官僚の政治的コントロールに関する数量分析の試み

抄録

This article examines the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats in postwar Japan. The author argues that the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has manipulated bureaucrats' policy preferences towards the LDP's ideal position by using “ex ante control” such as recruitment and promotion policy. With the framework of the principal-agent model, the author claims that the spurious autonomy of Japanese bureaucrats can be interpreted as the outcome of successful control over bureaucrats' preferences by LDP politicians. The paper provides evidence with a quantitative analysis of surveys conducted in 1976-77 and 2001-2002. For example, the closer the policy preference of the bureaucrat is to the ideal position of the LDP, the wider he tends to find his discretion.