Executive Bill Research Articles

Religious Leadership and the Success of Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria (2020-2023): A Critical Appraisal

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a call by the international community to produce and implement a set of universally accepted goals that meet the urgent economic, environmental and political challenges of our time by 2030. The paper examines Religious Leadership and Success of Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria. The research method is descriptive, and secondary sources of data were utilized. Qualitative approach was adopted. It was discovered that few religious leaders had contributed to the success of SDGs, while the actions of greater number of them were diametrically opposed to the success of it. Federal government of Nigeria should sponsor an executive bill titled ‘Ethical Conduct and Limitations of Religious Leaders, 2024; to forestall their penchant for: child abuse, sexual molestation, ritualism, monetization of prayers; self-kidnap, and fake prophecies. Each State Government of the Federation should replicate Federal government’s policy implementation guidelines on the matter. These measures will act as a deterrence to other institutions in Nigeria.

The legislative role of the Russian Duma and the Kazakh Mazhilis: authoritarianism and power sharing in post-Soviet Eurasia

ABSTRACT The Russian Duma and the Kazakh Mazhilis are typical examples of formally democratic legislatures in authoritarian regimes. This article investigates their role and asks why different authoritarian legislatures have different levels of law-making activity. Neo-institutionalist scholarship argues that legislatures stabilize authoritarian regimes by institutionalizing access to decision-making, but this literature requires further evidence showing which factors stimulate a parliament’s law-making function. The analysis uses an original dataset on 7,564 bills in Russia and Kazakhstan between 2000 and 2016 to explore how different power-sharing arrangements affect the legislative output of both parliaments. The results show that the Duma is much more active in terms of initiating laws and amending executive bills because of its highly differentiated committee system. Nevertheless, both legislatures have become more active after electoral contestedness decreased when United Russia and Nur Otan emerged. This suggests that internal parliamentary organization stimulates law-making activity, whereas electoral contestedness obstructs collective decision-making.

Bicameral Lawmaking: Analysing the Choices of Revising Chambers

Abstract This article examines the choices made by revising chambers in bicameral congresses. It analyses how bill characteristics, chamber congruence, impatience and institutional context influence the decisions made by revising chambers regarding executive bills sent by the chamber of origin. The analysis focuses on the case of Chile, a presidential country in which the executive has substantial proposal power. The findings show that the probability of a bill passing with amendments is higher when it receives a presidential urgency and when the revising chamber is the Senate. Executive bills coming out of the Finance Committee are more likely than others to pass unamended. However, those bills are more likely to die in committee when the revising chamber is the Senate (i.e. the chamber whose membership has a longer time horizon).

Amending legislatures in authoritarian regimes: power sharing in post-Soviet Eurasia

ABSTRACT A large body of scholarship points to the importance of legislatures in authoritarian regimes, arguably making them more stable and durable. Legislatures could, for example, perform a co-opting function by giving legislative power to potential opponents of incumbents. Additional evidence is needed, however, to show that this legislative function of parliament exists in non-democracies. This article, therefore, takes a step back and investigates to what extent parliaments in authoritarian regimes have a legislative function, by focusing on the amendment of executive bills. Based on an innovative way of measuring parliamentary amendment, the analysis uses a unique original dataset with cross-national data on 5271 executive bills from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The figures demonstrate a high level of activity across all parliaments analysed here. Importantly, however, some legislatures are more active than others. Contributing empirically and theoretically to existing literature, the results show that legislatures on average amend executive bills for 43.2% and that power sharing institutions, defined as contestation and institutional differentiation, constitute mechanisms causing different levels of activity. The article concludes by discussing the limitations of the investigation and indicates where future research could strengthen further theoretical and empirical links between legislative power sharing, co-optation and regime stability.

