Abstract
The distortions and malfunctioning brought about by malapportionment in representative democracies was made clear. First, we showed that increases in spending on the areas of transportation, communications, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, administration, and local autonomy occurred frequently, whereas those for social welfare, the protection of livelihoods, education and labor were less common, as were promises to address the declining birthrate and revise the ailing pension system. Second, when we examined the post-election activities of politicians in the Diet we found that references to national security, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and land and the environment were increasing. Third, when we analyzed possible distortions in government spending that were brought about by malapportionment, we found a relationship between malapportionment and special budgetary allocations in the areas of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and construction. Finally, mindful of what we discovered, we proposed a solution to the problem of malapportionment.
