ABSTRACT

Decentralization reform initiatives were invariably frustrated, and centralization persisted for the duration of conservative dominance in both France and Japan. The governing majority saw no interest in “politicizing” the center-local relations, and preferred to approach the subject as an organizational question of “administration.” Safe in their position of power, the ruling parties were largely able to shut out and ignore the pressure of party politics that surrounded the policy process, and intergovernmental bargaining came to shape the center-local relations in the two countries. In truth, this was as much an intra-governmental process since the policy decisions were to be made in the central government, and the subordinate local governments were merely being consulted. Certainly, the center often did not win, but the localities never won-all they could do was to frustrate central initiatives, and to seek general accommodation and specific dispensation. A cycle of central imposition and local resistance was thus repeated time and again. Formal devolution of power did not take place.