Seminar: Mixed Rules, Mixed Messages: Dual Candidacy and Geographical Representation in Japan’s Mixed-Membered System - Akitaka Matsuo (University of Essex)
14:00-15:00 (GMT) Wednesday, January 28.
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14:00-15:00 (GMT) Wednesday, February 11.
Abstract: Election campaigns are critical arenas in which candidates signal their representational priorities to voters. Yet, how political institutions structure the ways individual candidates craft their campaign messages has remained under-explored. In this paper, we examine how dual candidacy shapes the representational focus of candidates under Japan's mixed-member system. We argue that while the system generally encourages nationally-focused appeals, the unique “best loser” rule generates heterogeneous incentives. This design motivates dual candidates to prioritize particularistic or local issues to maximize their vote share in the district tier and increase their ranking on the party-list in the PR tier. Using recent methodological advances in the analysis of short texts, we analyze the content of candidate-authored campaign manifestos and reveal evidence that is consistent with our expectations. Although Japan's electoral reform motivates district candidates to be more nationally-focused, the design of dual candidacy counteracts this effect and leads candidates to craft more locally oriented messages. These findings thus provide important implications for democratic representation and political communication.
About the speaker: Akitaka Matsuo is a Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. His research lies at the intersection of comparative politics and computational social science, with a focus on elections, legislative behaviour, and political communication. He specializes in quantitative methods, including natural language processing and machine learning, applied to parliamentary speeches, campaign communication, and social media. His work has been published in journals such as Political Science Research and Methods, Electoral Studies, and Review of International Political Economy.