Abstract
In Japan, the Comprehensive Decentralization Law (2000) has created an equal relationship between local governments and the national government. Japanese local governments had tended to depend on the national government before the law was enforced, but after the enforcement, the local authorities have had to support and manage themselves without relying on the national government. Local authorities therefore require policy-making capabilities, which can be developed by many means including “municipality think-tanks”, each of which is set up as an organization of the local authority.
This paper discusses municipality think-tanks, with focus on in-house think-tanks set up within local authorities. The paper provides : 1) a statistical analysis of the state of establishment of in-house think-tanks and 2) clarification of the significance of in-house think-tanks.
We carried out a questionnaire survey of nationwide local governments of towns with a population of 50 thousand or more, on municipality think-tanks. This survey was unique in two ways : 1) it was the first nationwide survey of municipality think-tanks and 2) the response rate was as high as 71.2%.
This paper provides useful information for existing local governments to improve their policy-making capabilities and to establish municipality think-tanks.
JEL classification : R50, R58, R59
