Legislative Research Articles

Organizational Roots of Gender Polarization in the State Legislature

Political institutions in the United States have become increasingly polarized. This paper asks how gender has been part of party polarization’s institutionalization and what consequences gender has on relations of power in increasingly divisive legislative work. Drawing on interviews with 21 New Hampshire state representatives and archival legislative and committee leadership records, I analyze the process and changing meanings of partisanship in the everyday work of the legislature. As this state’s moderate conservative caucus disbanded and the Republican Party lost its long‐standing control, more divisive Republican alliances masculinized legislative politics as combative. Meanwhile, the newly competitive Democratic Party began to actively showcase women as party and committee leaders. State representatives’ accounts demonstrate the gendered meanings and consequences of party polarization in the legislative workplace beyond what is captured by traditional measures of ideological polarization. These findings show how gender polarization produces new forms of institutionalized political inequalities in the hierarchical legislative workplace.

Unholy Marriage Between the Legislature and the Executive; Kenyan Discourse

Unholy Marriage Between the Legislature and the Executive; Kenyan Discourse

استقلال القضاء الاداري وفقا لقانون مجلس الدولة العراقي رقم 71 لسنة 2017

This study deals with the concept of the independence of the administrative judiciary under the Sixth Amendment Act of the State Council numbered 71 of 2017 and means independence is the independence of the judiciary from the legislative and executive branches because it represents a fundamental and effective pillar in ensuring respect for the rights and freedoms of individuals and achieving the principle of legitimacy by having administrative, financial and functional organization that guarantees its members Legal and procedural guarantees the researcher has adopted the inductive analytical approach of the legal texts in this research through two researches dealing in the first research the organic independence of the administrative judiciary and in the second research functional independence and then presented in the conclusion of the study the most important conclusions and proposals which hope to contribute to the strengthening of the independence of the administrative judiciary in Iraq 0 Keywords: Independence, Judiciary, Administrative, State Council

The partisan politics of employment protection legislation: Social democrats, Christian democrats, and the conditioning effect of unemployment

AbstractPolitical parties are likely to hold differing views about employment protection legislation (EPL). While pro-welfare parties could support EPL, pro-market parties might focus on labour market deregulation. In this paper, we investigate empirically whether partisan politics, especially the government participation of Social democrats and Christian democrats, matter for EPL in 21 established OECD countries from 1985 to 2019. We show that during the golden age of the welfare state, the level of EPL was much higher where Social and Christian democrats dominated the government than elsewhere. After the golden age and under conditions of high unemployment, these unconditional effects mostly disappeared. Instead, the level of unemployment conditions partisan differences. Christian democrats liberalize EPL for regular employment significantly less than other parties under high levels of unemployment. In contrast, Social democrats defend high levels of EPL for regular and temporary employment when unemployment is low. Against expectations, they even liberalize employment protection for labour market insiders more than other parties at very high levels of unemployment.

Disassembling Efforts to Legalize Opting-Out in Arizona: A Case Study of Legislative Politics

Background/Context Opt-out is a national movement based on local efforts as most notably expressed in New York. While studies have addressed opt-out demographics and local impact, fewer studies address the political activism that extends beyond the act of refusing specific tests to changing standardized testing policy. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This case study extends understanding of the opt-out phenomenon by examining and disassembling a case of efforts to legalize opting-out of state-mandated testing through a state legislative process. The policy reform efforts are framed and disassembled through the discourse of the New Right and elements of the political spectacle. Setting This study is set in the Arizona State Legislature's 2015 and 2016 sessions. Population/Participants/Subjects This study follows the efforts of state legislative policy actors including state legislators, state department of education officials, the state teacher association, and parent opt-out activists. Research Design This is a qualitative case study examining three bills intending to legalize opting-out introduced across two state legislative sessions. Data Collection and Analysis Data were collected utilizing progressive theoretical sampling to identify key legislative policy actors and collect public statements regarding the pending legislation. Data focused on legislative hearings and floor votes publicly archived on the legislature's website. Text of the bills along with contemporary social and traditional media statements were also collected, as were interviews with two state legislators. Data were analyzed for themes arising from the participants themselves, for elements of the New Right discourse, and for elements of the political spectacle. Findings/Results The generally White and affluent demographics of this case's opt-out movement leadership reflect national patterns. Likewise, the movement leadership focused on themes of local control and privacy rights. This vaguely symbolic language combined with casting big government as enemies suggests a fluency in the spectacle of modern legislative politics. Ultimately, opt-out proponents compromised in favor of a new policy initiative reflecting themes of neoliberalism and neoconservatism, the Menu of Assessments. Conclusions/Recommendations The compromise with the experimental Menu of Assessments policy to gain more local control over tests while keeping the expectation of testing in place suggests a limited victory for democracy. However, the Arizona opt-out movement's legislative efforts might also be understood as tension within the hegemonic New Right coalition.

