Major Research Projects

Congruence in policy preferences between voters and parliamentary representatives has long been conceived a vital quality of representative democracies. Yet recent events such as Brexit or the rise of populist leaders in old and new democracies clearly illustrate the state of mass-elite representation gap around the globe which can lead to decreasing political trust and satisfaction with democracy.

In order to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon, I established an international team research project with the financial support of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The project examines and theorizes the causes, impacts, ideal measurement strategies, and normative implications of the mismatch in mass-elite policy preferences. Specifically it tackles the following questions.

How can we explain the emergence of discrepancy in different policy areas and its variation over time and across countries?

What are the consequences of different measurement strategies and conceptualizations of this phenomenon?

Is mass-elite discrepancy always negative? Can’t it contribute to the long-term public interests (e.g. gun control, soda taxes) or safeguard fundamental aspects of democracy (e.g. protection of minority groups)?

Against the background of increasing presence of female legislators in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the project focuses on gender politics and particularly on substantive representation of women. It analyses the circumstances and implications of legislators’ engagement in the promotion of women’s interests (e.g. related to such issues as maternity leave, contraception, and sexual violence). Mainly utilizing bill sponsor/co-sponsorship records and media contents, the project raises the following questions:

What are the political conditions under which bills concerning women’s issues are more likely to be prioritized by legislators and what is the key mechanism behind it?

What are the electoral implications of legislators’ commitment to women’s issues?

How does the press portray the legislators who actively promote women’s issues in the legislature? Is there any systematic difference between male and female legislators?

This project follows my long-term research interest that has continued from my master’s years. It examines the politics behind the elite-level preference for various social policy types. Primarily concerned with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the project approaches welfare politics in the three countries from the perspective of their historical trajectories and political institutions. My published papers and work-in-progress address the following questions.

How do left and right-leaning political actors utilize social welfare promises and differentiate themselves within the socioeconomic political dimension?

How did the level of democracy affect the degree and universality of social welfare promises in the past decades? Relatedly, did the intensification of multi-party competition lead to over-promising and under-delivering of social welfare benefits?