2012 Volume 12 Pages 32-47
Why was the system of special revenue sources for roads projects such as the gasoline tax terminated and changed to a general revenue source in 2009? Why does the budget allocation in the public works projects not change in spite of the termination of the system of special revenue sources for road projects? The purpose of this study is to ascertain the driving forces of policy termination through analyzing the reasons that special revenue sources used for road projects was changed to a general revenue source in 2009.
First, based on previous studies regarding policy termination, this study clarified the difficulty of the termination of special revenue sources for road projects. Then, this study focused on the effects of actors who did not gain benefits from existing policies and opposed it as factors in policy termination. In particular, by referring to the idea of Baumgartner and Jones (2009), this study highlights actors’ acquisition and utilization of positions from which they can formally express their opinions in decision-making to break the equilibrium between an actor who benefitted from existing policy to the actor that sought to change it.
This study further shows that if actors who insisted on the status quo compromised with actors who proposed the termination of special revenue sources for roads projects policy termination is realized. Actors who proposed the termination, including Prime Minister Koizumi and DPJ, used the systems to alter the behavior of actors who opposed the generalization. For this pourpose, they introduced a term limit for the chairman of the roads investigation committee in the LDP or they used the gridlocked Diet and the expiration date of laws that had to be reauthorized to fund the source of roads improvement Moreover, this study concludes that the termination of special revenue sources for roads projects was not completed at once. Instead, the termination was realized by gradual change through by actor’s trial and error over the course of many years. In addition, this study pointed out the influences of multiple policy layer and relevancy on policy termination, followed by result of the case study that the effects of termination of special revenue sources for road projects are limited because of the existence of other systems and plans to implement the road projects.
