Bureaucrats and politicians in recruitment of Japanese conservative governors: Candidate selection politics in the Liberal Democratic Party.

Abstract

This dissertation deals with gubernatorial candidate selection in the Liberal Democratic Party. A sample of four prefectures is examined through local newspapers and interviews with participants in candidate selection between 1956 and 1991, as well as through an extensive biographical database of all prospective candidates in four prefectures since 1956 and all candidates nationwide since 1947. Relationships among their resources, nomination-seeking behavior and the selectorates' patronage are analyzed, and determinants for success in the selection process are examined through a supply and demand framework. The author examines the following topics: ascriptive and achieved resources of prospective candidates, their motivation and behavior in seeking the governorship, the structure of LDP prefectural federations, participants and their interactions in the process, sources of prefectural variety, historical transformations in career backgrounds of candidates and the Japanese intergovernmental system. Most gubernatorial candidates have been bureaucrats or politicians. Their major resources are career backgrounds, support by factional groups and patronage by prefectural party influentials. The main selectorates are the governor and party members in the legislature. Party influentials usually take the lead in candidate selection. National bureaucrats usually rely on party influentials' support and often receive nominations, although determined politicians can split the party and challenge the nominee in the elections. Contrary to traditional arguments, prefectural variety and historical transformations in gubernatorial career backgrounds are explained by the level of politicians' motivation to run for governorship. Politicians have the advantage in politically conflictual prefectures and in the Northeast. Recent gains by bureaucrats have come through a long-term decline in challenges by politicians. The decline is associated with politicians' declining family resources, a transformation of their support base toward functional ties, and the development of seniority-based promotion within the national LDP. Among bureaucratic candidates, national bureaucrats localize their career paths through longer stay in prefectural offices, and local bureaucrats become increasingly successful. The prefectural LDP retains a high degree of independence from national headquarters in candidate selection. The prefectural government becomes less reliant on the national bureaucracy in recruitment. A pluralistic theory of intergovernmental relations well explains the current trends in Japanese gubernatorial recruitment.