Institutions, Incentives and Electoral Participation in Japan: Cross-Level and Cross-National Perspectives

American and European political scientists have claimed that sub-national elections almost always record a lower turnout than in national elections, however in Japan the turnout for municipal elections has been considerably higher. This book theoretically and empirically seeks to explore this phenomenon and compares Japanese elections to those in nine other countries. Using a wealth of new data the author looks at the role of institutions and incentives to understand under what conditions lower level elections produce higher voter turnout.

Yusaku Horiuchi is Lecturer in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University.