Amy Catalinac
Biographic Data
| ID | 1534559 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amy Catalinac |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amy |
| FAMILY NAME | Catalinac |
| SIGNATURE | CATALINAC A |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3792-8788 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 142 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Japan in 2024
The year 2024 opened and closed with the same issue dominating the agenda: how politics should be financed. It began with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio grappling with revelations that his party’s factions had misreported income from fundraising parties. In August, after struggling to enact reforms to placate public anger, he stepped down. In September, his party held a leadership election in which nine candidates engaged in debate about how best t…
Japan in 2023
This year saw efforts by Japan’s government, led by prime minister Fumio Kishida, to tackle problems such as the need to arrest the declining birthrate, increase defense spending, deepen security ties with the US and other nations, and safeguard the rights of sexual minorities. Yet despite being in an enviable position domestically, with no national election looming, a decimated opposition, and a coalition partner with the votes to underwrite his…
How incumbent politicians respond to the enactment of a programmatic policy: Evidence From Snow Subsidies
More than 50 studies have examined the programmatic incumbent support hypothesis, which posits that once enacted, programmatic policies increase electoral support for the incumbent. Despite the careful attention to causal inference in this work, empirical findings have been strikingly inconsistent. We make the case that these inconsistent results are likely explained by incumbents' strategic responses to the enactment of a programmatic policy. Sp…
Workshops Without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Geographically Targeted Spending in Mixed-Member Majoritarian Electoral Systems
Can governments elected under mixed-member majoritarian (mmm) electoral systems use geographically targeted spending to increase their chances of staying in office, and if so, how? Although twenty-eight countries usemmmelectoral systems, scant research has addressed this question. The authors explain howmmm’s combination of electoral systems in two unlinked tiers creates a distinct strategic environment in which a large party and a small party ca…
Why Geographically-Targeted Spending Under Closed-List Proportional Representation Favors Marginal Districts
Capturing vote-seeking incentives and the cultivation of a personal and party vote
A Tournament Theory of Pork Barrel Politics: The Case of Japan
How do politicians motivate voters to turn out and support them? We posit that incumbents construct tournaments between groups and distribute rewards to groups based on the levels of electoral support provided. We test our propositions in Japan, where incumbents can discern relative levels of support provided by municipalities in their districts and influence spending in ways that reward certain municipalities over others. Using new data on appro…
Positioning under Alternative Electoral Systems: Evidence from Japanese Candidate Election Manifestos
We study a core question of interest in political science: Do candidates position themselves differently under different electoral systems and is their positioning in line with the expectations of spatial theories? We use validated estimates of candidate ideological positions derived from quantitative scaling of 7,497 Japanese-language election manifestos written by the near universe of candidates who competed in the eight House of Representative…
Electoral Reform and National Security in Japan: From Pork to Foreign Policy
Japan is the third-largest economy in the world and a key ally of the United States. Yet the determinants of Japanese security policy are not well understood. The question of why Japan never sought the independent military capabilities that would be commensurate with its economic power has puzzled scholars of international relations for decades. Applying new tools for the quantitative analysis of text to a new collection of 7,497 Japanese-languag…
From Pork to Policy: The Rise of Programmatic Campaigning in Japanese Elections
We examine two related propositions central to the subfield of comparative politics: that candidates for office adopt different electoral strategies under different electoral systems and rely more on particularism when faced with intraparty competition. We apply an innovative methodological approach that combines probabilistic topic modeling with in-depth qualitative interpretations of each topic to an original collection of 7,497 Japanese-langua…
Why New Zealand Took Itself out of Anzus: Observing “Opposition for Autonomy” in Asymmetric Alliances1
In 1985, a dispute over nuclear ship visits led the United States to formally suspend its security guarantee to New Zealand under the trilateral ANZUS Treaty. In this article, I conceptualize this dispute as a case of intra-alliance opposition by a small state toward its stronger ally. I generate four hypotheses from the literature on alliances in international relations to explain why New Zealand chose to oppose its ally on the nuclear ships iss…
Identity Theory and Foreign Policy: Explaining Japan’s Responses to the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 U.S. War in Iraq
This article examines the feasibility of using role identity as an independent variable to explain the direction of a state’s national security policy. Focusing on the response of the Japanese government to the Gulf War (January‐March 1991) and the U.S. War in Iraq (March‐May 2003), the article correlates articulations of their preferred role made in the Japanese Diet, with these policy outcomes. It finds that the different balance of role concep…
Japan, the West, and the whaling issue: Understanding the Japanese side
This article examines the current dispute over whaling from the perspective of Japan, a country that is fiercely protective of its right to whale. It outlines the key role played by transnational environmental actors in defining and instituting an international norm of anti-whaling, symbolized in the passage of the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. This signalled a rejection of previously held attitudes towards the use of whales as natura…
