2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
A Cross-National Analysis of Regional Strongholds for Statewide Parties
| Project/Area Number |
17K03536
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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 | Party systems / Party organization / Nationalization / Strongholds / Political science |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
During the year, I expanded and analyzed my database of regional strongholds to include single-member districts in Japanese Lower House elections won consecutively by the same candidate or party between 1996-2017. I have begun to create a visual map of electoral strongholds (reigonal and SMDs) for Japan and the comparative country cases (UK, Sweden, Canada, and Belgium). I also added to my database of campaigning material of party and candidate-level manifestos for various Japanese elections between 2013 and 2019. I undertook fieldwork in Belgium and spoke with local country experts (Kris Deschouwer, Pierre Verjans, Regis Dandoy, and Stefaan Walgrave) about partisan strongholds in both Flanders and Wallonia.
I presented my working paper on the multilevel dynamics of campaigning, including comparisons of strongholds and non-strongholds, twice internationally and once in Japan. The related paper to these presentations has been submitted in March 2019 to an international journal and is currently under review.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Data collection on strongholds in Belgium went smoothly as a result of help from country experts who generously shared electoral data and qualitiative insights .
Data collection on campainging at subnational level (manifestos) for comparing across strongholds and non-strongholds in Japan also went smoothly by use of a digital archive of the internet and scraping of the web (for candidate manifestos in the 2019 Local Unified Elections).
Although comparative data has not been acquired for the UK, Sweden and Canada for their recent general elections, I hope to apply similar data collection techniques and possible fieldwork in the coming year.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
This final year of funding will be focused on completing the database on strongholds, visualizing it through creation of electoral maps, and preparation of this data for sharing publically online, with help of my research assistant.
I will also be presenting a working paper on the comparative nature of strongholds in September, 2019 at the European Consortium of Political Research general conference. I hope to finish this paper for submission to a journal by the end of 2019.
I will also aim to finish a working paper on the changing nature of strongholds in Japan pre- and post- electoral system reform in the 1990s, present it at conferences and for submission by 2020.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I did not spend as much fo the funds for travelling as expected and will need it for attending an international conference as well as conducting fieldwork in the coming year.
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Research Products
(3 results)
