Building Policy Legitimacy in Japan Political Behaviour Beyond Rational Choice

Why do politicians sometimes make unpopular or contested policies that could damage their electoral prospects? This is the question Sakamoto tries to answer in this book. Political scientists have long claimed that political behaviour and outcomes can be explained as the actors' self-interested goal-seeking behaviour. But Sakamoto demonstrates that politicians sometimes demonstrate behaviour that goes beyond the narrow confines of self-interest, and generate policy support not only by coordinating interests but also by resting policy justification on something other than self-interest. He explains that `policy legitimacy' is the factor that can pre-empt or override the forces of self-interest and make possible the implementation of unpopular policies. He unveils the dynamics of policy processes that affect legislative success and failure and explains why policy legitimacy is important to policy approval and what factors facilitate or impede legitimacy formation, by investigating the case of Japan. He then shows the importance of policy legitimacy by examining Japan's tax and electoral reform.