The Establishment and Subsequent Expansion of the Waitangi Tribunal: The Politics of Agenda Setting
In modern-day democratic political systems, governments are constantly presented with multiple concerns that often affect a diversity of groups. Studies of agenda setting help explain the various forces that interact to focus government attention and decision-making on a particular concern. This article examines the applicability of theories of agenda setting developed by John W Kingdon in the American political context to two of New Zealand’s mo…
From Pork to Policy: The Rise of Programmatic Campaigning in Japanese Elections
We examine two related propositions central to the subfield of comparative politics: that candidates for office adopt different electoral strategies under different electoral systems and rely more on particularism when faced with intraparty competition. We apply an innovative methodological approach that combines probabilistic topic modeling with in-depth qualitative interpretations of each topic to an original collection of 7,497 Japanese-langua…
Positioning under Alternative Electoral Systems: Evidence from Japanese Candidate Election Manifestos
We study a core question of interest in political science: Do candidates position themselves differently under different electoral systems and is their positioning in line with the expectations of spatial theories? We use validated estimates of candidate ideological positions derived from quantitative scaling of 7,497 Japanese-language election manifestos written by the near universe of candidates who competed in the eight House of Representative…
Identity Theory and Foreign Policy: Explaining Japan’s Responses to the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 U.S. War in Iraq
This article examines the feasibility of using role identity as an independent variable to explain the direction of a state’s national security policy. Focusing on the response of the Japanese government to the Gulf War (January‐March 1991) and the U.S. War in Iraq (March‐May 2003), the article correlates articulations of their preferred role made in the Japanese Diet, with these policy outcomes. It finds that the different balance of role concep…
Geographically Targeted Spending in Mixed-Member Majoritarian Electoral Systems
Can governments elected under mixed-member majoritarian (mmm) electoral systems use geographically targeted spending to increase their chances of staying in office, and if so, how? Although twenty-eight countries usemmmelectoral systems, scant research has addressed this question. The authors explain howmmm’s combination of electoral systems in two unlinked tiers creates a distinct strategic environment in which a large party and a small party ca…
A Tournament Theory of Pork Barrel Politics: The Case of Japan
How do politicians motivate voters to turn out and support them? We posit that incumbents construct tournaments between groups and distribute rewards to groups based on the levels of electoral support provided. We test our propositions in Japan, where incumbents can discern relative levels of support provided by municipalities in their districts and influence spending in ways that reward certain municipalities over others. Using new data on appro…
Capturing vote-seeking incentives and the cultivation of a personal and party vote
Why Geographically-Targeted Spending Under Closed-List Proportional Representation Favors Marginal Districts
Why New Zealand Took Itself out of Anzus: Observing “Opposition for Autonomy” in Asymmetric Alliances1
In 1985, a dispute over nuclear ship visits led the United States to formally suspend its security guarantee to New Zealand under the trilateral ANZUS Treaty. In this article, I conceptualize this dispute as a case of intra-alliance opposition by a small state toward its stronger ally. I generate four hypotheses from the literature on alliances in international relations to explain why New Zealand chose to oppose its ally on the nuclear ships iss…
How incumbent politicians respond to the enactment of a programmatic policy: Evidence From Snow Subsidies
More than 50 studies have examined the programmatic incumbent support hypothesis, which posits that once enacted, programmatic policies increase electoral support for the incumbent. Despite the careful attention to causal inference in this work, empirical findings have been strikingly inconsistent. We make the case that these inconsistent results are likely explained by incumbents' strategic responses to the enactment of a programmatic policy. Sp…
Japan, the West, and the whaling issue: Understanding the Japanese side
This article examines the current dispute over whaling from the perspective of Japan, a country that is fiercely protective of its right to whale. It outlines the key role played by transnational environmental actors in defining and instituting an international norm of anti-whaling, symbolized in the passage of the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. This signalled a rejection of previously held attitudes towards the use of whales as natura…
Japan in 2024
The year 2024 opened and closed with the same issue dominating the agenda: how politics should be financed. It began with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio grappling with revelations that his party’s factions had misreported income from fundraising parties. In August, after struggling to enact reforms to placate public anger, he stepped down. In September, his party held a leadership election in which nine candidates engaged in debate about how best t…
The Establishment and Subsequent Expansion of the Waitangi Tribunal: The Politics of Agenda Setting
In modern-day democratic political systems, governments are constantly presented with multiple concerns that often affect a diversity of groups. Studies of agenda setting help explain the various forces that interact to focus government attention and decision-making on a particular concern. This article examines the applicability of theories of agenda setting developed by John W Kingdon in the American political context to two of New Zealand’s mo…
The Establishment and Subsequent Expansion of the Waitangi Tribunal: The Politics of Agenda Setting
In modern-day democratic political systems, governments are constantly presented with multiple concerns that often affect a diversity of groups. Studies of agenda setting help explain the various forces that interact to focus government attention and decision-making on a particular concern. This article examines the applicability of theories of agenda setting developed by John W Kingdon in the American political context to two of New Zealand’s mo…
