Country：Japan

Committee type：Academic society

Committee type：Academic society

Grant amount：\30030000 （ Direct Cost: \23100000 、 Indirect Cost：\6930000 ）

Most advanced countries are experiencing significant changes in the conditions of traditional welfare systems due to declining birthrates and aging populations. We are witnessing serious problems such as shortage of welfare human power, rising costs, etc., that affect the sustainability of welfare, and measures are being implemented to deal with these emerging problems. It is likely that the elderly people, who are the beneficiaries of welfare, might not be able to exercise their right to self-determination in the choice of their welfare. On the side of welfare supplies, there exist some factors accelerating changes in welfare policies. Although rational choice in self-determination is one of the most important regulative principles of welfare system and should be respected, further discussion is needed on the concrete ways in which the right to self-determination can be exercised. This study pointed out the necessity of further discussions to handle these problems.

Grant amount：\2860000 （ Direct Cost: \2200000 、 Indirect Cost：\660000 ）

This research project has explored the developing field of "EU judicial politics" research and aimed at finding analytical thrusts for empirical investigation. This topic is important for two reasons. First, it is increasingly evident that judicial problem-solving has gained importance in domestic politics. Second, although strong judicial components have been emphasized as a hallmark of European Integration, juridification has gained momentum in other international domains, which would potentially benefit from the research on the EU. By reviewing the relevant literature and conducting several exploratory case studies, the project yielded following findings. 1) The simple formula "law versus politics" does not fully capture current dynamics of EU judicial politics. 2) Politics matters by conditioning the field on which the judicial organs play their games. 3) Judiciary is not singular. Current research frontier lies in the investigation into the "politics within judiciaries"

Grant amount：\2780000 （ Direct Cost: \2600000 、 Indirect Cost：\180000 ）

本研究は,ディスコースの流れに注目し,欧州司法裁判所が政治過程に与えるインパクトや,欧州諸機関を取り巻く政策ネットワークの存在を明らかにし,その中で非政府アクターが果たす役割を検討した.また,上記の政策ネットワークを通じてEUの政策が加盟国に影響を与えることに着目し,その作動条件と限界をイメージとして「断続的ヨーロッパ化punctuated Europeanization」のメタファーを提案した.

Grant amount：\5500000 （ Direct Cost: \5500000 ）

Recently, Japan has undergone a major change in the electoral law for the House of Representatives. The new law enacted in fall 1994 has installed a "parallel system" combining proportional representation (PR) and plurality rule or a small district (SMD) system. This study examines two types of sophisticated voting - strategic voting and strategic balancing - that can be operative in the parallel system. It is shown that the parallel system contains institutional provisions (double candidacies and the loser-winner ratio) that make SMD votes nonexclusive and transferable to the PR portion, hence reducing the extent of strategic voting and weakening a tendency toward local two-partism. When more than two effective parties compete in a plurality election, parties holding similar policy and political orientations ought to coordinate their candidates in order to prevent the opposing parties from gaining electoral victory. Under the parallel system, however, the parties have disincentives to coordinate. Thus, Downsian centrist policy pressures are not imposed upon the winning party formulating a new government. In order to pressure it toward centrist policy, moderate voters with two votes under the parallel system perform the acts of balancing so that a coalition government is formed to check policy extremism that is otherwise pursued by a pluralist party constituting the core of a new government. The extent of strategic balancing is found to be associated with the degree of opposition coordination failures.

Grant amount：\5200000 （ Direct Cost: \4000000 、 Indirect Cost：\1200000 ）

In the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria, numerous new parties has gained parliamentary seats in the recent elections. It is difficult to explain voter's support for these new parties by voter's social attribute. The "relatively established" parties from the 1990s has been losing support and are forced to accept these new parties as partners in governmental coalitions. It makes policy making more fluid. In Romania with its semi-presidential regime, established parties has changed their ideological stance or merged under the strong influence of the president. These polities cannot be classified as the hybrid or the transitory case of established democracies. Rather, they should been seen as a new type of democracy which is in flux constantly.

Grant amount：\12600000 （ Direct Cost: \12600000 ）

The problem of "democratic" governance is, since the difficult ratification process of Maastricht Treaty, of crucial importance to the European integration. Our research aimed at analysing the highly complex process of the European integration, particularly with regard to this problematic aspect. We tried to assemble an interdisciplinary team of specialists both in legal and political sciences.
We adopted a two-level approach to the subject. On the one hand, we tried to illustrate the complex interaction between European and national levels. On the other hand, we tried to analyse European impact on national laws and politics, especially in the context of arrangement of different policy-making processes as well as in its implementation processes. Such positive analyses clarify why the problem of "democratic" governance has assumed considerable importance in actual constitutional debate.
French and Dutch referenda in 2005 have also shown the paramount importance of the problem of "democratic" governance. But there is not always any consensus on these elementary questions : by what criteria should we judge an European institution to be "democratic", or how can we make European institutions more "democratic"? We tried to bring new light upon the subject analysing the constitutional treaty and French debate.
We have published our research results under the featured theme "Democratic Governance of European Integration" in a recently published number of the Journal of Social Science (Vol.57, No.2).