Evaluating end users’ knowledge and perceived benefit of the National Health Insurance Scheme post implementation in a south-west state of Nigeria

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is designed to provide a cost- effective comprehensive health care delivery system for employees of formal sectors, self-employed, poor and vulnerable groups. Oyo state government approved the establishment of her health insurance scheme and there after sent an executive bill to the legislature for a swift consideration and approval. This study assessed the knowledge and perceived benefit of NHIS among civil servants in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional study conducted amongst 200 state civil servants. Participants were selected using convenient sampling technique and data was obtained using a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed with SPSS v.25 to obtain frequencies, means and standard deviation. Respondents had good knowledge with a mean of 16.4±1.0 on an 18- point scale about NHIS while respondents had fair perceived benefit of the NHIS with a mean of 18.3±3.1 on a 35-point rating scale. Results denote knowledgeable end users who perceive to be benefiting from the scheme. The State Government is encouraged to expand the NHIS to other sectors to enable fuller coverage. More emphasis should be made on the benefits of enrollment to prompt high level willingness to enroll.

The Niger Delta Amnesty – An Amnesty in Search of a Legal Legitimacy

On the 6 th of August 2009, the former President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, (now late), declared amnesty for militants of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria (here in after called “the Niger Delta Amnesty”) based on the recommendation of the Presidential Technical Committee on the Niger Delta. The paper uses doctrinaire approach to appraise the Niger Delta Amnesty touted as a “home grown” amnesty. Based on statutes, case laws, opinions of legal text writers, newspaper comments and internet sources, it disappointedly finds out that the Niger Delta Amnesty, unlike many other amnesties, is not anchor on any known Nigeria law. It is the contention of the paper that such an important public proclamation should be anchored on a constitutional provision or an Act of the National Assembly. In the absence of such a legal validity, the paper recommends that the President of Nigeria should, as a matter of public importance and urgency, package the Niger Delta Amnesty Program in form of Executive bill and forward the same to the National Assembly for enactment as a law. This, the paper believes will guarantee its longevity and secure it from being used as a political tool. Keywords: amnesty, pardon, clemency, militants, militancy, impunity, legitimacy DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/101-06 Publication date: September 30 th 2020

Authoritarian Amendments: Legislative Institutions as Intraexecutive Constraints in Post-Soviet Russia

Why are executive bills sometimes amended significantly in authoritarian legislatures? Bill change clashes with the conventional picture of parliaments in nondemocracies as “rubber stamp” bodies. Recent work challenging the “rubber stamp” model suggests that cases of amendment are the result of legislator influence. This article proposes an alternative argument: Amendment can result from intraexecutive policy-making processes, unresolved in the prelegislative, cabinet-level stage. Factionalised executives can use legislative institutions to help overcome information asymmetries, as well as the commitment and monitoring problems involved in collective decision making. The article evaluates this alternative account using a combination of statistical and case-study analyses, drawing on both cross-national and fine-grained data from contemporary Russia. The findings contribute to our knowledge of authoritarian legislatures, policy-making processes in nondemocracies, and Russian politics.

Sub-National Legislature and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Lessons from Osun State House of Assembly

This paper examines the contribution of sub-national legislature in reinforcing democratic consolidation in Nigeria by drawing lessons from the Osun state legislature in South-West Nigeria. Specifically, the authors interrogate changing party composition, oversight actions and executive reactions and constituencies' activities of members of the Assembly across three terms of twelve years: 1999-2003; 2003-2007 and 2007-2011. The analysis presented in the paper reveals that relationship between the Osun state legislature and executive has been defined by dominance by the latter manifested through financial dependence of the Assembly in carrying out legislative activities, overdependence on the executive for maintenance of members and their offices, domination of legislative agenda with executive bills and other executive oriented activities as well as reliance on the executive to guarantee legislative members' political career. The paper concludes that in spite of the foregoing drawbacks, the Osun state legislature remains relevant to the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria especially in its contributions towards legitimising, supporting and stabilising the polity and serving as deliberative arena for securing government policies and programmes.

Opening the Black Box: Cabinet Authorship of Legislative Proposals in a Multiparty Presidential System

This article seeks to understand multiparty cabinets in presidential systems. The article applies theories developed for parliamentary systems to the case of Brazil and uses ministerial endorsements of executive bills to test whether multiparty cabinets are anchored in an office or a policy‐seeking compact. The analysis shows that participation in policy making within the cabinet is highly concentrated in technical ministries and ministries occupied by the president's party. The analysis also shows that ideological heterogeneity is a significant predictor of ministerial endorsement, indicating that under conditions of ideological proximity, presidential cabinets are able to share policy‐making responsibilities.

