Pardon me for entering the discussion at such a late date but I would like to
make two side points. One, my data shows no relationship between urban- rural
and district magnitude. In fact, I see almost perfect even distribution of 3, 4,
and 5-member districts in each category of urban-rural. Two-member and
six-member districts were the exception but this balance was maintained over
most of the postwar period. Remember that until 1986 five-member district that
needed an extra seat turned into two three-member distircts.

Dr Babb noted that I have said that urban-rural looked like the main cleavage
under the new system. I dont think there is a policy battle here, just a random
results that the LDP has too many candidates in rural areas and trouble getting
good candidates in urban areas. The NFP has the opposite problem except in Iwate
(Ozawa), Nagano (Hata), and Kumamoto (Hosokawa). I also note that the NFP did
best and had the most popular support in those three prefectures in the HC
election.

SReed.