Grant amount：\33930000 （ Direct Cost: \26100000 、 Indirect Cost：\7830000 ）

To examine the commonalities and variations among party organizations in advanced democracies, we have conducted, interviews over the headquarters as well as the local organizations of Democratic Party of Japan and Liberal Democratic Party, and a survey research over the representatives of the prefectural assemblies in Japan. From the comparative perspective, we have conducted various analyses over these data and information through several conferences.

Grant amount：\1100000 （ Direct Cost: \1100000 ）

This study is to investigate European societies and politics in terms of "social capital," an important concept in the field of contemporary comparative politics developed above all by Robert A. Putnam. Putnam assumed that a "strong society" with firm social capital like voluntary associations, mutual trust would lead to a "strong state" and a "strong economy," as have often been claimed in the American context. But our findings, based on comparison between the European Union, Germany, France, Southern and Northern Europe, show many different sets of logics behind the civil societies and the public spaces. First, in the European context, not only the social capital but also those things which can be termed "political capital" (partisan organization and sub-cultures) and "institutional capital" such as welfare states and semi-public intermediate channels (which "neo-Huntingtonians" put emphases on) have built comprehensive interdependent/interlocking structures in the public spaces. Second, Internalionalization/Europeanization has ambivalent repercussions on the social capital and democracy. In a case like Germany, the tradition of social (organization) coordination is revived partly in the EU governance structure. On the contrary, fiscal standardization and even the programs of raising civil society activities and NGOs make risk of derogation of autonomous development of civil societies in cases like Central and South Eastern Europe.

Grant amount：\7410000 （ Direct Cost: \5700000 、 Indirect Cost：\1710000 ）

In this research, political history researchers, who study domestic politics, and historians on European integration jointed together to analyze the visions on the postwar order, which were envisaged by the politicians and theorists during WWII.
Our targets diverse from Italian liberalists, Czech and German Socialists, French and Dutch Christian Democrats, a German lawyer, to European theorists in exile in the US. After precise investigation of archival materials, our findings were as follows. First, partial transfer of sovereignty over the international regime was incorporated into each reestablished nation state from the beginning. Secondly, communitarian orientation both by the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats was dominating the blueprints of the post war political and social order. This fact is not in consistency with our ordinary image on post-war liberal democracy whose leading ideas are individualism, competition between political actors and market economy.

Grant amount：\2100000 （ Direct Cost: \2100000 ）

ヨーロッパ統合や経済のボーダーレス化等にみられるように、いわゆる「国民国家」はイデオロギーのレヴェルでも現実の機能においても、その基盤を彫り崩され自明性を喪失している。民族問題の多様化という表面的事実を後追いすることよりも、民族問題の発生をこうした構造的変動の文脈のなかに位置づけて把握することが本研究の基本的立場であった。そしてこの立場を前提として、旧ソ連・東欧の民族紛争と西欧諸国の民族問題に対して事例の分析を行い、それと並行し個別事例の統一的理解に資する理論的枠組みを構築することが本研究の目的であった。旧ソ連・東欧に関しては、旧社会主義体制を「文化としての社会主義」という人間の行動様式の型として理解するという視点が打ち出された。脱社会主義化過程において民族紛争が噴出している事態は、社会主義以前の文化が現在思い起こされているという事実、社会主義体制下でも伝統が根絶されたわけではない事実を示すものであったが、この伝統的文化としてのナショナリズムと「文化としての社会主義」の融合の様態こそが各国独自の民族紛争の構造的条件になっていたのである。西欧諸国に関しては、イタリアとドイツという19世紀後半のナショナリズム運動の結果成立した「国民国家」の現時点での、特に第二次世界大戦後の体制の構造変容の多角的な歴史的位置づけの作業を行うことができたが、この作業は19世紀後半の各国ごとの「国民国家」のあり方(「国家」と「国民」ないし社会の関係の様態)を比較分析する課題を与えるものでもあった。こうした一連の研究作業を通じて、現在はある大きなシステムの変動期(「国民国家」の構造変容はその構成要素の一つである)ではないかという仮説が提示された。このシステムの変動を総体的にとらえるより具体的な必要性を、本研究は民族問題の分析を通して認識させるものであった。

Grant amount：\9100000 （ Direct Cost: \7000000 、 Indirect Cost：\2100000 ）

Main contribution of this project is threefold ;(1) Conceptual clarification of"competition"is necessary. Mere existence of plural parties do not lead to"competition"in strict sense. They can just co-exist, mobilizing their"own"voters.(2)"Catch-all parties"do not replace the"organized(mass) parties". In reality, catch-all parties tried to re-organize their core voters. In this sense, the image of linear decline of party organization is to be corrected.(3) The Golden Age of West European Party Politics in the postwar era was made possible on specific conditions. Changes in both dimensions jeopardize the trust in party politics, and, eventually, in democratic politics.

