Seminar Abstracts AY2012

March 19, 2013
Aspects of "Legitimacy" Issues in the Governance Discourse
Takeshi FUJITANI (Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo)

Abstract
The phenomena and issues which are discussed under the single concept of "governance" are extremely diverse and vague, and one might consider it almost impossible to pursue any synthesis or generalization beyond the field-specific usages of the concept. Against this background, I will explore the relevance of "governance" as a cross-cutting, overarching conceptual framework, by examining how the issues of "legitimacy" have been discussed (if at all) in various domains where the concept of "governance" is referred to. As the concept of "legitimacy" in itself is a contentious topic, I shall restrict myself to a tentative definition of "legitimacy" as conditions or characteristics in the manner of making a decision that involves coercion, which is reasonably acceptable even to those who do not agree with the substance of the decision. Such a definition is no more than setting the scene for the following discussion, and by no means intended to make a substantial contribution to the disputes surrounding the concept of "legitimacy."

Here, I shall begin with depicting the constitutional democracy as a "prototypical" answer to the "legitimacy" issue, that is; any decisions on "public interests" must be vindicated by democratic legitimacy, while issues falling in the "private" domain are exempt free from such normative requirement as long as it is legally permitted. Then I will suggest a hypothesis that "governance" becomes a subject of discussion where this prototypical legitimacy answer is being challenged, marginalized or undermined; in other words, the invocation of "governance" might be a sign where we need alternative modes of legitimacy to the issues/processes relating to some collective interests. Thereafter, I shall illustrate this hypothesis through the cross-cutting overview of the "legitimacy" discourse in various contexts, specifically; (1) the rise of administrative states and the response of administrative law thereto, (2) the globalization of policy implementation process and its consequential subordination and fragmentation of domestic legal orders, (3) the formation of norms and standards by transnational private networks, which came to have de facto coercive power and blur the public and private boundaries, (4) the civil societal challenges against the state monopoly of legitimacy through "participation" and "self-governance," and (5) the significance of the market-type decision-making.

In short, this presentation will be one of attempts to uncover the various aspects of contemporary "governance" (and the possibility of synthesizing those aspects) mirrored in the discussion on "legitimacy" in various contexts.


February 19, 2013
Urban Governance and Commons – From the Perspectives of Legal Sociology

Gakuto TAKAMURA (College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University)


Abstract
Urban issues of today are in the process of shifting from the conventional issues centered around developmental disputes which arose as a result of rapid urbanization to land underutilization and the burden of operating and maintaining urban infrastructure under the postulations of aging cities, reduced city growth, and population decline. In the era of urbanization, strengthening regulations and attaining effective enforcement by the government were sought. However, currently, construction of sustainable resource management systems based on cooperation among various sectors, that is, governance, is being pursued.

The present work will examine the role of laws as a means to promote the management and use of local commons in cities by focusing particularly on the role of local communities in urban governance and adopting the commons studies by Elinor Ostrom as the basis of examination.

It was the achievement of Ostrom that she theoretically elucidated the superiority of local community–based co-management to previous solutions to Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons," that is, the use of centralized management by the state, privatization, or market mechanisms. However, Ostrom did not argue that self-governance by local communities alone is the universal solution for resource management, but instead advocated the necessity of a mixed system consisting of the advantages of both authority-based solutions by state and local governments and resource allocation by the market. In cities, where local communities are not tightly bonded as they are in rural areas, perspectives that approach the governance of commons as a three-party relationship among public institutions, the market, and local communities become even more important.

This presentation will probe into the individual roles that should be played by public institutions, the market, and local communities using the following as guides: 1) field surveys and system comparisons of the management of children's playgrounds and day care centers  provided and made available on the property of communal buildings and 2) field surveys and examinations of previous examples of the provision of information regarding the management of condominiums ( = commons) in the process of sales, purchases, and conclusions of contracts of used condominium units.

The role of laws which regulate governance is particularly important in identifying the roles that should be played by public institutions, the market, and local communities. In the discussion, new issues in law and jurisprudence will be sketched in relation to conventional legal theories.



