Local Government as a Social Construction Agent in Transnational Relations: Some Reflections Based on Three Cases in Japan
This article suggests that local government can help initiate a process of norm shift in world politics. In Japan, transnational issues have brought a new dimension to local communities. In this context, local government occupies a strategic position to act as an intermediate agent in reconnectin...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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The International Studies Association of Ritsumeikan University
2004
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| Online Access: | http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/ir/isaru/eng/raris/ http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/78665 |
| Summary: | This article suggests that local government can help initiate a process of norm
shift in world politics. In Japan, transnational issues have brought a new
dimension to local communities. In this context, local government occupies a
strategic position to act as an intermediate agent in reconnecting citizens with
states. On the one hand, local government as part of the state apparatus has a
range of political access to national authority. On the other hand, local
government is the immediate body that tries to assure individuals’ safety and
health in local communities and can be seen as potential partner of civil society
groups. Once individuals and domestic groups bypass their own states and
directly seek counterpart groups beyond national borders, or establish their
alliances with non-national citizens to solve those issues, this strategic position of
local government provides political access, leverage, and opportunities to the
transnationally connected groups. The transnational advocacy coalitions of civil
society groups who work with local governments would create the opportunity
structure. Local government has the potential to act as a key agent in converting
the moral authority of civil society groups into a source of power to change state
policies and practices. The theoretical purpose of this article is to bridge two sets
of literatures: the literature on material, utility-based positivism (i.e., neorealism
and neoliberalism) in world politics, and the literature on transnationalism and
norms (i.e., constructivism) in sociology and international relations. It looks at
the interplay of material forces and normative rationality in the process of
transnationalization. This study specifically examines the mechanism by which
local government may transform its material access and opportunities into a form
of power for morally principled coalitions. |
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