Grant amount：\13820000 （ Direct Cost: \13100000 、 Indirect Cost：\720000 ）

This research examined how European law and domestic law of European States are intertwined in various branches of law.
In civil law, there have teen discussions and projects proposed as regards European contract law and European-level harmonization of other fields of civil law. Kubota, the research leader, examined recent evolution of these issues. Concerning international trade law and the law of international civil procedure, Saito carried out analysis taking into account the influence of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. As for labour law, Ouchi examined the relationship between European law and Italian law. Competition law, which is becoming more and more important also for Japan, was the subject of research conducted by Sensui, who produced a detailed analysis of the recent evolution. Hamamoto carried out case studies relating to the relationship between the European Convention on Human Rights and domestic law of States parties and also that between EU/EC law and French administrative law. As for human rights issues, Shibuya examined the relationship between European norms and domestic law stipulations with particular emphasis on language rights. It goes without saying that legal analysis is not sufficient to draw a whole picture. Therefore, Amiya conducted research from political science perspectives and analysed the process how domestic social norms are Europeanized. Constitutional law is also a subject of our research and the relationship between European law and domestic law in this branch of law is analyzed by Inoue and Akasaka. In addition, Professor Markus Kotzur, invited to Kobe University with this fund, wrote about the influence exerted by European law on domestic law as well as on international law in the field of fundamental rights and freedoms.
This research produced a considerable result concerning the influence of European law on domestic law. As for a by far more difficult problem of the influence of domestic law on European law, a whole analysis is to be carried out another future project, but certain clarifications have been made by this research, particularly with regard to human rights issues.

Grant amount：\30030000 （ Direct Cost: \23100000 、 Indirect Cost：\6930000 ）

This project aimed to deconstruct and reconstruct International Politics and International Relations, referring to analytical concepts and theoretical frameworks of Gender Studies. We have analyzed states and societies at various stages of development from gender perspective and proposed a hypothesis of "gender dynamics" of International Regime.

Grant amount：\3400000 （ Direct Cost: \3400000 ）

1.This project was one of the international academic interchanges between Kobe University(Faculty of Law and Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies) and University of Sheffield, UK(Graduate School of East Asian Studies and Department of Politics). After two joint seminars (in UK, 1997, and in Kobe, 1998), we held the international seminar at Sheffield University, 7-8 January 2000. Beside the participants from both universities, many academicians (from University of Warwick, University of Leeds, University of Tokyo, and the like) participated in the seminar.
2.The seminars' papers of the three years' project were included in the report, "Globalization and Universalism in Region : A Link to the 21st Century." From the project, we got knowledges as follows.
(1)International relations are surely developing into the new phases which roughly resemble that of the medieval age.
(2)The regionalization is observed in many international regions.
(3)The beginning of the regionalization can be found in Japan, too.
(4)International relations in the 21st century are anticipated as the multilevel interaction between relations among the states, regionalization and globalization.
3.We will develop the academic interchange between Kobe University and University of Sheffield as one of the cores of international academic interchange between Japan and UK, in the future. This project is the important basis for it.

Grant amount：\13300000 （ Direct Cost: \13300000 ）

The aim of this project is to clarify the characteristics of the core-executives of several countries. The concept of core-executive implies not a single leader such as prime minister or president but networks of prime minister, cabinet members, cabinet committees, higher civil servants and so on.
The papers of this report analyze respectively the core-executives of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Thailand. These studies, as a whole, shows a intriguing paradox that on one hand the politics have become more pluralistic, and on the other hand the core executives have been centralized in spite of a variety of histories, institutions, political dynamism among these countries.
Accordingly, our research subject hereafter would be to investigate what has brought the centralization of the core-executives and to analyze the above-mentioned paradox.

Grant amount：\24440000 （ Direct Cost: \18800000 、 Indirect Cost：\5640000 ）

This project attempts to conduct a comprehensive research on the features of multicultural societies by comparing political processes of North-American, West European, East European, and Asian countries. It does so by focusing on the new issues regarding labor, religious, and judicial policies in multicultural societies over the past decade.

