Municipal Finance and Citizen Participation after Merger:Comparative Analysis of Japan and USA

本研究的主题是检视日本市政合并如何影响地方公共财政和市政服务。1995年以来中央政府继续实行分权保留，1999财政年度；2005年3月结束的《市政合并法》被修改，以促进市政合并和合并。因此，从1999年4月到2006年3月，日本约有1400个市政合并。直辖市总数约为1,800个，2007年约为3,200个，例如，静冈县，静冈市人口41万，合并的清水市人口约为24万。2003年4月。滨松市于2005年7月合并了11个自治市。因此，滨松市的人口达到80万，地区销售额在日本排名第二。其中一个问题是，由于总支出减少，一些公共大厅和其他公共设施被合并，而不是为市民提供的服务增加，自治权和公民参与减弱，特别是远离中心城市的人们可以享受的市政服务减少。因为在中央财政改革中，市属合并后，中央财政收入分成等补助减少。美国的市政单位数量约为3.6万个，比日本要少。美国的公民参与制度在大城市和郊区发展得尤为发达。纽约市于1977年建立了社区储备制度，其郊区的小城市也有一定程度的公民参与制度，其公民可以检查市政财政。本研究认为，要实现分权政策，不应再执行大市合并政策。

The Subject of this research is to examine how the municipal merger influences the local public finance and the municipal services for citizen in Japan. Since 1995 central government has continued the decentralization retain and in 1999 fiscal yea ; the act on the Municipal Merger that ended in March 2005 was changed to promote the municipal consolidation and merger Therefore about 1,400 municipalities have been consolidated in Japan from April 1999 to March 2006. Total number of municipalities was about 1,800 flora about 3,200 in 2007For Example in Prefecture of, Shizuoka,City of Shizuoka where population was 410,000 consolidated City of Shimizu where population was about 240,000. in April 2003. The City of Hamamatsu consolidated 11 municipalities in July 2005. As result the population of city of Hamamatsu became 800,000 and sale of region became the second position in Japan.One of the problems is that the autonomy and citizen participation become weaker and municipal services that people live especially in distant region from central city can be enjoyable are decreased because total expenditure was reduced, some public halls and other public facilities have been consolidated rather than services for citizen increase. Because revenue sharing and other grant from central government is reduced after municipal merger in financial reform of central government.In U.S. municipal unit which number is about 36,000 is smaller than that of Japan. Citizen participation system have developed especially big cities and suburb in U.S. In New York City the community hoard system made in 1977 and the smaller municipalities in its suburb have some citizen participation system and its citizen can check municipal finance. This research conclude that the policy of large-male municipal merger should not perform moreover to realize decentralization policy.