定数不均衡が代議制民主主義の中でどのような歪み，すなわち機能不全をもたらしているのかを明らかにした。第一に，定数不均衡により，運輸・通信，農林水産，一般行政，地方自治などの予算増額が過剰代表され，社会福祉や生活保護，教育・労働などの予算増額及び後期高齢者医療制度や年金制度見直しの主張が過少代表されていた。第二に，定数不均衡により，当選後の国会における防衛や農林水産，国土環境などに関する言及が過剰代表される傾向をみてとることができた。第三に，定数不均衡が予算や歳出などの政策にもたらす歪みを分析した結果，特別交付税及び農林水産業費と普通建設事業費について，定数不均衡との間に関連がみられた。最後に，こうした定数不均衡の問題を解決するための提言を提示した。

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In this article, the potential of “practicable science, ” which is the new trend in Japanese politics in the 21st century, is being discussed and examined, focusing on a series of researches on Japan's political reforms.
There have been two major trends or academic tendencies in the discussions of the political reforms. One is the attitude of political researchers who express strong criticism on political practices and propose actual policies actively participating in decision making processes. The other is the trend where certain distance is kept from actual political practices but they clarify the political actors' behavior at micro level, the changes of political phenomena, and the consequences through an empirical analysis. Both trends spread rapidly during the period.
The new wave of Japanese political science research in the 21st century will bridge these two trends and respond to the proposition of “practicable science.” Policy proposals, empirical analysis, and normative discussions represented in public philosophy need to share functions and cooperate consciously while complementing each other without excluding others. It will be indispensable in establishing “practicable science, ” the new trend in Japan's political science research.

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In the years following the huge popularity of the early Koizumi Cabinet, national elections have been held in 2003 (House of Representatives) and in 2004 (House of Councilors). Using survey data from the 2001 House of Councilors Election—which was held in the height of Koizumi's popularity—as a reference point, this paper investigates the role of prospective and retrospective perceptions toward the Koizumi cabinet on voting behavior by analyzing data from the Japan Election Study 3, a nation-wide panel survey conducted from 2001 to 2005. The findings show that the incumbent LDP party lost shares due to a decline in prospective voting, which was insufficiently supplemented by positive retrospective voting. Further analyses reveal that economic perception was the main culprit for this change. Mass media was indirectly influential on this process through its initial perception of hope for reform and warm feelings toward Koizumi.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine why and how the local parties founded by active local leaders rise throughout Japan, and get support in elections? In order to analyze the changes and continues in the local politics, I focused on two local elections in Nagoya city and Aichi prefecture in 2011. The local parties defeated the existing parties in a landslide on February. But only one month later, they fail to win a majority in the assembly election of Nagoya. These empirical analyses reveal that (1) local parties and leaders success an agenda setting: a tax reduction, assembly reform, and decentralization, (2) voters support these issues rather than leaders’ political style to set themselves against the assembly, (3) single - issue strategy by local party can’t work and let many voters return to the existing party in the local assembly election, and (4) local parties have poor organization is apt to fail to field candidates under the SNTV system. These results show the possibility, issues, and challenges of local parties to take responsibility of the decentralization.

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