日本行政改革核心「強化首相領導權」之分析

行政改革是當前民主國家發展的趨勢，在追求績效、提升統治能力之際，行政改革有其必要性。日本以行政改革手段提升政治家的政策能力，特別是強化政治領導者首相的領導權作法，與1980年代以來進行政改革的國家相較，最為特殊且引人入勝。對於日本行政改革的既有研究大致將焦點置於以下三點：一為從新自由主義的觀點，討論「小政府」的時代趨勢，二為中央省廳的大幅縮編以及衍生的效果與影響，三是討論首相輔佐機關的強化。然而卻少觸及強化政治家的政策能力，甚至是首相本身的領導權的問題。筆者認為，橋本龍太郎內閣將「強化首相官邸的功能」視為「行政改革」的首要之務，目的在強化「首相本身的」領導權，而非僅僅是首相「輔佐機關」的功能。因此，本文將進行以下二點分析：一是為何強化政治家的政策能力，特別是首相的領導權會成為行政改革的首要課題；二是為何認為制度的設計會強化首相的領導權。

關鍵字

行政改革；小政府；橋本內閣；首相領導權

並列摘要

To build an efficient and active government, most democracies are practicing administration reform for their necessities and inevitabilities. Comparing with the democracies which reformed since 1980s, Japan is the most absorbing one that makes use of administration reform as a way of consolidation of prime minister's leadership. The current researches are focused on these three dimensions: first, the trend of ”small government” from the neo-liberalism perspective; second, the effect of agencies reducing; third, the strengthening of the prime minister's assistant institutions. However, there are few concerns involved in the subject of the consolidation of prime minister's leadership and how it relates to Japan's administration reform. Hashimoto cabinet treated the consolidation of prime minister and his cabinet as a primary task of the administration reform and as a way to advance prime minister's leadership. This study will analyze why and how Japanese prime minister evolved since the administration reform was implemented.