An Equilibrium Analysis on Political Reforms in the Post 1955-Rgime Era : Japanese Politics and its Institutional Changes

在我们研究项目的最后一年，每个成员根据项目议程进一步阐述了自己的研究主题。在这个过程中，成员们作为一个团队，对各自的研究成果和理论分析进行了深入的讨论和协调。从本质上讲，我们的项目试图提出一种创新的分析视角，使我们能够将已建立的政治制度（所谓的1955年制度或1955年制度）视为部分平衡的集体，然后将近年来的政治改革视为不断变化的过程，在这个过程中，相关行为者被引导离开由一堆部分平衡巩固的现状。为了巩固这个假设的观点，成员们主要研究了两个课题。首先，作为一个关键的分析概念，我们所描述的“1955年制度可以被理解为部分均衡的集体”应该是一个经验证明的概念。因此，在借鉴比较制度分析、制度理性选择理论和相当传统的均衡理论等理论著作的基础上，成员们深入阐述了自己的研究，强化了这一概念。其次，为了验证这个概念，我们首先将该制度分解为三个维度；政治行为者的行为、政治和政策过程以及政策产出。然后每个成员选择具体的主题来说明在这三个维度中发现的明显的改革和变化。议题包括：投票行为与选举制度改革、国家政党竞争、地方政治与知事选举、地方代表的招募及其政策偏好、官僚与政客互动与内阁角色改革的跨国比较、环境政策与市场化监管、城市发展政策等。在这七个主题中，成员们试图阐明由三个具体问题组成的谜题。1)在1955年的体制下，均衡为何以及如何得以维持？2)这种平衡为什么会被打破，又是如何被打破的？转变过程在多大程度上是从现状演变而来的？3)如何引入新的均衡？少

During the final year of our research project, individual members further elaborated their own research themes in accordance with the project's agenda. Also, in the process, the members as a team discussed in depth and coordinated each of their research findings and theoretical analyses.In substance, our project sought to come up with an innovative analytic perspective that would enable us to view the established political regime (so-called the regime of 1955 or the 1955-regime) as collectives of partial equilibriums and then to evaluate the recent years' political reforms as ever shifting processes in which relevant actors are led to depart from status quos that are cemented by a bundle of those partial equilibriums. To consolidate this hypothetical perspective, the members mainly worked on two subjects.First, as a key analytic concept, what we describe as "the 1955-regime can be understood as collectives of partial equilibriums" should be empirically-proof one. Thus, referring to suc … More h theoretical works as comparative institutional analyses, institutional rational choice theories, and rather conventional equilibrium theories, the members elaborated ones' studies and sharpened the concept intensively.Second, in order to verify the concept, we first broke down the regime into three dimensions ; political actors' behaviors, political and policy processes, and policy outputs. And then each member chose concrete topics that would illustrate reforms and changes found conspicuous in those three dimensions. The topics included the followings : voting behaviors and reforms of electoral system, competition among national political parties, local politics and gubernatorial elections, local representatives' recruitment and their policy preferences, cross-national comparison of interaction between bureaucrats and politicians and reforms of cabinets' roles, environmental policies and market-based regulations, and city development policies.In each of these seven topics, the members sought to shed light on puzzles that consist of three concrete questions.1) Under the 1955-regime, why and how could an equilibrium be maintained in a way it did?2) Why and how was it possible for the very equilibrium to be fallen apart? To what extent do the shifting processes evolve from the status quo?3) In what way can a new equilibrium be introduced? Less