CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Ebisutani, Kenichi |
|---|---|
| Title | Regional Variation in Duverger:Two-party Competitions in Japanese Elections |
| Summary | This paper addresses a territorial dimension of the two-party system formation in Japan since the electoral reform in 1994. Drawing literature mainly from the electoral system and party nationalization, I break down electoral districts into several types to formulate particular scenarios under which Duvergerian districts are supposed to emerge. Methodologically, I utilize several linear regression models for eight lower house elections between 1996 and 2017. The finding stresses the importance of the urban/rural divide as well as the level of territorial reach of the two largest parties. Another finding implies that there are some extent of dissimilarities between national / subnational partisan affiliation, blurring a shaper bipolar competition in Japan. In sum, the research taps into the reality of relatively loose ideological distinctiveness in Japanese politics, which incentivizes politicians to engage with party-switching/defection. Opposition parties need to overcome this issue for district-level two-party systems to nationalize in Japan. |
| Supervisor | Bochsler, Daniel |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/ebisutani_kenichi.pdf |
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