7. The Causes of Electoral Reform in Japan

Authors: Reed, Steven R.; Thies, Michael F.

Source: Mixed-Member Electoral Systems, February 2003 , pp. 152-173(22)

Publisher: Oxford Scholarship Online Monographs

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Abstract:

This chapter, on the causes of electoral reform in Japan, reviews the movement from an extreme electoral (hyper-personalistic) system in which candidates of the same party competed against one another in three- to five-seat districts (in a single non-transferable vote system, SNTV) to a mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) system that eliminated intraparty competition. It is argued that short-term act-contingent motivations played a necessary role in passing political reform, and that by January 1994, when the reform bills finally passed into law, no politician could publicly oppose political reform, even though some felt freer to grumble about it. The main sections of the chapter are: The Pathologies of SNTV: Who Hated What?; A Brief History of Failed Electoral Reform Efforts—1956 to 1991; The Fall and Rise of the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party): Electoral Reform in 1993–4; Analysis: The Causes of Electoral Reform.

Keywords: electoral reform; hyper-personalistic systems; single non-transferable vote system; mixed-member majoritarian systems; electoral systems; mixed-member electoral systems; electoral history; party competition; extreme electoral systems; Liberal Democratic Party; Japan