The Effect Uncontested local elections has on the Quality of Democracy

2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22J11342
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Research Fellow: NORDSTROEM Robert Tor Erik 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 特別研究員(DC2)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-04-22 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: Uncontested elections / legislative behavior / district magnitude

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

I used the part of the 2022 budget that was carried over to the next year to cover some general expenses, which will be explained in detail below.
- proofreading of paper "The effects of uncontested elections on legislative speechmaking: An analysis of legislative performance in Japan's prefectural assemblies" which was later published
-- paper examined the effect uncontested elections in Japan's prefectural assemblies had on legislative performance
-- study found that opposed to conventional wisdom, uncontested politicians are in fact more effective at participating in legislative activities.
further activities: Employment of two RAs who helped me create datasets on uncontested elections and buying books for the research project

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

I have been able to publish one of the papers in the application and am currently getting ready to submit a second paper which focuses on the effect uncontested elections have on voter attitudes. I plan on submitting the full results of the project as my doctoral dissertation during AY 2024.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

- conduct follow-up studies on uncontested elections
- after graduating, compile the findings of the project into a book project