Uncovering the aspirations to be a leading local government: a content analysis approach

Some local governments lead by doing something new or doing it earlier than others, and they gain a reputation as pioneers, but to what extent do their policy makers have leadership aspirations – the desire to make their local governments achieve or maintain a leadership position? To address this question, this study makes the first unique attempt to systematically investigate and measure leadership aspirations at the level of local government by conducting a content analysis of the verbatim assembly minutes of Japanese prefectures. Leadership aspirations remained much lower in most, but not all, of the non-capital prefectures than in Tokyo. Policy makers across prefectures aspired to lead in different areas of action and within different bounds of the social system. These findings prompt future investigators to study the antecedents and determinants of leadership aspirations at the local level and suggest the best areas and social systems for local governments to target.