Mental health legislation in Nigeria: current leanings and future yearnings

Nigeria's current mental health legislation stems from a lunacy ordinance enacted in 1916 that assumed the status of a law in 1958. The most recent attempt to reform the law was with an unsuccessful Mental Health Bill in 2003. Currently, though, efforts are being made to represent it as an executive Bill sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health. The present paper reviews this Bill, in particular in light of the World Health Organization's recommendations on mental health legislation.

Mental health legislation in Nigeria: current leanings and future yearnings

Nigeria's current mental health legislation stems from a lunacy ordinance enacted in 1916 that assumed the status of a law in 1958. The most recent attempt to reform the law was with an unsuccessful Mental Health Bill in 2003. Currently, though, efforts are being made to represent it as an executive Bill sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health. The present paper reviews this Bill, in particular in light of the World Health Organization's recommendations on mental health legislation.

Harvesting Oil in India's Rajasthan Desert

The Thar Desert in India’s western state of Rajasthan is a desolate region characterized by wind-blown sand dunes. The state is a major tourist attraction, drawing millions of visitors annually to tour forts of medieval kingdoms and visit camel fairs. It is here that Cairn Energy, a Scottish oil company, took over a production-sharing contract (PSC) from Shell in 2003 and developed a major oilfield that has recoverable reserves of at least 1 billion BOE. The major oil companies have conducted little wildcat exploration in South Asia. From 1980 to 1991, the majors drilled 8,000 wells in Southeast Asia, but only 12 in South Asia. Indigenous exploration in Rajasthan began with an inconclusive exploration attempt by the government of India in 1955. In 1988, Oil India discovered natural gas near the town of Jaisalmer and has been producing 0.6 million sd m3/d since 1996. Floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1988, Cairn Energy first entered South Asia by signing a PSC with the government of Bangladesh. In 1997, during a swap of properties with Shell, Cairn acquired a 10% interest in the Rajasthan PSC, which Shell had initially signed with the government of India in 1995. The PSC covered block RJ-ON-90/1 consisting of an initial area of almost 12 000 km2—3111 km2 is now included in the development area, with India’s public sector oil company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, holding 30% ownership. After the discovery of the Guda field in 1999, Cairn increased its participation to 50% and eventually took over Shell’s remaining share in 2003 at a cost of USD 7.25 million and became the block’s operator. “Drill Till You Drop” Strategy The geology of the block in Rajasthan’s Barmer basin consists of channel sands stacked on top of one another to create a fluvial reservoir that has high permeability (1–25 darcy) and high porosity. From 2004, Cairn adopted a “drill till you drop” strategy. In January 2004, the company made its initial Mangala discovery with the 16th well in the basin. Following the drilling of appraisal wells, 3D-seismic-data analysis, and well tests, Mangala was confirmed as the largest oil discovery in India since 1985. The Mangala reservoir has a 150 m oil column of medium gravity (20–28°API) viscous crude (9–17 cp) with sulfur content of about 0.1%. The crude has high paraffin content that makes it suitable as a secondary feedstock for refineries, but pipelines and trucks carrying the crude require heating and insulation. Up to 2005, the company drilled more than 140 wells in Rajasthan with a yield of 25 discoveries. In addition to Mangala, Cairn’s major discoveries are Bhagyam and Aishwariya, with 22 other fields including Guda, Saraswati, Raageshwari, Greater Raageshwari, and Kameshwari. In August 2009, the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, joined Cairn Energy Chief Executive Bill Gammell in inaugurating oil production from the Mangala field.

Urgency Petitions and the Informational Problem in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

In the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, an absolute majority may bring any bill out of committee and to the floor for consideration without the committee's report by approving an urgency petition. The prevailing interpretation is that urgency petitions have been used by government majorities to get round unsupportive committees. Contrary to this interpretation, we find that only rarely petitions for executive bills are approved without consensus. We identify two reasons why government majorities in Brazil hardly ever impose their agenda on the Legislature: their common agenda is small, and majority members often enjoy informational gains from letting opposition committees examine executive bills.

