Comparative Historical Study of "Political Reform" in the United States during the Twentieth Century

本研究旨在揭示美国政治史上改良主义反复循环的模式和原因。研究的基本发现如下：首先，我们发现，美国社会经历了一个反复出现的改革冲动，这是由民众对政治和经济现状的愤怒和厌恶引起的。古谷的论文以人民主权的宪法学说为依据，揭示了人民起义有时能深入并有效地改造现行政治制度的原因。第二，中野从思想政治理论的角度追溯了美国改良主义的主流。他的研究揭示了为什么没有任何重要社会主义传统的美国在过去的两个世纪里成功地、建设性地应对了一场混乱的工业发展。第三，山口把这两个发现结合起来，即美国改良主义的制度和意识形态根源，并将其应用于日本当前的政治和行政改革运动中，为日本的政治和行政改革提供了有益的借鉴。美国政治学家和历史学家为他们未来的比较研究提供了坚实的比较框架。但是，我们应该把我们的研究精力多集中在每个政治和行政制度的方面。由于与会者的专业和时间有限，我们无法完全完成这一目标。我们将在下一次机会时尝试做这件事。

This research aimed at revealing the pattern of and the reasons for a repeated cycle of reformism in American political history. The basic findings of our research are as follows.First we found that American society experienced a recurrent reformist impulse caused by popular indignation and disgust about the political and economic status quo. Referring to a constitutional doctrine of popular sovereignty, Furuya's paper reveals the reason why the popular uprising sometimes became penetrating and very effective in transforming the present political institutions.Second, Nakano traced a main stream of American reformism from an ideological and political theoretical perspective. His research revealed why America without any significant socialist tradition responded successfully and constructively to an obstreperous industrial development in the past two centuries.Third, Yamaguchi combined those two findings, that is, the institutional and ideological origins of American reformism, and applied thus obtained perspective to Japanese current political and administrative reform movement.All in all this research succeeded in providing both Japanese and American political scientists and historians with a solid comparative framework for their future comparative research.However, we should have concentrated our research effort a little more upon the aspects of each political and administrative institutions. Because of the participants' specialties and the scarce of time we could not fully accomplish this end. We will try to do it at a next opportunity.