Japan, the West, and the whaling issue: Understanding the Japanese side
This article examines the current dispute over whaling from the perspective of Japan, a country that is fiercely protective of its right to whale. It outlines the key role played by transnational environmental actors in defining and instituting an international norm of anti-whaling, symbolized in the passage of the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. This signalled a rejection of previously held attitudes towards the use of whales as natura…
Identity Theory and Foreign Policy: Explaining Japan’s Responses to the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 U.S. War in Iraq
This article examines the feasibility of using role identity as an independent variable to explain the direction of a state’s national security policy. Focusing on the response of the Japanese government to the Gulf War (January‐March 1991) and the U.S. War in Iraq (March‐May 2003), the article correlates articulations of their preferred role made in the Japanese Diet, with these policy outcomes. It finds that the different balance of role concep…
Why New Zealand Took Itself out of Anzus: Observing “Opposition for Autonomy” in Asymmetric Alliances1
In 1985, a dispute over nuclear ship visits led the United States to formally suspend its security guarantee to New Zealand under the trilateral ANZUS Treaty. In this article, I conceptualize this dispute as a case of intra-alliance opposition by a small state toward its stronger ally. I generate four hypotheses from the literature on alliances in international relations to explain why New Zealand chose to oppose its ally on the nuclear ships iss…
Electoral Reform and National Security in Japan: From Pork to Foreign Policy
Japan is the third-largest economy in the world and a key ally of the United States. Yet the determinants of Japanese security policy are not well understood. The question of why Japan never sought the independent military capabilities that would be commensurate with its economic power has puzzled scholars of international relations for decades. Applying new tools for the quantitative analysis of text to a new collection of 7,497 Japanese-languag…
From Pork to Policy: The Rise of Programmatic Campaigning in Japanese Elections
We examine two related propositions central to the subfield of comparative politics: that candidates for office adopt different electoral strategies under different electoral systems and rely more on particularism when faced with intraparty competition. We apply an innovative methodological approach that combines probabilistic topic modeling with in-depth qualitative interpretations of each topic to an original collection of 7,497 Japanese-langua…
Positioning under Alternative Electoral Systems: Evidence from Japanese Candidate Election Manifestos
We study a core question of interest in political science: Do candidates position themselves differently under different electoral systems and is their positioning in line with the expectations of spatial theories? We use validated estimates of candidate ideological positions derived from quantitative scaling of 7,497 Japanese-language election manifestos written by the near universe of candidates who competed in the eight House of Representative…
A Tournament Theory of Pork Barrel Politics: The Case of Japan
How do politicians motivate voters to turn out and support them? We posit that incumbents construct tournaments between groups and distribute rewards to groups based on the levels of electoral support provided. We test our propositions in Japan, where incumbents can discern relative levels of support provided by municipalities in their districts and influence spending in ways that reward certain municipalities over others. Using new data on appro…
Geographically Targeted Spending in Mixed-Member Majoritarian Electoral Systems
Can governments elected under mixed-member majoritarian (mmm) electoral systems use geographically targeted spending to increase their chances of staying in office, and if so, how? Although twenty-eight countries usemmmelectoral systems, scant research has addressed this question. The authors explain howmmm’s combination of electoral systems in two unlinked tiers creates a distinct strategic environment in which a large party and a small party ca…
Why Geographically-Targeted Spending Under Closed-List Proportional Representation Favors Marginal Districts
Capturing vote-seeking incentives and the cultivation of a personal and party vote
Workshops Without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
How incumbent politicians respond to the enactment of a programmatic policy: Evidence From Snow Subsidies
More than 50 studies have examined the programmatic incumbent support hypothesis, which posits that once enacted, programmatic policies increase electoral support for the incumbent. Despite the careful attention to causal inference in this work, empirical findings have been strikingly inconsistent. We make the case that these inconsistent results are likely explained by incumbents' strategic responses to the enactment of a programmatic policy. Sp…
Japan in 2023
This year saw efforts by Japan’s government, led by prime minister Fumio Kishida, to tackle problems such as the need to arrest the declining birthrate, increase defense spending, deepen security ties with the US and other nations, and safeguard the rights of sexual minorities. Yet despite being in an enviable position domestically, with no national election looming, a decimated opposition, and a coalition partner with the votes to underwrite his…
Japan in 2024
The year 2024 opened and closed with the same issue dominating the agenda: how politics should be financed. It began with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio grappling with revelations that his party’s factions had misreported income from fundraising parties. In August, after struggling to enact reforms to placate public anger, he stepped down. In September, his party held a leadership election in which nine candidates engaged in debate about how best t…
Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Political economy (9 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (8 works) · Democracy (7 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)