Of Coalition and Speed: Passage and Duration of Statutes in Uruguay's Parliament, 1985-2000

We report preliminary findings from analysis of a database under construction. The paper explores the legislative process in search for some of the alleged consequences of cabinet coalitions in a presidential system. Coalition effects should be less evident in the success of executive initiatives: strategic behavior hampers this intuitive measure of performance. Better measures, because less subject to strategic considerations, are the odds of passage of legislators' bills and the time proposals take to be approved. Thus measured, coalition effects are discernible. Analysis of the universe of proposals processed in the fragmented Uruguayan Parliament between 1985 and 2000 reveals that coalition, observed about half the period, swells success rates of coalition members by 60% on average (and by as much as 150% for those close to the president). Event history analysis shows that coalitions cut the wait for an executive bill by 3 months, 1/6th the average wait. The reverse effect is felt on the duration of legislators' bills.

Informational theory and the selection of "rapporteurs" in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

This article analyzes which factors determine rapporteurship allocation for reviewing bills of law submitted by the Brazilian Executive Branch to the Chamber of Deputies. We argue that the rapporteurs’ influence lies in their position as informational agents in the preliminary review committees. Based on this theoretical proposition, we identify the reasons why the first term of the Cardoso Administration witnessed a non-negligible number of rapporteurs from the minority opposition who were designated to report on bills submitted by the Executive. The hypotheses are tested through a statistical model that estimates the number of reports on Executive bills each Deputy obtained during the 1995-98 Legislature by using original data on the characteristics of the Deputies, their parties, and the committees to which they belonged.

Teoria informacional e a seleção de relatores na Câmara dos Deputados

This article analyzes which factors determine rapporteurship allocation for reviewing bills of law submitted by the Brazilian Executive Branch to the Chamber of Deputies. We argue that the rapporteurs' influence lies in their position as informational agents in the preliminary review committees. Based on this theoretical proposition, we identify the reasons why the first term of the Cardoso Administration witnessed a non-negligible number of rapporteurs from the minority opposition who were designated to report on bills submitted by the Executive. The hypotheses are tested through a statistical model that estimates the number of reports on Executive bills each Deputy obtained during the 1995-98 Legislature by using original data on the characteristics of the Deputies, their parties, and the committees to which they belonged.

The Impact of the Scottish Parliament in Amending Executive Legislation

This paper provides the first systematic attempt to investigate the legislative impact of the Scottish Parliament on Executive legislation, by analysing the fate of all amendments to Executive bills from the Parliament's first session (1999–2003). Initial findings on the success of bill amendments show that the balance of power inclines strongly in favour of ministers. However, when we account for the type of amendment and initial authorship we find evidence that the Parliament (both coalition and opposition MSPs) actually makes more of an impact, particularly in terms of the level of success of substantive amendments to Executive bills. Our findings have implications for much of the current literature that is sceptical of the existence of power sharing between the Executive and the Parliament and within the Parliament.

Executive Bill Clearance Procedure in Michigan

transmission to the Governor, he has only ten days in which to approve or veto. Too frequently concrete information has been wanting, and frantic, last-minute telephone calls by the Executive Office to state agencies presumably affected have left all concerned frustrated and unhappy. Nor has the problem been restricted to the end-of-the-session jam. Even earlier in legislative sessions Governors have not infrequently been embarrassed by lack of information when suddenly confronted with the need to make a decision on a bill. Not all bills, of course, come to the Governor's attention so anonymously. Major policy measures, particularly those which have been central to his legislative program, are usually well briefed. Modifications of language during their legislative course have been closely followed and the influence of the Governor has often shadowed them from the beginning. But only a small portion of the total legislative grist receives this kind of intensive gubernatorial surveillance. The great mass of bills must receive their day-to-day surveillance from the individual departments concerned, or from private interests. Because these bills of medium importance do not have high priority as part of the Governor's legislative program they tend to be ignored until the acute stage is reached of whether to approve or veto. Since hundreds of bills never reach