ABSTRACT
This research project was launched in a classroom when I was still a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One autumn day in 1997, Professor Stephen Ansolabehere, an instructor of a graduate seminar on electoral politics, introduced the following conventional wisdom in the political science literature:
The lower the level of government, the lower the level of voter turnout. In the United States, for example, voter turnout in state legislative elections is lower than in Presidential or Congressional elections, but city council elections record even lower turnout than state elections. This pattern is commonly observed in most other democracies.
I reflexively raised my hand and said: “That is not the case in Japan. Japanese local elections often record higher voter turnout than national elections.” My prior belief as a native of Japan clearly contradicted what Professor Ansolabehere just introduced.