Legislative Cycle Research Articles

Longitudinal policy surveillance of state obesity legislation in California, 1999–2020

BackgroundObesity rates among children and adults continue to accelerate in the U.S., particularly among marginalized and low-income populations. Obesity prevention and reduction policies can significantly impact population health by improving environmental conditions and increasing access to health-promoting resources. Limited research has been conducted to examine state obesity policy change over time. The primary aim of this study is to examine legislative approaches used to prevent and reduce obesity in the state of California (U.S.).MethodsWe used quantitative policy surveillance methods to develop a state database of obesity-related legislation (bills, resolutions) introduced in California’s legislature between 1999 and 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to examine trends of introduced and enacted policy by legislative and policy characteristics. Chi-square tests were used to determine differences in characteristics between enacted and non-enacted legislation. Legislative session and policy characteristics found to be associated with enactment were used to predict adoption in a logistic regression.ResultsA total of 284 obesity-related bills and resolutions were introduced in California’s legislature between 1999 and 2020 with a peak of 43 in 2005–2006. On average, 25.8 bills and resolutions were introduced each 2-year legislative cycle. Findings indicate that (a) children and schools were the most frequently specified population and setting; (b) the most common policy topics were nutrition (45%) and physical activity (33%); and (c) only 15% of legislation mentioned race/ethnicity. Overall, 24.9% of bills were enacted compared to 82.1% of resolutions adopted. Legislation to raise awareness about obesity had 5.4 times the odds of being passed compared to other topics. Yet this difference was not statistically significant in a sensitivity analysis when we excluded resolutions.ConclusionsThis database can be leveraged to advance our knowledge of effective and equitable policy instruments to prevent and reduce obesity. Results reveal important policy elements that may impact legislative success, including policy topic, and contribute to a nascent evidence base for public health law research, legal epidemiology, and practice. Future work should investigate the role of policy effectiveness research and evidence on legislative policymaking.

Report from Brussels: overview of pending and completed legislative initiatives in the area of financial services in the EU – content and state of play

Abstract At the end of the EU’s 2019 – 2024 legislative cycle and just before the next Commission will enter office, this report aims to take stock of the main legislative initiatives at EU level in the area of financial services, in particular in the field of banking and capital markets law. It aims to provide an overview on the procedural state of play as well as the content, following in its approach the earlier report from 2022 (ZBB 2022, 312 ff.).

Politikai átrendeződés a pandémia és a háború árnyékában

Latvia’s party system has been one of the most unstable in European comparison since the 1990s, essentially since independence and democratization. Although there was a period in the middle of the 2010s, which showed the stabilization of the range of relevant parties and a decrease in the number of parties, by the end of the decade the fluctuation between the parties of the Baltic republics was again high. The Kariņš cabinet, formed after a record long time after the 2018 election, nevertheless set a unique record in the country: it was the first government to complete a full four-year parliamentary term. The government faced two challenges during its tenure, the pandemic that began in the spring of 2020, and the Russian aggression against Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022. Both had a significant impact on the development of the party structure. The aim of this paper is to present the changes in the political palette of Latvian parties in the last two legislative cycles, to analyze the results of the October 2022 election, giving priority to the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the transformation of the party structure and the results of the elections.

The Concept and Measurement of Legislative Backsliding

Abstract The article examines the concept of legislative backsliding and offers a measurement strategy for its empirical analysis. Legislative backsliding is defined as a move away from liberal democracy in four critical dimensions of legislative quality, its public policy; legal-constitutional-formal; procedural; and stability aspects. We operationalise each of these dimensions with their separate indices relying on components such as stakeholder consultations, time passed between bill introduction and passing the law as well as results of constitutional reviews. We use qualitative mini case studies from Hungary, widely considered from 2010 on to be a poster child for democratic backsliding, to illustrate the viability of the proposed measurement strategy. We find that laws which show deficiencies in terms of legislative quality exhibit them in not just but several dimensions. Based on the case studies we offer insights into scaling up the law-level analysis to the level of legislative cycles and show how the legislative quality index can be used to measure macro-level legislative backsliding.

