elections
| Project/Area Number |
20K01445
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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, 教授 (90738311)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | sunbnational elections / manifestos / multilevel / second order / decentralization / ideology / depopulation / rural politics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Based on the data set of subnational candidate manifestos collected and digitalized in previous two years, I further analysed three different aspects of multilevel electoral coordination:1) strategies of blame avoidance and credit claiming in response to Covid-19 among gubernatorial and national candidates; 2) comparison of the conflict dimensions and ideological orientations of gubernatorial candidates in comparison with the national level; 3) and comparison of the central discursive themes, assumptions, and contestation for a key policy issue - rural in-migration - at both national and municipal level.
These separate findings complement earlier analysis looking at how gubernatorial candidates "nationalise" elections and the ideological content of mayoral elections. Together they illustrate the nature of multilevel electoral coordination and divergence in Japan. The main findings are that partisanship, district magnitude, and ruralness of the local government in question are the main factors shaping whether and how subnational candidates choose to align or diverge from national policy positions. We also find that the dimensions of contlict and ideological positions in subnational elections can not be simply reduced to progressive-conservative-reformist positions or clusters. In both municipal and gubernatorial contests, we find candidates with other orientations such as regionalist, populist, and feminist positions.
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