Political Determinants of Higher Education Policy: Welfare States and Economic Crisis

My most significant research accomplishment this year was the completion of my doctoral research and the submission and acceptance of my Ph.D. thesis. My doctoral thesis examined the development and reform of higher education systems in the context of both the welfare state and the broader economy. I found that the expansion of higher education was largely driven by middle-class demand and that the form that higher education systems took was dependent on the type of parties that the middle-class supported. Furthermore, I examined the impact of partisan ideology on higher education policy, using two-dimensional social-economic measures, and found that ideology was most impactful in majoritarian electoral systems and not PR systems, in which consensus politics is required.I also undertook cases studies of higher education in Japan and the United Kingdom, where I found evidence of the path dependent nature of higher education. Although middle-class demand for higher education increased for both countries at roughly the same time in the 1960s, different pre-existing institutional arrangements led to very different outcomes. I also found evidence that successful implementation of radical reforms to the higher education institutions, e.g. neoliberal-style management, is possibly dependent on the existence of economic or financial crisis, which acts to suppress partisanship within the legislature.After obtaining my doctorate, I was able to obtain an Assistant Professor (助教) position at Waseda University Faculty of Political Science and Economics beginning on the 1st April 2018.

My most significant research accomplishment this year was the completion of my doctoral research and the submission and acceptance of my Ph.D. thesis. My doctoral thesis examined the development and reform of higher education systems in the context of both the welfare state and the broader economy. I found that the expansion of higher education was largely driven by middle-class demand and that the form that higher education systems took was dependent on the type of parties that the middle-class supported. Furthermore, I examined the impact of partisan ideology on higher education policy, using two-dimensional social-economic measures, and found that ideology was most impactful in majoritarian electoral systems and not PR systems, in which consensus politics is required.I also undertook cases studies of higher education in Japan and the United Kingdom, where I found evidence of the path dependent nature of higher education. Although middle-class demand for higher education increased for both countries at roughly the same time in the 1960s, different pre-existing institutional arrangements led to very different outcomes. I also found evidence that successful implementation of radical reforms to the higher education institutions, e.g. neoliberal-style management, is possibly dependent on the existence of economic or financial crisis, which acts to suppress partisanship within the legislature.After obtaining my doctorate, I was able to obtain an Assistant Professor (助教) position at Waseda University Faculty of Political Science and Economics beginning on the 1st April 2018.