January 15, 2013
Federation, Governance, and Democracy - Based on the Perspective of Constitutional Jurisprudence
Tomonobu HAYASHI (Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo)


Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to offer a point of view for conducting dialogues between the field of constitutional jurisprudence and other fields of social science which also investigate governance as their subject. For this purpose, the present study discusses which frameworks have been adopted and should be adopted by the field of constitutional jurisprudence in order to understand local governance. Since the basic framework adopted for discussing local governance by scholars in Japanese constitutional and administrative jurisprudence originated from German public law jurisprudence, the above-mentioned purpose of the present study will be attempted to be accomplished by analyzing the development of theories in Germany and the background which cultivated such development. First, it should be recognized that the treatment of Germany's  local governance which has been handed down to the present, particularly the sharp distinction between local governance bodies and the state, is linked closely to the theory of the federal state from the time of Bismarck's empire. Clarification of this linkage is an issue which needs to be addressed. Subsequently, as opposed to this classical framework of the theory of the federal state, new views have arisen in the form of theories of federations as a result of, for example, the effects of the progress of integration of the EU. The present study will take particular note of, among these new views, the debate on introducing the notion of "multi-layered systems" to public law jurisprudence. Then, cases will be considered in which this framework of multi-layered systems is applied not just to a federation, but also to local governance. These cases will be studied to examine insights that can be achieved from this framework and could not be gained from the application of the previously mentioned classical framework. Finally, the conclusions reached from examinations of theories from Germany as mentioned above will be contrasted to theories developed in Japan. Based on this contrast, the characteristics and issues of Japan's constitutional jurisprudence as well as Japanese constitutional law will be presented.



December 18, 2012
Issues in the Governance of Science and Technology 
Hideaki SHIROYAMA (Graduate School for Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo)


Abstract
While modern society has enjoyed the diverse benefits that were brought about by the development of science and technology, it also faces a variety of issues, including various risks relating to security and the environment. These risks are mutually correlated in a variety of ways, and the benefits and issues recognized vary significantly depending on the standpoint of the actor. The world of science and technology is vertically structured and thus the issues appear in different ways depending on the field. Uncertainty inevitably exists in science and technology and this can be utilized for diverse social purposes that are not always easy to predict. On the other hand, to promote knowledge production in science and technology, the appropriate systems, such as ensuring freedom of research, will be required. Innovation in science and technology and innovation in society are also closely related, and subsequently developing a suitable system of management to transfer advancements in science and technology into society will be crucial.  

The system in which society manages science and technology, which entails the various potentials and issues mentioned above, will be discussed in terms of governance. Fundamentally, to make a social judgment, an important perspective is to consider what type of interconnectedness and trade-offs need to be dealt with, and how diverse actors such as specialists in various fields, governments (international organizations, countries, and local governments), other groups (specialist groups, trade associations etc.) and citizens are mutually influencing each other. Examining various concrete cases from some actual fields, social judgments of science and technology will be discussed from a multidisciplinary perspective addressing safety, environmental and security issues, ethical considerations and means of ensuring the freedom of research.



November 20, 2012
The Political Choice of the Opposition at the Time of Institutional Change: the Birth of Blair Government Revisited
Takako IMAI (Seikei University)


Abstract
This presentation discusses the impact of the political choice made by the Opposition on the institutional transformation of the post-war welfare state.  As well known, the Labour Party in Britain took office for the first time in 18 years through the historical landslide victory in the 1997 general election.  The Labour government implemented a series of policies such as the active labour market programme to help the unemployed or the income support for the low income working population.  However, despite its ambitious flagship of achieving both economic efficiency and social fairness, it is often argued that external factors such as the globalization of market economy or the policy inheritance of the Conservative government since 1979 severely constrained the discretion of the opposition party over policy choices.  To explore the theme, the presentation pays particular attention to fierce debates over the fundamental ideas of welfare reform which took place when the Labour party prepared the 1997 general election manifesto.  In so doing, it investigates such factors as the organizational structure, power alignment within the party, and power resources of the leadership.  By examining these factors, it attempts to delineate why and how particular policy idea was given the dominant position within the party and what impact such choice had on the nature of the reform of the post-war welfare state after the alternation of government.




October 16, 2012
Inequality, Market and Pareto
Susumu CATO (Tokyo Metropolitan University)


Abstract
This presentation examines some of the theories that is proposed by an Italian social scientist, Vilfredo Frederico Damaso Pareto (1848-1923), and subsequently discusses two normative issues. The first issue concerns income inequality. Firstly, based on discussions regarding the relationship between social welfare and inequality, we examine the perspective which argues that the "improvement of average income is the first step to the betterment of society." Consequently, this report will demonstrate that income inequality causes a detriment to society. Furthermore, through a brief international comparison, we argue for the importance of disparity reduction through welfare policy.

