Comment: The institutional roots of the Japanese construction state

Abstract

The project by Thomas Feldhoff and his associates addresses a basic puzzle of the contemporary Japanese political-economy - why, despite so many wounds to the public good, does the nation's massive public works budget continue unabated? As their core hypothesis, the Feldhoff team proposes that Japan's "construction state" (doken kokka) is largely responsible for this morass. A construction state can be defined as a government which puts much more public investment into the construction of public works than can be realistically justified by public need. In their project, Feldhoff team proposes to investigate the composition and inner dynamics of Japan's "construction state" and its effects upon public policy and sustainability.