現代日本政治研究の方向性：不毛な対立を超えて

現代日本政治研究之方向性：跨越無謂的對立（Changing Direction of the Study of Contemporary Japanese Politics: Beyond a Barren Discussion between Theory-driven and Problem-driven Researches ）

本文之研究目的在於回顧自1990 年代之比較政治學與區域政治研究理論之動向，進而檢視日本政治研究之方向性。透過分析地方財政政策之決策過程，期望能為台灣之日本研究，明示出具體的標的。而其中，自我實證分析可謂是日本研究中分屬社會科學研究方法的新指標。此分析層次與在美國等國家行之有年之一般性理論，單向適用於日本研究理論之試論迥異，另一方面，亦與只限熟悉日本文化之研究者，以其熟悉之日本文化研究中既有的觀念與用語，進而探討而進行論證日本之特殊性的研究方法相異。最終目標為，期望能以普羅大眾皆能檢視驗證的研究型態，提出分析模型或假說，以此研究結果檢視及驗證以文獻檔案或歷史史料、訪談結果為主，所提出之分析模型與假說，此乃本研究之核心所在。

The purpose of this article is to advance a “new” empirical study of Japanese politics in Taiwan. The new empirical study should be subject both to logical appraisal and to empirical testing. Since the 1990s, there has been a series of barren theoretical battles over regional political studies. Traditional regional specialists emphasize the importance of specific knowledge such as languages, history, culture, literature, and social context in order to account for particular political phenomena. However, rational choice theorists are motivated by the desire to vindicate variants of the theory rather than by the desire to explain particular events and outcomes in regional studies. This article explores a new methodological direction―an “analytic narrative approach” to the study of politics. The new approach aims to explain why and how particular events occur through detailed case studies while constructing a logically coherent theory by relying on a rational choice approach.