Field:
    Comparative Politics, International Relations (Regional specialization: East Asia; Country specialization: Japan)

Dissertation Title:
    Restructuring Government: Party System Change and Decentralization in Japan

Committee:
    Kathleen Bawn (Chair), Michael F. Thies, Daniel Treisman, Barbara Geddes, and Namhee Lee

Date of Completion: June 2010

Contact Information:
    Linda Hasunuma
    UCLA Political Science Department
    4289 Bunche Hall
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1472
    Phone: 310-825-4331
    Fax: 310-825-0778

 Curriculum Vitae:
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Dissertation Summary:
    In my dissertation, I show how Japan’s shift from a dominant party system to one of greater party competition and coalition governments produced policy changes, which have begun to erode and transform the post-war structure of central-local relations for the first time in fifty years. Groups once privileged under the Liberal Democratic Party’s dominance are now vulnerable, and this is evident in the new changes to the structure of local governments and the redistribution of financial resources to them.

    I address basic questions in comparative politics about the distribution of power within a government, and the effects of electoral reform on the party system and policymaking process. My analysis is supported by field interviews with local and national government politicians, bureaucrats, members of the media, and members of advisory councils involved in these reforms. I use electoral, budgetary, survey, and demographic data, and close historical analysis of previous reform efforts to link changes in local governance to the changes in the party system. My research contributes to our understanding of decentralization, political institutions, and the politics of redistribution.

Research Interests:
    Japan: central-local relations, redistribution, immigration, foreign relations, and religion and politics. East Asia: regional inequalities, foreign relations, and religion and politics.

Teaching Interests:
    Comparative, International, and East Asian politics. I have experience teaching Introduction to Comparative Politics, the Politics of East Asia, Modern China, and Gender and Politics. I am also able to teach introductory courses on International Relations and International Political Economy. (Please see my CV).