Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Dynamics of Policy Expertise Acquisition and Electoral Performance in Japan and Taiwan

如果没有一个完善的委员会分配的资历规则，立法者如何在立法机构中获得政策专业知识？本研究计划探讨个别立法委员获取政策专业知识的情况，以及其与立法委员实现连任、职业晋升和影响公共政策等目标的关系。在美国国会，政策专业知识是通过连续被指派到同一个委员会获得的。由于实行了严格的资历规则，委员会的任务一般是自动延长的，因此，没有充分考虑到获得政策专门知识的过程及其与选举奖励的关系。与美国国会类似的强大的资历制度在世界上并不普遍，立法者发展政策专业知识的动机因国家而异。不同的政治制度会影响立法者成为政策领域专家的动机。通过对两个民主国家（日本和台湾）立法机构的研究，本研究为在不同于美国的制度背景下运作的立法者开发了一个政策专业知识获取模型。日本的国会和台湾的立法院是理想的研究对象，因为它们提供了大量的制度差异。首先，这些国家内部和国家之间的选举制度差异使我们能够在不同的选举背景下评估政策专业知识的获取。就日本国会而言，1995年以前采用单一不可转让选票选举制度，1995年以后采用混合议员选举制度，可以审查这两种不同制度所提供的选举激励对政策专门知识获取的不同影响。此外，立法院的大多数成员在2008年之前主要是通过SNTV选出的，因此可以在总统制民主（与日本的议会民主形成对比）下调查立法行为。立法院还提供了政党控制委员会任务的变化。在大多数民主国家，委员会的职位分配是由政党控制的，而文献对政党没有这种控制时会发生什么几乎没有指导。2002年以前的立法院提供了一个难得的机会，在没有政党控制委员会任命的背景下审查委员会的职业生涯。这个项目的主要论点是，立法者获得政策专业知识，以实现几个目标，如连任，推进他们的政治生涯，并影响政策。上述不同的体制背景反过来影响到这些目标与获得政策专门知识之间的联系。为了检验我们的一般理论模型的实证意义，我们考察了立法者的政策活动，他们与各自地区政策需求的关系，以及立法者的职业轨迹。本项目收集的数据集包括：立法者的政策专业知识、选区的政策需求和现任候选人的选举表现。议员的政策活动包括委员会任务、委员会辩论和现场辩论、投票记录和法案介绍。该项目的知识价值在于它提供了对政策专门知识获取过程的更深入理解。对立法者政策专业知识的现有研究主要局限于美国国会，对政策专业知识演变的过程研究不足。美国现任官员保留其委员会成员资格的强大权利，阻碍了对政策专长演变过程的认真考虑。本项目通过对两个亚洲民主国家的研究来解决这些问题和其他问题。这个研究项目有以下更广泛的影响。首先也是最重要的是，它提供了关于何时以及在何种制度条件下通过立法者获得政策专门知识而提高公共政策质量的知识。其次，它提供了关于未被充分研究的立法院的重要信息。第三，为这个项目创建的大型数据集将为未来对日本和台湾立法行为的各个方面感兴趣的学者提供宝贵的资源。

How do legislators acquire policy expertise in legislatures without a well-established seniority rule for committee assignments? This research project investigates the acquisition of policy expertise by individual legislators and its relation with the achievement of legislator goals such as reelection, career advancement, and influencing public policy. In the US Congress, policy expertise has been acquired through consecutive assignments to the same committee. Since a strong seniority rule has been in force, committee assignments are generally automatically renewed, and thus, the process of acquiring policy expertise and its relationship with electoral incentives has not been adequately considered. Strong seniority systems similar to that found in the US Congress are not universal in the world, and legislators' motivation for developing policy expertise varies across countries. Different political institutions influence legislators' motivations to be an expert in a policy area(s). Through the study of legislatures in two democratic countries (Japan and Taiwan), this research develops a model of policy expertise acquisition for legislators operating in an institutional context different from that found in the United States.The Japanese Diet and Taiwanese Legislative Yuan are ideal objects of study because they provide a great deal of institutional variation. First, intra and inter country electoral system variance in these countries allows us to assess policy expertise acquisition within different electoral contexts. In regard to the Japanese Diet, the employment a single-nontransferable-vote (SNTV) electoral system until 1995 and a mixed member electoral system since 1995 allows for the examination of the differential impact on policy expertise acquisition of the electoral incentives provided by these two distinct systems. In addition, the Legislative Yuan, where most members were until 2008 largely selected using SNTV, allows for the investigation of legislative behavior under SNTV in a presidential democracy (in contrast to Japan's parliamentary democracy). The Legislative Yuan also provides variation in party control of committee assignments. In most democracies, committee post allocations are under the control of parties, and the literature provides little guidance on what happens when parties have no such control. The Legislative Yuan before 2002 provides the rare chance to examine committee careers within a context of no party control over committee assignments.This project's principal argument is legislators acquire policy expertise to achieve several goals, such as reelection, advancing their political career, and influencing policy. The different institutional contexts described above in turn affect the connection between these goals and the acquisition of policy expertise.To test the empirical implications of our general theoretical model, we examine legislators' policy activities, their relation to the policy needs of their respective districts, and the legislators' career trajectory. The dataset assembled for this project consists of data on: legislator policy expertise, policy needs of an electoral district, and the electoral performance of incumbent candidates. Legislators' policy activities include committee assignments, debate in committee and on the floor, voting record, and bill introduction.The project's intellectual merit is based on its provision of a deeper understanding of the process of policy expertise acquisition. The extant research on legislator policy expertise has been limited primarily to the US Congress, and the process of evolving policy expertise is understudied. The strong right of US incumbents to retain their committee membership prevents serious consideration of the process of policy expertise evolution. This project addresses these and other issues via the study of two Asian democracies. This research project has the following broader impact. First and foremost, it provides knowledge about when and under what institutional conditions the quality of public policy is improved though the acquisition of policy expertise by legislators. Second, it supplies vital information on the understudied Legislative Yuan. Third, the large dataset created for this project will represent an invaluable resource for future scholars interested in a variety of aspects of legislative behavior in Japan and Taiwan.