A Study on Multi-Subject Decision Making Participation of School Consolidation in Japan——Based on the Perspective of Rational Choice Institutionalism
School consolidation in the basic education is a common phenomenon in many countries.School consolidation involves the interests of many stakeholders,and the policy implementation effectiveness is greatly affected by the way and degree of participation of different stakeholders.Japan has a history of conflicts between municipal governments and community residents due to the forcible implementation of school consolidation,which provides an important sample for studying the issue of multi-subject participation in decision making regarding school consolidation.This article analyzes the decision making process of school consolidation in Japan from the perspective of rational choice institutionalism.It is found that there are differences in preferences,conflict of interests and unbalanced power distribution among various actors and a lack of supervision system,resulting in the following problems:low efficiency of policy decision making;difficulty to guarantee equal participation of parents and community residents;"programmed"and"formalized"decision making and many uncertain factors of policy adaptation.Despite these problems and many setbacks,Japan's decision making on school consolidation has gradually shifted from government arbitrariness to government-led democratic consultation.
school consolidationeducation policydecision making participationrational choice institutionalism
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