News & Notes

FSMB member medical boards play a very important role in the FSMB’s policy-making process by identifying issues of importance to medical regulation and then submitting resolutions for consideration by the FSMB’s House of Delegates.Issues identified by boards in recent years have led to the development of new policies and programs that have helped enhance public protection across the country.Member boards are invited to submit resolutions for consideration by the House of Delegates at its meeting during the FSMB Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in May 2023. Resolutions should be submitted by March 3, 2023.For more information, please contact Pat McCarty, Director of FSMB Leadership Services, at pmccarty@fsmb.org.The American Medical Association Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force continues to advance evidence-based recommendations for policymakers and physicians to help end the nation’s drug-related overdose and death epidemic. The Task Force recently released its 2022 Overdose Epidemic Report.The report indicates that in the past decade, physicians and other health care professionals have reduced opioid prescribing in every state—by nearly 50% nationally. They have increased the use of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in every state—more than 1.1 billion queries of PDMPs in 2021. Buprenorphine dispensed for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) more than doubled in the past 10 years, and naloxone dispensed has increased by nearly 800% since 2012. Despite these positive efforts, drug-related overdose and death continue to increase, primarily due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogs.The full report is available at AMA-Advocacy-2022-Overdose-Epidemic-Report_090622.pdf.The Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) has released its annual State Legislation Roundup. Enacted state telehealth bills in the 2022 legislative session followed trends forged in the previous 2021 legislative cycle, although at a slightly lesser volume.While 2020 was largely focused on scrambling to meet the needs of the population during the COVID-19 pandemic through temporary telehealth waivers and flexibilities, both 2021 and 2022 challenged states to decide how to translate their temporary COVID-19 policies into permanent telehealth policies, and in many cases adjusting their previously passed laws concerning telehealth. There was also a proliferation of legislation that addressed cross-state licensing issues in earnest through registration processes, targeted licensing exceptions and compacts. Among 41 states and DC, 180 legislative bills tracked by CCHP passed in the 2022 legislative session. This is down from the 201 legislative bills enacted in 47 states in 2021 but remains higher than the 104 bills passed in 2020.The full report is available at https://www.cchpca.org/2022/11/2022-Leg-Roundup-All-States.pdfThe Commissioners of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) held their Annual Meeting on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Part of the meeting included the election of officers. The newly elected officers assumed their positions at the conclusion of the meeting as follows: Commissioner Mark Spangler from West Virginia was re-elected ChairCommissioner Karen Silas from Alabama was elected Vice-ChairCommissioner Kenneth Cleveland was elected TreasurerThe role of Past Chair will be vacant

Legislating for change: gender-sensitive ex-ante legislative scrutiny in practice

ABSTRACT The law is a fundamental arena for advancing gender equality. Parliaments are where laws are made, but differential gender impacts are often not explored when draft legislation is scrutinised. A range of tools exist to help parliamentarians conduct gender-sensitive ex-ante legislative scrutiny but their success relies on parliamentary institutionalisation, localisation of measures, political will and parliamentary leadership, access to evidence and expertise, practical tools, its application to all laws, men, and government practice. Blind spots and weaknesses include intersectionality, the role of empathy in representation, a holistic approach to the whole legislative cycle, and linking to international obligations.

Gender sensitive parliaments and the legislative cycle: conceptualising new cultures and practices

ABSTRACT As an emergent international norm, gender sensitive parliaments offer parliamentarians and parliamentary staff a new lens through which to consider all aspects of their institutional culture and work practices. In this article, I consider the origins, application and remaining gaps in one particular aspect of gender sensitive parliaments: gender mainstreaming legislation across its entire ‘life cycle’. I begin with a reminder of the international mandates for gender sensitive legislation (GSL), acknowledging a historical emphasis on the responsibility of political institutions to ensure legislation, policy and programmes address – rather than exacerbate – gender inequality. I then assess the tools that have been developed over the past 20 years to support GSL and discuss enduring limitations in its implementation, relating to political will, the collection and analysis of quality data, and inadequate parliamentary opportunities and mechanisms for gender sensitive scrutiny.

