The Political Process and Voting Behavior in Referendums on Rebuilding and/or Repairing City Hall

Abstract

Recently, referendums on rebuilding and/or repairing the city hall have been growing more common. Several factors have caused this increase. First, there are several factors causing an increase in referendums in general. Second, the recent wave of municipal amalgamations resulted in new municipalities with multiple city halls. Finally, the requirement that the municipal assembly pass a "Location Ordinance" by a two-thirds majority in order to move the city hall to another location stimulated the demand for referendums. In this paper, I analyze the political process that led to a referendum in 2012 on rebuilding or repairing Tottori City hall and the voting behavior in that referendum.

I focus on the discussions concerning enacting a referendum ordinance and the difference between center and periphery of Tottori City after amalgamation. The choice was between rebuilding city hall and repairing the old city hall. The analysis shows that voters who relied more on the city assembly for their information were more likely to vote to repair. The repair option won the referendum but turned out not to be possible. The analysis also suggests that residents of each area of the city had different decision rules for deciding their vote.