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..

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 redu..

德國地方政府的行政區域重劃源自十九世紀末，甚至更早以前，不過，實施的範圍有限，而且主要集中在工業發達的魯爾區(Ruhrgebiet)。一直到 1960 年代因為社會變遷、經濟蓬勃發展，機動性的提高，人民對地方政府的要求不斷提高，而地方政府卻因為規模太小、行政能力薄弱，難以滿足人民的需求。而另一方面，由於地方自治的實質內容減少，地方自治的意義不斷被質疑，於是為了強化地方政府的治理能力、提升地方政府的行政能力和效率以及落實地方自治的精神，德國各邦政府從 1960..

The territorial reform in Germany at the local government level began in the end of the 19th century or even earlier. But the scale and the scope of its implementation was very limited and happened in the majority of cases in the Ruhr area. During the 1960s, the social situation had changed greatly, the economy boomed, and the mobility increased; the demand of people for local government had gradually enhanced on the one hand, but the real substance of self-administration had evidently reduced, so that the meaning of self- ad..