Policy Innovation and Horizontal Diffusion among Local Governments : A Case Study of Local Governments in Seven Kanto Prefectures

本研究旨在考察日本地方政府在政策创新中的政策过程联动进而横向扩散的动态过程。在这项研究中，我们重点关注了以下三个政策领域：信息公开、环境保护和风景名胜保护。在研究中，我们还特别关注了县与地方政府之间的垂直关系。我们通过社会调查，调查了关东地区除小岛屿以外的所有地方政府的上述三个政策领域。首先，我们收集了三个政策范畴的立法条例，并对其内容进行了深入的分析。通过分析，我们发现了这些条例的类型学。然后，我们考察了关东地区这些政策的时间演变。此外，我们对选定的地方政府进行了关于政策制定过程的社会调查和访谈，并追踪了国家、地区和地方政府在制定这些政策时的参考路线。最后，我们对国家政府、地方政府和周边地方政府在政策制定过程中的整体影响力进行了评估，通过研究，我们发现了三级政府在每项政策中的政策参考模式。

This research aims at investigating dynamics of policy process linkage among Japanese local governments in policy innovations and then horizontal diffusion. In this research, we focused on the following three policy areas : information disclosure, environmental protection and scenery conservation. In conducting research, we also paid special attention to vertical relationships between prefectural and local governments.We investigated three policy areas stated above in all local governments in Kanto region except for those in small islands through social survey. First, we collected legislated ordinances in three policy areas, and their contents were thoroughly analyzed. Through the analysis, we found typologies of these ordinances. Then, we investigated chronological evolution of these policies within Kanto region. Further, we conducted social survey and interview on policymaking process to selected local governments, and traced the routes of reference among national, prefectural and local governments in making these policies. Finally, we evaluated overall influence of national government, prefectural governments and neighboring local governments in the policymaking processes.Through the research, we found patterns of policy reference among three levels of governments in each policy.