How substance use prevention research gets used in United States federal policy.

The growing body of research evidence on substance use and substance use disorder (SU/SUD) prevention could be leveraged to strengthen the intended impact of policies that address SU/SUD. The aim of the present study was to explore how research was used in United States federal legislation that emphasized SU/SUD prevention. Using a mixed-methods approach, we assessed whether the use of research predicted a bill's legislative progress. We randomly sampled 10 bills that represented different types of research keywords to examine how research was used in these bills, applying content analysis. United States Congress. Federal legislation introduced between the 101st and the 114th Congresses (1989-2017; n = 1866). The quantitative outcome measures were bills' likelihood of passing out of committee and being enacted. Qualitative outcomes included the ways research was used in legislation. Bills that used any research language were 2.2 times more likely to pass out of committee (OR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.75, 2.72) and 82% more likely to be enacted (OR = 1.82; 95% CI, 1.23, 2.69) than bills not using research language. Bills using dissemination words were 57% more likely to pass out of committee (OR = 1.57; CI, 1.08, 2.28) and analysis words were 93% more likely (OR = 1.93; 95% CI, 1.51, 2.47) than bills not using dissemination or analysis words. Research was used to (i) define the problem to justify legislative action, (ii) address the problem by providing funding, and (iii) address the problem through industry regulations. However, there was a lack of research use that targets underlying risk and protective factors. In the US Congress, substance use and substance use disorder prevention bills that use research language appear to be more likely to progress in the legislative cycle than bills that do not, suggesting that legislation using research may be viewed as more credible.

The Rise and Fall of International Law in the Post-Lisbon AFSJ Legislation Cycles

The article focuses on the output and incidence of international law in the adopted AFSJ law-making for the period between 2009−14 and 2014−19, with particular emphasis upon asylum and immigration law. The article thus overall shows an initially rising but subsequently falling ‘international’ influence upon EU AFSJ directives and regulations. International law usage is significant even in times of populism or times of crisis-related law-making, particularly as to asylum and immigration law. However, the waning presence of international law also arguably indicates the development of the AFSJ as a booming legal field, where there is an operationalisation of a vast field of new actors, institutions, and systems through EU law. This account demonstrates how the EU shows a tangible intent to permit the influence of international law upon the AFSJ which supports well its general efforts to participate and engage as a global legal actor.

Do European media ignore female politicians? A comparative analysis of MP visibility

Media attention is an invaluable electoral asset, and structurally less media attention given to female candidates and politicians could be detrimental to women’s representation. While research has found equal amounts of coverage devoted to male and female politicians in the US and Canada, a gender gap persists in European countries. This article examines whether differences in the political position and background of men and women account for this gender gap. A computer-assisted content analysis of national dailies in six European countries during one full legislative cycle is combined with extensive background information of 3039 MPs. The results confirm that even after controlling extensively for individual differences, female parliamentarians in Europe are less visible in the news than their male counterparts. Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2021.1988387 .

Going in circles? The influence of the electoral cycle on the party behaviour in parliament

AbstractMost analyses dealing with the interaction of parties in parliament assume their interests to be fixed between elections. However, a rational perspective suggests that parties adapt their behaviour throughout the legislative term. I argue that this change is influenced by incentives and possibilities to shape legislation and the need to distinguish oneself from competitors. While for government parties it matters whether they have to share offices, for opposition parties the influence on policy-making is important. By examining the sentiment of all parliamentary speeches on bill proposals from six established democracies over more than twenty years, I analyse institutional and contextual effects. The results show that single-party governments tend to become more positive towards the end of the legislative cycle compared to coalition governments. On the other hand, opposition parties under minority governments, or with more institutionalised influence on government bills, show a more negative trend in comparison to their counterparts.