Grant amount：\18590000 （ Direct Cost: \14300000 、 Indirect Cost：\4290000 ）

This project attempts to conduct a comprehensive research on the features of multicultural societies by engaging in a comparative case analysis on the policy processes of North-American, West European, and East European countries. It does so by focusing on the new issues regarding minority cultures and multicultural policies over the past decade in areas such as education, welfare, and human rights.

Grant amount：\17810000 （ Direct Cost: \13700000 、 Indirect Cost：\4110000 ）

This project attempts to conduct a comprehensive research on the features of multicultural societies by engaging in a comparative case analysis of the political processes of North-American, West European, and East European countries. It does so by focusing on the new issues over the past decade regarding minority cultures and multicultural policies in terms of language rights, social rights, and voting rights.

Grant amount：\16640000 （ Direct Cost: \12800000 、 Indirect Cost：\3840000 ）

This research examines national consciousness and “regional” formations in European countries during the Interwar Period in relation to national politics and international politics, and reveals that national formations and “regional integrations” in European countries, especially in new countries, proceeds together amidst the background of nationalism. At the same time, thought, society, political conditions in each country didn’t proceed in the country itself, but they were linked by international politics and affected each other. This research also points out certain similarities in the process of the formation of national consciousness and “regional” formations in European countries.

Grant amount：\12400000 （ Direct Cost: \12400000 ）

This study attempted to analyze the various aspects of the recent defense of the rights of minority cultures. First, the study attempted to construct an analytical framework that integrates both philosophical and historical approaches. In order to do so, the study attempted to read some basic literatures dealing the issues of minority cultures written by such writers as John Rawls, Michael Walzer, Will Kymlicka and Bhikhu Parekh. One of the major findings of the research was that the focus of these writers have recently revealed a significant move from abstract arguments regarding identity to more concrete arguments regarding policies necessary to implement the demands of minority cultures. Second, the study has conducted a through-going field research in North America, West Europe and East Europe. One of the major findings of the study was that the arguments for minorities can be classified into the strategic considerations regarding the political movements for recognition of the minority identities and the arguments for implementing policies for cultural coexistence. Third, the study has attempted to figure out the future visions of policy systems for accommodating cultural minorities in Japan by comparing these foreign arguments with those of the contemporary Japan. It revealed that one feature of Japanese cultural minority lies in its weak voices, which means that minority cultures in Japan should seek for cooperation with other minority groups in order to secure stronger voices for recognition.

Grant amount：\47060000 （ Direct Cost: \36200000 、 Indirect Cost：\10860000 ）

第1次世界大戦後に地域的認識として生まれてきた「東欧」は冷戦の終了後に東中欧と南東欧(バルカン地域)とに区分されてきた。当然ながら、2007年1月のルーマニア、ブルガリアのEU加盟以後はバルカン地域内でも分化が明らかである。今後のヨーロッパの安全保障上の優先順位は「西バルカン」(旧ユーゴ諸国からスロヴェニアを除き、アルバニアを加えた地域)であり、各国の政治動向もそれに沿っている。他方でルーマニア、ブルガリアはEU加盟後の経済的競争力強化が課題でありつつも、特にルーマニアはその地政的位置から独自の外交を意図している。最後にバルカン諸国間の地域協力は萌芽段階ながら見られている。

Grant amount：\2900000 （ Direct Cost: \2900000 ）

本年度は,文献・資料の調査・収集に加え,学会・研究会等での報告を行った他,部分的な成果を公刊した.現在は,さらに研究の最終的なまとめと公刊に向けた作業を行っている.
本年度の成果の中心は,EUレヴェルで形成された社会政策的規範の国内法制化(「ヨーロッパ化」)をめぐる政治過程の検討にある.これについては,国内でも2回の学会・公開研究会報告を行った上,雑誌への公刊を行った.そこであきらかになったのは,EUレヴェルの社会政策規範の国内法制化において政権の戦略が,したがって国内の政党政治のダイナミクスが一定の影響を及ぼしているという点である.
また,社会組織をガヴァナンスに組み込んだ場合の正統性問題については,既に昨年度までに明らかにしてきた点であるが,本年度はその問題に対する団体側の対応戦略について検討した.具体的には,ドイツの宗派系福祉団体による,ヴォランティアセンターの設立などの新しい試みを通じた,より開かれた組織・活動形態の模索を検討した.これらは,固定的な社会集団の存在を前提とした既存の組織構造を社会変容に対応させる試みとして評価できるが,他方で,組織の開放・柔軟化というこの試みが,宗派系団体のアイデンティティの揺らぎにつながり,規範的な存立基盤そのものの見直しを余儀なくしている.
主として国内レヴェルのこのような研究成果を,EUレヴェルに関する前年度までの成果と組み合わせ,ヨーロッパ大の規範形成への社会アクターの影響を全体的な形でまとめる作業を現在行っている.