This article examines numerically the influence of personal communication and the media on the political attitudes and voting behavior in the 1993 general election based on an analysis of the CNEP survey data. Because this election was epoch-making in that it made a dent of parties' promotion through the media, it is of service to scrutinize the media effect. In addition, now that the social capital has been in the picture, we cannot be too sensitive to the influence of personal communication. Thus, this article also goes it over. The regression analyses with voting behavior and the emotional thermometer on each party as the dependent variables prove the consistent influence of personal communication as the independent variable regarding the Liberal Democratic Party and the Socialist Party of Japan, whereas few influences of it can be detected regarding the Japan Renewal Party and the Japan New Party, on which the media has certain effects.

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Using the data collected from a post-election survey, official election results, and supplementary public opinion data, this study investigates the effects of voters' socioeconomic characteristics and ideological orientations on their candidate choice in the 2007 Korean presidential election. The effect of a voter's residential region on candidate choice was demonstrated by the regional cleavage of Honam versus the rest. Despite the lack of sharp generational cleavage, older voters were more likely to support Lee Myung-bak. No discernible pattern of class voting existed. However, a moderate degree of ideological cleavage in electoral support was found. Progressives favored Chung Dongyoung slightly more than Lee, while centrists and conservatives overwhelmingly chose Lee over Chung. Also, on the individual voter level, a more conservative voter had a greater likelihood of choosing Lee. Voters' ideological self-perception had substantive meaning in the sense that it constrained their stands on selected issues, such as the nation's most important problem and the outgoing President Roh's job performance. Voters who singled out economic growth as the most important national objective indeed supported Lee much more strongly than Chung. People who judged President Roh's job performance more negatively were more likely to vote for Lee of the main opposition party. Perceived ideological distance from Lee monotonically decreased the likelihood of support for him. A voter's ideological proximity to a candidate was positively related to his or her choice of the candidate. With the regional, generational, and ideological cleavages becoming weaker than before, Lee Myung-bak launches his national leadership in a less divided political environment. Still, depending on his leadership style and performance, the type, pattern, and extent of social and ideological cleavages in electoral support will change. The Korean electorate dynamically responds to what the government does and achieves.

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This article aims at comparing the 16th and 17th presidential elections in terms of the number of major competitive candidates, candidates' strengths, major campaign issues and the effect of region-centered voting. Among other things, both elections are commonly characterized by the major party's presidential candidates being selected via U.S. style primary, which had been first adopted in the 2002 presidential election. Rampantly strong region-centered voting pattern counts among continuities as well, while in 2002 the effect of region-centered voting appeared in a somewhat mitigated form. Contrasts, however, loom rather large between the two elections. First, while the 2002 election was a two-way election between NMDP and GNP, the 2007 election was a three-way election among DNP, GNP, and one competitive independent candidate. Second, strong anti-Americanism, relocation of Korean capital, and younger generation's activism counted among major issues and features in 2002, while in 2007 voters' anger at the incumbent president and their ardent hope for economic recovery were atop campaign issues. Third, strong as region-centered voting may be across the two elections, its effect was somewhat mitigated in the 2002 presidential election, because NMDP candidate Roh's hometown was in Pusan, where GNP had traditionally ruled as a regional hegemonic party. Lastly, in 2002 Roh was able to get elected partly due to his image as a reform-oriented, non-mainstream, anti-American stance politician. Besides, Roh's personality and policy posture particularly appealed to younger voters. On the other hand, Lee became a winner in 2007 by proposing himself to the public as a ready-made CEO-style candidate most competent to deliver Korea from economic hardships.

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This article addresses recent trends and directions of constitutional controversy on the nature of the right of eligibility for election in Japan. Contrast to fruits of contiguous constitutional controversy on the nature of suffrage, constitutional ground, sphere and nature of the right of eligibility for election has been vague in Japan. An assertion that right of eligibility for election is not constitutional right, but qualification eligibility given by the law, has been accepted in Japan. This article address that the constitutional suffrage can subsume the freedom of candidacy and right to be elected. It also assumes that Art. 15, Chap. 1 and Art. 43, Chap. 1 of the constitution can be the source of suffrage for national elections, and Art. 15, Chap. 1 and Art. 93, Chap. 2 can be the origin of suffrage for local elections.

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The purpose of this article is to explain how we can make a new electoral system for the House of Councillors according to the principles of election laws, without amending the Constitution of Japan. For this purpose, Chapter 1 briefly outlines the general principles of election laws which apply to the election of members of the second chamber. Chapter 2 describes the principles of the electoral system of the French Senate and also refers to their problems. Chapter 3 presents several alternative plans for the electoral system of the House of Councillors of Japan and points out the problems from the comparative point of view.

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In the fifth case of the local election using an electronic voting system which was held in Japan in July 2003, dire trouble was happened such as interruption for faulty at the electronic voting machines. Therefore some voters proposed the administrative review and launched legal action. In March 2005, the Nagoya High Court ruled that the Kani City's 2003 Assembly Election was null and void because of the trouble, and this judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Japan. This paper attempts to examine what trouble happened in this election, to survey what was discussed and judged in these administrative and judicial reviews about it, and to give a commentary on the each judgment, through exploring legal channels when the election procedure using the electronic voting system had trouble.

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This article analyzes the background of voter ID laws and the opinions of the justices in the latest U.S. Supreme Court case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, which upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter ID law.

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Buckley v. Valeo, in which the Supreme Court held contribution limits was constitutional while expenditure limits was unconstitutional, is one of the most troubling cases for scholars who has just started their study on the First Amendment jurisprudence. That difficulty is due largely to the incoherence of doctrine behind the case law developed after Buckley. As a matter of case law analysis, the Buckley formula is still binding, although many commentators regard its diffusion, or virtual overruling, of Buckley has been completed when the Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and the Court held it constitutional in McConnell v. F.E.C. in 2003. In this note article, I briefly outline the development of campaign finance regulation and the case law on its constitutionality. And I explain why the call for modification or overruling of Buckley is heard from both liberal and conservative wings of the Supreme Court Justices.

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