Political Institutions and Distributive Politics in Japan: Getting Along with the Opposition

Yusaku Horiuchi

Asia Pacific Economic Papers from Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: This paper analyses distributive policy-making in Japan using a natural experimental situation from August 1993 to March 1995. During this period, the partisan makeup of the ruling coalition in the Lower House dramatically changed without dissolution of the House. By comparing FY1994 and FY1995 budgets compiled by two different coalition governments, we can control for incumbent-specific strength to influence pork-barreling and can focus on how each district’s representation in the ruling coalition affects the geographical allocation of public expenditures. The result shows the negative effect of the ruling coalition’s seat share on per capita transfers. We argue that this is a logically consistent consequence under incentive mechanisms produced by Japan’s political institutions. The ruling coalition had an incentive to buy the support or acquiescence of opposition members in order to assure smooth operation in the legislative process.

JEL-codes: Z19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2007
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Working Paper: Political Institutions and Distributive Politics in Japan: Getting Along with the Opposition (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csg:ajrcau:363

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