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LEBO_FRANKLIN_DISS_5.2013.pdf (1.6 MB)

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Between Bureaucracy and Democracy: Regulating Administrative Discretion in Japan

Lebo, Franklin Barr
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365802091

Abstract Details

2013, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science.
This study explores the link between democracy and bureaucracy using Japan as the critical case study. The research question is whether competition by multiple principals creates opportunities for bureaucratic drift. This project hypothesizes that policy settings including multiple principals (independent variable) are more likely to manifest bureaucratic drift (dependent variable). At the same time, policy settings excluding multiple principals (independent variable) are more likely to manifest less bureaucratic drift (dependent variable). Variation in agent discretion is the critical effect of the independent variable (i.e., number of principals) on the dependent variable (bureaucratic drift). “Discretion” is “administrative decision-making absent directives from political principals.” Evaluating the exercise of discretion of administrators is feasible if one’s evidence is primarily from the administrators themselves. To test these hypotheses, therefore, this project adopts a research design based on a qualitative case study methodology. The case studies include four of Japan’s ministries: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Ministry of Land, Industry, Transportation, and Tourism (MLITT), and the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW). Likewise, the role of the National Personnel Authority (NPA) in the administrative system is also evaluated. Research participants include both participants in the Mike Mansfield Fellowship Program along with NPA administrators. This study contributes to the extant corpus of research in a number of salient respects. First, this project proposes a different dependent variable in that most studies are focused on administrative reform whereas the focus here is on bureaucratic drift. Second, this project discusses the important effect of bureaucratic discretion. Third, while relevant to the quality of the Japanese democracy in particular, these findings may be leveraged to a larger conversation about the relationship between bureaucracy and democracy in the Asian context and perhaps beyond. Finally, this project provides an explicit policy recommendation for contemporary Japanese politics proposing that greater authority be delegated to administrative agents, albeit supervised by a powerful intermediary, to minimize bureaucratic drift.
Steven Hook (Committee Co-Chair)
Renée Johnson (Committee Co-Chair)
Andrew Barnes, . (Committee Member)
Mireya Solis (Committee Member)
Clarence Wunderlin, Jr., Jr. (Committee Member)
260 p.
Political Science; Public Administration
Japan; Bureaucracy; Discretion; Principal Agent Theory; National Personnel Authority; NPA; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare; Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lebo, F. B. (2013). Between Bureaucracy and Democracy: Regulating Administrative Discretion in Japan [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365802091

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lebo, Franklin. Between Bureaucracy and Democracy: Regulating Administrative Discretion in Japan. 2013. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365802091.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lebo, Franklin. "Between Bureaucracy and Democracy: Regulating Administrative Discretion in Japan." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1365802091

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1365802091
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.