Ring the Bell for Sickle Cell: Encouraging Advocacy in an Underserved Community.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) was once a disease of childhood because of a limited life expectancy. Due to medical advances, it is now common for people with SCD to live into adulthood. Funding and resources for adults with SCD, however, remain limited. Adult patients would benefit from increased access to medical care, mental health care services, and workforce development. The Indiana Sickle Cell Consortium, a group of medical providers and community-based organizations, worked closely with people living with SCD and their family members to create a campaign advocating for state funding for programs for adults with SCD. This campaign culminated with the passage of a bill that provides $250,000 in funding for program development for adults with SCD. The bill also directs the Indiana Department of Health to carry out a needs assessment for people with SCD in Indiana. However, continued efforts are needed to reduce health disparities for people with SCD. The Indiana Sickle Cell Consortium will continue advocacy efforts in future legislative cycles and bring attention to the health inequities that affect people with SCD.

Development of a Typical Urban Driving Cycle for Battery Electric Vehicles Based on Kernel Principal Component Analysis and Random Forest

Great concerns have been raised on the driving cycle due to its critical importance in vehicle design, energy management strategy, and energy consumption forecast of new energy vehicles. Taking Xi'an city as a case, a novel method of driving cycle development for battery electric vehicles is proposed in this paper. First, the chase car method and on-board measurement method are combined to collect sufficient real driving data, which are randomly divided into two parts for developing and validating the target cycle. Then the nonlinear dimension reduction of characteristic parameters with respect to the micro-trips is achieved by employing kernel principal component analysis, and an improved clustering method is developed for constructing candidate cycles, in which the K-means clustering algorithm is applied in the training of random forest. The target cycle is selected from the candidate cycles by determining the assessment criteria with consideration of the characteristic parameters and the speed-acceleration distribution probability. Finally, a comparative study of different methods is implemented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The typicality of the target cycle is revealed by analyzing the discrepancies between the target cycle and other legislative cycles.

A framework for development of real-world motorcycle driving cycle in India

This paper proposed a framework for development of real-world driving cycle in India after a thorough review and comparison of motorcycle driving cycles used in different countries. A limited state-of-the art work for the development of driving cycles for motorcycles is available. The motorcycle driving cycles developed by different countries differ from each other in terms of their driving cycle characteristics, emission factors, and fuel economy. This paper reviewed the parameters of real-world driving cycles of motorcycles and compares the same with legislative cycles concerning their characteristics and emissions. The parameters of real-world driving cycles and Indian legislative cycle (IDC) deviate significantly from other legislative cycles in the range of −97% to +1172% and −74% to 284% respectively. The emission factors of the legislative cycle do not match with the realistic emissions measured by real-world driving cycles. This is due to the reason that the legislative cycles do not represent the current traffic scenario and hence need to be revised. A framework is proposed to develop a real-world driving cycle in India.

Editorial Introduction: Advances in Theory and Practice of Policy Research from National to Local Level

Editorial Introduction: Advances in Theory and Practice of Policy Research from National to Local Level

Institutionalization of Ethnocultural Diversity and the Representation of European Muslims

We seek to explain variation in the descriptive representation of Muslim minorities in national legislatures, relying on an original data set that includes 635 seats filled by Muslim-origin MPs in the lower chambers of national parliaments of twenty-six European polities in three legislative cycles between 2007 and 2018. We argue that the image of a polity as a union of multiple ethnocultural groups, reflected in concrete state policies and institutional arrangements, may be conducive to better descriptive representation of Muslim minorities, who were not originally envisioned as one of the communities constituting the nation. The results of multivariate regression analysis provide support for our hypothesis that the extent to which ethnocultural diversity is recognized and institutionalized helps explain variation in the levels of descriptive representation of European Muslims. We supplement our findings with congruence testing in four brief case studies: Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria.

