THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE INTRODUCTION OF DIRECT VOTING IN THE REAPPRAISAL OF PUBLIC WORKS

Abstract

The reappraisal and citizen participation have increasingly been introduced to recent public works in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to formulate the reappraisal-system selected by citizens themselves and to analyze the system from the viewpoint of the social utility, assuming that the reappraisal of public works is conducted through citizens' direct voting. The result shows that the social utility becomes higher as the rate of votes for continuing the project becomes higher. Furthermore, under the constant rate of votes to continue the public work, the social utility becomes higher as the number of times increases. However, this increase in opportunities for reappraisal does not necessarily result in the Pareto improvement.