TSUTSUMI Hidenori, UEKAMI Takayoshi
Journal of social science, 58(5・6) 33-48, Mar, 2007 Invited
In this paper, we clarify whether party/policy-centered electoral competition has been realized and examine the "inconsistent electoral system" model by analyzing candidate platform data of 2003 general election. The differences of policies between Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which are major two parties in Japan, are not large and intra-party policy cohesion is low. As for the effect of different electoral systems of Diet and Local Assembly, it was partially confirmed that policy competitions at national level did not penetrate those at the local level. This is due to the strength of affiliated relation (Keiretsu) between Diet members and Local Assembly members and the different types of competition in Local Assembly elections.