ABSTRACT
Voting behavior is a choice among a set of alternatives; that is, a set of political parties, but voters do not vote from the full range of the set as available choices. They vote from a limited set of parties. On the other hand, the set of possible party choices defines the sense of meaningfulness that voting brings; that is, the subjective empowerment in national politics. This chapter examines the changes that have occurred in micro-level vote choice and macro-level meaningfulness since 1996 when voters became entitled to cast two votes in every national election in both Houses. The voters’ perceived set of party choices fluctuated in multiple LDP-centered and DPJ-centered clusters, and vote choices were basically distributed among the possible choice set of parties in each cluster. The LDP-centered clusters were consistently stable in determining vote choice, whereas the DPJ-centered clusters were less stable and vote choice for the DPJ was rather heavily dependent on selective cues provided by its political actors. After the collapse of the DPJ administration, the perceived set of possible political parties to choose from has been greatly reduced – to for or against LDP-centered clusters – along with a diminished sense of empowerment.