Estimating region-specific fuel economy in the United States from real-world driving cycles

This paper describes a method for estimating region-specific real-world light-duty vehicle fuel economy in the United States that is unique in both the size and representativeness of real-world driving that was considered, and for its ability to model regional variations in driving patterns. Over one million miles of national driving data were used to select real-world cycles representative of observed trip categories. The six cycles were compared to U.S. legislative cycles, revealing some key differences. Finally, a set of cycle weighting factors for 533 separate U.S. regions was derived from annual traffic statistics. Applying this method, it was found that regional fuel economy varies due to differences in driving patterns alone and that rural driving patterns lead to improved fuel economy (for conventional vehicles). The driving cycles and regional weighting factors described here are useful for testing and simulation studies, specifically those sensitive to regional variations in driving patterns.

Poder e influencia en contextos de prohibición de reelección consecutiva: el caso de la Cámara de Diputados de México

Los liderazgos partidistas buscan aquellos congresistas con competencias tecnicas y trayectorias que les permitan conducir el proceso legislativo y con el ascendente politico para colaborar en la coordinacion del grupo parlamentario y la interlocucion con otras fuerzas partidistas. Se analizan tres legislaturas de la Camara de Diputados en Mexico entre 2009 y 2016, empleando iniciativas presentadas y aprobadas, presidencias de comision e integracion de comisiones relevantes como variables dependientes, mientras que como explicativas las de genero, metodo de eleccion y trayectoria educativa, legislativas, partidistas y experiencia en la administracion publica. Esto con el objetivo de conocer algunos de los determinantes del poder institucional en un Congreso sui generis, dado que su sistema electoral mixto coexiste con la prohibicion de la reeleccion consecutiva. Los hallazgos muestran que, en estos contextos, los liderazgos partidistas en el Poder Legislativo parecen inclinarse a escoger a hombres y no a mujeres parlamentarias para posiciones de poder; quienes son mayormente electos por el principio de representacion proporcional y no a los que compitieron por mayoria relativa; asi como a quienes cuentan con experiencia legislativa y partidista previa, donde las trayectorias politicas desde lo local hasta lo nacional tambien pueden recibir mayores oportunidades.

Vehicles of opposition influence or agents of the governing majority? Legislative committees and private members’ bills in the Hungarian Országgyűlés and the Israeli Knesset

ABSTRACTIn this article, we assess the role and the strength of the legislative committee system of two legislatures: the Hungarian Országgyűlés and the Israeli Knesset, by looking at the fate of private member bills over the past four legislative cycles (1998–2014 in Hungary and 2006–2019 in Israel). We find that Israeli committees allow opposition PMBs to succeed at a significantly higher rate than Hungarian committees do, even though the formal properties of the two committee systems are very similar: during the examined period, more than one-fifth of the laws that were passed by the Knesset were initiated as opposition sponsored PMB, whereas the corresponding number in the Országgyűlés was only one per cent. The central reason for this unexpected divergence in the success rate of opposition sponsored PMBs, in spite of a favourable institutional setting shared by the committee systems of the two parliaments, may lie in the different degrees of party concentration in the two legislative party systems.

Compared to What? Changes in Interest Group Resources and the Proposal and Adoption of State Teacher Policy

What is the relationship between changes in interest group resources and the proposal and adoption of state policy? Using a dataset of proposed and enacted teacher policies across five legislative cycles in all 50 states and measures of interest group relative and absolute resource strength, I estimate a series of within‐state fixed effects models that gain identification from changes in interest group resources and teacher policy over time. I find that legislatures propose more unfavorable and fewer favorable policies toward teachers' unions in states where teachers' union opposition interest groups are expending more election (but not lobbying) resources over time. Further, I find that more unfavorable and fewer favorable policies are adopted in states where teachers' union opposition groups are growing in election resource strength. Expanding on prior empirical work, this study suggests that interest group resources matter for policy change and highlights the importance of capturing interest group resource dynamics over time.