Recent Studies on Central-Local Relations

Abstract

  This review article explores the recent trends of the studies on central-local relations. I categorize the researches into two; one which treats central-local relations as an independent variable and one which tries to explain the central-local relations as a dependent variable. In another words, the former asks what is an “institutional equilibrium” of the central-local relations and the latter questions how and why a central-local relation becomes an “equilibrium institution”. Although the inquiries on central-local relations in the United States cannot be said productive before 1990s comparing with other research fields, we see the improvement in this decade. I prospect the future trend will be the integration of the “institutional equilibrium” analyses and the “equilibrium institution” analyses. I also derive the implication and make a suggestion to the researches in Japan from the researches in the United States.