The second issue is related to Pareto optimality and the market; a social state is Pareto optimal if there exists no feasible state where all individuals are simultaneously improved. Due to the fact that this concept of optimality does not require comparisons of utility between individuals and cardinarity, it is regarded as a concept with little requirement of value. To begin with, we discuss how the validity of the fundamental theorem of welfare economics, referring to "the market itself achieving optimal allocation," relies on an ethical interpretation of optimality. In accordance with this interpretation, the possibility that the concept of Pareto optimality requires more critical judgments of value will be illustrated. We also argue that the market is a strong governance system through which to conduct proper resource allocation if we take a specific value judgment.



September 18, 2012
Regional variations in labor force behavior of women in Japan
Yukiko ABE (Hokkaido University)


Abstract
The employment rate for women has a greater regional variation than the same rate for men. Although the labor force participation rate of women in Japan has increased consistently, the age profile of female labor force participation in the late 2000s still exhibits the so-called "M-shape." Many women in Japan retire from the labor force during the period of marriage or childbirth, and then return to work in their 40s. 

In reality, however, there are large regional differences in labor force participation of women. The shapes of age profiles of the employment-to-population ratio differ among regions in Japan. The employment rate in the areas of the Northern Coastal line of the Honshu Island (Yamagata, Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Tottori, and Shimane prefectures; Northeren Coastal region hereafter) is considerably higher than in other areas. The employment rate for women aged 25-54 in Tokyo was 62 percent, while the same rate in the Northern Coastal region was 77 percent (Employment Status Survey 2007). 

High participation in the northern coastal region is the result of high regular employment by married women with children; the proportion of women working under part-time status is not high in the northern coastal region; single women's participation is not very high in the northern coastal region compared with other regions. Although attaining a work-life balance is considered difficult in Japan, women in the Northern Coastal region have achieved this balance in the most challenging way: women who have the highest degree of household responsibilities (married women with children) work in regular employment (for which working hours tend to be more inflexible than other types of employment). 

This report investigates whether observable supply and demand factors (living with grandparents, size of childcare resources, income of men, and industrial structure of the region) can account for the large regional difference in women's employment rates, using cross-sectional data in 2007. According to the regression analysis, supply and demand factors only partially explain the regional differences. The data from 1955 to 1975 shows that, during the time when agricultural employment decreased, the Northern Coastal region experienced a unique transition: falling female employment in the agricultural sector was replaced by expanded employment in the manufacturing and service sectors. As a result, high female participation was sustained in this region. This fact implies that the norm towards women's work is a fundamental factor for the high employment rate of women.



July 17, 2012
The Interpersonal Comparison of Utility and Group Decision Making
Dan SASAKI (Institute of Social Science)


Abstract
So-called rationality in economic theory refers to the view that an individual takes an action in order to maximize their personal utility. In this sense, a group such as a society is economically unsubstantial. Its decision making is carried out by regarding the total personal utility of all group members, a weighed sum or some other function as the utility of the whole group, in order to maximize the utility. In other words, in the case where an individual member has a different preference from the group, this means that a conflict of interests occurs due to differential priorities between individuals in the group. 

As above, in the case where an interpersonal comparison of utility is inevitable, the situation occurs which is described by the famous Japanese expression that "If you work by reason, you grow rough-edged; if you choose to dip your oar into sentiment's stream, it will sweep you away."  That is, the ways in which those who are effective at leading the group's conversations to ensure that their self-demands are met, is evidently not compatible with economic rationality. However, it has also been proven by the famed "impossibility theorem" that the method of determining something automatically by appealing to some transcendent power or rules is not a universal. Rather, for some reason, a prejudice exists across the world that "solving things by money" is unrespectable. Despite this, the price mechanism works well when making interpersonal comparisons of utility. For instance, this refers to a measure in which someone who made a bid and then won in an auction would pay compensation for those who follow his decision. If a conflict of interests can be solved through calculating things by the amount of consideration payable, this will generally allow every stakeholder to be easily satisfied. A familiar example of this would be in trading general goods, and a more complicated example would be the arbitrations involved with court or labor negotiations. 

Nevertheless, as economic theories predict, even the price mechanism is not universal under circumstance where externality exists: thus an amended mechanism to properly internalize the externality is needed. Accordingly, this report will discuss, focusing on externality, the issues which exist inside the decision-making method, such as majority voting which is widely regarded as a democratic measure.




June 19, 2012
The Inductive Game Theory and its Application
Akihiko MATSUI (Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo)


Abstract
This report will introduce the framework of inductive game theory which Prof. Mamoru Kaneko (Tsukuba University) and the present author created, and discuss its application.

