Local Government and Public Services (ADC5376)
Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan, Fall 2017
Syllabus (updated: 2017-09-15)
Overview and Class Goals
Local governments provide a wide range of service today. The actions that elected and unelected officials take at the local levels of government have far-reaching consequences for our lives. In this course, we will discuss topics concerning local governments such as decentralization, democratic accountability, the size of local governments, and the impacts of broader structural changes. We will also examine local government in Japan in order to relate theories and findings in the academic literature with local governments in the real world context.
By completing this course, you will:
- Become familiar with theoretical and empirical works on local governments.
- Understand the roles local governments play in providing public services.
- Be able to critically evaluate scholarly works on local governments.
- Be able to conduct independent research on local governments.
Reference Books
- Bovens, Mark, Robert E. Goodin, and Thomas Schillemans, eds. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability. Oxford: Oxford UP.
- Inoguchi, Takashi, and Purnendra Jain, eds. 2011. Japanese Politics Today: From Karaoke to Kabuki Democracy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Levi-Faur, David, ed. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Governance. New York: Oxford UP.
- Lijphart, Arent. 2012. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, Second Edition. New Haven, CT: Yale UP.
- Rosenbluth, Frances McCall, and Michael F. Thies. 2010. Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.