2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Local Elections and Party Politics: The Analysis of the Impact of Local-Level Electoral Systems on Party Policy Formation

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20K13420
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Basic Section 06010:Politics-related
Research Institution	Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute
Principal Investigator	HAKIAI Daisuke 公益財団法人ひょうご震災記念21世紀研究機構, 研究戦略センター, 主任研究員 (20846513)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	政治学 / マルチレベル選挙政治 / 政党政治 / 選挙制度 / 選挙公報
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This study tried to elucidate the following research question: "When political institutions differ between the central and local levels, how does this difference affects party politics/policy making on national level?" To clarify this question, I engaged in two research themes: (1) Theoretical analysis of policy interests of national politicians and local ones, (2) Empirical analysis of the policy interests of national and local ones. It is evident from the results by quantitative analysis used "text analysis of manifestos of Japanese National/Local Politicians" that (1) the policy interests of local politicians are different from the national ones, (2) local politicians tend to place more importance on local interests and casework for constituencies/supporters , and (3) The relationship "Prime minister - Ruling Party MP - local MP" is important for recognizing policy process of Japanese politics.
Free Research Field	政治学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究の学術的意義は、（１）自身のオリジナルなデータセットの分析を通じて地方議員個人の選挙戦略並びに政策関心を実証的に明らかにしたこと、（２）選挙制度改革以降の国会議員の政策関心を実証的に解明したこと、（３）選挙制度改革後によって生じた中央地方間の選挙制度の「ねじれ」が日本政治に及ぼす影響を多角的に検証したこと、の3つである。本研究の社会的意義は、（１）上記の分析結果を踏まえ、選挙制度改革後の日本政治の現況を論じるうえでの分析枠組みを提示したこと、（２）これまで未解明であった地方議員の実態をデータ分析により明らかにし、今後の地方政治を論じるための「材料」を提示したこと、の2点である。