The theory of games often assumes a rational individual. Based on the hypothesis that the knowledge or perception concerning game (including uncertainty as a risk) of an individual player was already given in advance and, at the same time, that there is a behavioral principal, namely the typical maximization of expected payoff, the theory analyzes what type of choice the player would make in individual games. This theory of games can thus be called a deductive theory. 

One theory, which gained attention as the antithesis of deductive game theory, was the evolutionary game theory. This theory refers to a kind of dynamic process, for instance, it discusses the process in which the number of players repeating successful actions which result in good scores, increases, while other strategies gradually die out. In this process, knowledge of the game is not required, and the actions, which the players consider, are not regarded as a factor. 

That inductive game theory does not entail any transcendent knowledge regarding games but relies on experience of games is the first important point. In this way it is in the same position as evolutionary game theory. However, the players in inductive game theory aim to understand the game and establish a model of how it works: this point makes this theory differ from the other two approaches. In the sense that this approach attempts to follow a general social rule (the type of game) derived from experience, this action can be referred to as an inductive action.

As an application of this approach, this report will examine the segregation and stigmatization of people with disabilities. Kaneko & Matsui (1999) examined what kind of social images could be created by those who have accumulated their experience after starting from a "clean slate" in a society and analyzed the mechanism of how prejudice is created through acts of discrimination. Accordingly, this report will show that the group, which is distinguished for some reason, is inevitably stigmatized and avoided by other groups, to some extent. If time allows, its application to the issue of bullying will also be introduced.



May 15, 2012
Why Governance is at Issue: A View from the Perspective of Political Thought History
Shigeki UNO (Institute of Social Science)


Abstract
Why is governance at issue today? In this seminar, we attempt, in a somewhat roundabout manner, to discuss the history of political thought revolving around the concept of governance. 

Distinguishing between "governance" and "government" is a very new phenomenon. Historically, the two were often used interchangeably. They both stem from the verb "to govern" (gubernare in Latin), which as is well known means "to steer a ship." 

Since Ancient Greece, many philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle have viewed the ruling of a state as akin to the steering of a ship. However, according to Foucault, it was not until the 16th to 17th century that "govern" came to refer solely to state relations. Until then, it had been used in various contexts.

In this sense, one factor behind the popularity of the concept of "governance" today, despite that the verb "to govern" had been focused solely on the state at the same time as the emergence of the modern sovereign state, is, in addition to the collapse of the sovereign state system, that it has been reapplied broadly to other contexts, other than the state. 

The issue is how "governance" is to be understood now that it is seen to cut across diverse areas, and not limited to the public sphere. Is this an order in a network of pluralistic subjects or the emergence of a new administrative technique? We attempt to understand the uncertain concept of "governance" today through the ambiguity found in the word from which it originally stems.



April 17, 2012
Questioning Governance Today 
Mari OSAWA (Institute of Social Science)


Abstract
In his New York Times column "When Zombies Win" dated December 19, 2010, economist Paul Krugman wrote: "When historians look back at 2008-10, what will puzzle them most, I believe, is the strange triumph of failed ideas. Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything—yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever." 

This was written in the context of the United States. In Europe, however, with Greece's budget deficit revealed in October 2009 (12% debt-to-GDP ratio understated at 3.7%) then developing in 2011 into government debt crises throughout the Euro zone, fiscal restraints through cutbacks in public services etc. became mainstream. Indicating a shared understanding of the issue with Krugman, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) published a joint study report in 2012 titled "A triumph of failed ideas: European models of capitalism in the crisis." The report examines trends among 10 major EU states as well as economic governance reform and austerity measures at the EU level. 

Japan underwent regime change in September 2009 under the slogans "Putting People's Lives First" and "From Concrete to People," and it was amidst moves toward economic revitalization, the reinforcement of social security functions, and fiscal reconstruction that the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear accident took place on March 11, 2011. The reality of the disaster and process of rebuilding have exposed failures in Japan's existing governance, but a "Resurrection of the Zombies" in the name of reconstruction can also be observed, with a lack of gender equality in decision-making related to evacuation, relief and rescue, and reconstruction efforts, a special reconstruction tax that suspends the reinforcement of income redistribution, and a major step backwards by heading towards a "Construction State."

In addition to outlining the above points, in this seminar we will examine clues that lead to good governance, considering hints offered by econophysics, agent simulation and social epidemiology, among others.

 

このページの先頭へ