Japanese Journal of Electoral Studies

Does Neoliberalism Strengthen Civil Society?

Individual-level Analysis of Personal Responsibility and Civic Participation.

Haruya SAKAMOTO

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 5-17
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_5

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

In the existing literature, a common view is that the advancement of neoliberalism leads to the strengthening of civil society. However, if we view neoliberalism not as a policy package but as an ideology, can we really say that it strengthens civil society? This study quantitatively analyzes the relationship between the sense of personal responsibility and civic participation. We used an original index to measure the two different types of personal responsibility. The results reveal that each has a negative relationship with civic participation. The stronger the sense of personal responsibility, the more people tend to avoid civic participation. The findings mean that the advancement of neoliberalism as an ideology is more likely to weaken civil society than strengthen it, which is the opposite of the common view.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1198K)
An Empirical Analysis of Affective Polarization in Osaka

Masahiro ZENKYO

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 18-32
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_18

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This paper examines the cause and consequences of affective polarization in Osaka through an analysis of two sample surveys of residents in Osaka City. Recent studies suggest that affective polarization has resulted in a “Crisis of Democracy” by intensifying conflicts among groups or individuals, making compromise more difficult. Accordingly, this paper analyzed the current situation, causes, and consequences of affective polarization in Osaka City, where political parties are fiercely opposed to each other, obtaining both expected and unexpected findings. First, the level of affective polarization in Osaka was not critical, though not so low as to warrant optimism. Second, Online media has no significant causal effect on affective polarization. In other words, factors other than media exposure cause affective polarization in Osaka. Third, high levels of affective polarization cause serious distrust of politicians and decrease generalized trust among citizens.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1370K)
Editorial Slant of Japanese Newspapers （1970–2019）

Tomoki KANEKO

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 33-46
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_33

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This paper aims to investigate the editorials of national and local newspapers in Post-War Japan （1970–2019） for ideological bias, source originality, and influential trends. A total of 2,211 editorials from 50 national and local newspapers were collected and analyzed. The selection was limited to editorials published around Constitution Day （May 3）, from 1970 to 2019. I analyzed the text on two bases: （1） the extent to which local newspapers used Kyodo News as source material in their editorials; and （2） ideological tone. I determined that Kyodo News materials were not a major source of editorials, leading us to examine other origins. Once I quantified the liberal or conservative slant in each editorial, I examined the depth of diversity in the left or right tone and the potential factors influencing such leanings.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1784K)
Early Closing of Ballot Box, Voter Turnout, and Vote Shares

Kentaro FUKUMOTO, Kyosuke KIKUTA

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 47-57
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_47

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

In principle, ballot boxes are closed at 8 p.m., although voting can be wrapped up by 4 p.m. By using municipal-level data of the national elections from 2009 to 2013, this study shows that early closing of ballot boxes is inversely correlated to voter turnout and vote shares of the Liberal Democratic Party and minor parties. Moreover, we also exploit rainfall on the day of the previous election as an instrumental variable to demonstrate that high voter turnout in the previous election increases the probability of early ballot closing in a current election.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1152K)
Electoral “Government Failure”

From the Perspective of the Inequalities in the Subsidizing of Electoral Campaigns in Japan

Nobusuke YASUNO

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 58-71
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_58

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

Japan’s Public Offices Election Act is based on the premise that all forms of election campaigning are prohibited, but legalized election campaigns are publicly subsidized under the name of “Senkyo Kōei.” Behind this systematic philosophy lies the pre-war ideology of ensuring fairness in elections by giving the state complete control over the election process. However, there is now a great deal of criticism and evidence that the regulatory framework has made Japan’s electoral process highly inefficient. Nevertheless, the incumbent Diet members have made no attempt to improve this situation, and this is similar to the “government failure” discussed in the field of public economics. Therefore, this study will first explain the characteristics of Japan’s election campaign regulations that lead to this “government failure.” Then, we will reveal the reality that the current distribution of public campaign subsidies is grossly unequal as a result of manipulation by incumbent Diet members.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1157K)
Nomination Strategies under the Single Non-transferable Vote System

Hiroto KATSUMATA

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 72-85
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_72

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

Parties need to optimize the number of candidates and allocate votes among them appropriately to maximize their seats under the single non-transferable vote system, which has been utilized in Japan for a long time. Existing studies classified the failure of this strategy by the relationship between the optimal and actual number of candidates. This classification, however, does not coincide with the classification by the two causes of the failure, i.e., the failure to equalize the vote and the failure of the excessive vote splitting. This study proposes the new classification by these two causes and applies it to the House of Representatives elections in Japan to examine the strategy of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The results suggest that the failure decreases over time not because the strategy has improved but because the electoral circumstances easy to avoid the failure have increased.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1446K)
A Study on Warning Message Effect on Survey Experiments

Masahiro ZENKYO, Takahiro KIMURA

2021 Volume 37 Issue 1 Pages 86-93
Published: 2021
Released on J-STAGE: November 16, 2023

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.14854/jaes.37.1_86

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This paper examines the effects of warning messages issued before the survey experiment. This paper examines two kinds of effects: first, the effect of informing the respondents that the results of the survey will be widely publicized, and second, the effect of warning to the respondents who did not read the survey well. Previous studies on this theme have been conducted outside of Japan, and it was not clear how effective it was in Japan. This study suggests that the warning messages had no effect on the experimental effects of any kind of warning message, and that the identification of bad respondents by the IMCs did not lead directly to the fact that they skipped the experiment in question, and that it is most important to design the survey experiment to avoid cognitive load.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1458K)

Register with J-STAGE for free!