Two new AREA Ruhr Book Talk Podcasts published

The governance of Japan presents a puzzle: it is a democracy yet is dominated by a single party that wins almost all elections. Stanger still, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its policies are not particularly popular with voters. How has this situation arisen, and how is it sustained? Amy Catalinac argues that when politicians compete in electoral districts with discernible voter groups, they can make allocations of central government resources contingent on how those groups vote. Using a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data spanning 1980-2014, Catalinac shows that LDP politicians have been doing just that, leveraging their dominance to make groups compete for resources. Dominance Through Division sheds new light on why the LDP has remained in power for so long, why opposition parties are weak, and why policy preferences do not always align with vote choice. It also explains why Japan’s 1994 electoral reform has had limited impact.

Amy Catalinac is an Associate Professor of Politics at New York University. She is a scholar of electoral systems, distributive politics, and contemporary Japanese politics. She is the author of two Cambridge University Press books, Dominance Through Division: Group-based Clientelism in Japan (2025) and Electoral Reform and National Security in Japan (2016), as well as articles in journals such as the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, World Politics, and Comparative Political Studies. She earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University, where she was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and has held positions at Australian National University and Princeton University. Professor Catalinac is currently Associate Editor at the Journal of Politics, and serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies at NYU.

This episode is hosted by AREA Ruhr member Prof. Dr. Axel Klein (University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of East Asian Studies). The talk took place on 5 February 2026.

In her book “China and Climate Leadership”, Kim Vender explores China’s leadership role in the United Nations climate change negotiations over two decades. Her analysis of international and domestic expectations for climate leadership and China’s role uncovers why there has been a persistent narrative of China’s big transformation from a “climate zero” in Copenhagen to a “climate hero” in Paris. The book thereby provides a more nuanced perspective on the often dichotomous categorisation of China in international relations.

Dr. Vender is a trained political scientist with an interest in climate change governance and Chinese politics and foreign relations. She is particularly interested in the nexus of climate change and global development, geopolitics, and foreign policy analysis. She currently investigates the topic of Loss and Damage with a focus on public opinion on solidarity and climate finance at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam, Germany. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations from the University of Edinburgh, an M.A. in East Asian Politics from Ruhr University Bochum, and a B.A. in China Studies from Free University of Berlin. She is furthermore an Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for EU-Asia Connectivity (CEAC) linked to the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Ruhr University Bochum.

This episode is hosted by AREA Ruhr member Prof. Dr. Jörn-Carsten Gottwald (Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of East Asian Studies). The talk took place on 24 June 2026.