Channeling Water Conflicts through the Legislative Branch in Colombia

This paper answers the question: has the Colombian Congress been effective at addressing relevant water conflicts and making them visible? While courts and social movements have been key for the advancement of social rights in Latin America, the role of legislators remains unclear. We conduct content analysis of all water-related bills, proposed bills, and constitutional amendments filed in Colombia from 1991 to 2020; we also analyzed Congress hearings of political control related to water, and the statutes of political parties who hold majority of seats in Congress; we also conducted interviews with key actors on water governance in Colombia. We find that only three bills have passed in the 30-year time frame and that relevant water conflicts have not been addressed by Colombian legislators. We find that water conflicts are not reaching the political agenda of Congress, yet through political control hearings, it has given some late visibility to critical territorial conflicts in which water is a key element. We analyze our data in light of literature on legislative politics and legal mobilization in Latin America. This study adds to global research on the role of legislators in advancing the human right to water, particularly in Latin America.

Legislative and policy issues related to the advancement of the maintenance system of water resource facilities

Legislative and policy issues related to the advancement of the maintenance system of water resource facilities

A Study on the legislative task for Linkage among Local Governments in Local Autonomy Act

A Study on the legislative task for Linkage among Local Governments in Local Autonomy Act

The Formal and Actual Fiscal Powers of the US, UK and Japanese Legislatures

The Formal and Actual Fiscal Powers of the US, UK and Japanese Legislatures

Legal Schemes For The Protection Of Personal Data In The Context Of Digitalization

The purpose of this article's research is to problematize the legal regulation of work with personal data and other confidential information in the context of large-scale digitization. We sought to systematize the basic concepts used in addressing the topic of information security, such as information, types of protected data, information leakage, types and channels of information leakage. Particular attention is paid to personal data security measures: the legal framework; the specifics of the appointment of sanctions; gaps and collisions in the interaction of legislative acts are determined.

Plebiscyt na Warmii, Mazurach i Powiślu na forum Sejmu Ustawodawczego 1919–1920

100. rocznica plebiscytu na Warmii, Mazurach i Powiślu skłania do zainteresowania się jego antecedenc�jami i wynikami głosowania. Powstaje pytanie, czy Polska w ówczesnej sytuacji mogła podjąć działania, które przyczyniłyby się do uzyskania lepszego wyniku głosowania? Szukając odpowiedzi na postawione pytanie, należy uwzględniać wielorakie i skomplikowane uwarunkowania wewnętrzne i zewnętrzne powstającego państwa polsk�iego, ale też działania władz polskich wobec Mazurów i Warmiaków. Warto uwzględniać pozycję Polski w Europie, państwa odzyskującego po 123 latach niepodległość i realnych możliwości realizacji celów i aspiracji terytori�alnych narodu polskiego. W początkowym okresie kształtowania polityki państwa niebagatelną rolę odgrywał Sejm Ustawodawczy, w którym zasiedli przedstawiciele polskiego społeczeństwa i przedstawiali na jego forum istotne problemy państwa polskiego, dlatego warto wyjaśnić zainteresowanie tej instytucji państwa plebiscytami na Warmii i Mazurach oraz Powiślu. Problematyka plebiscytu w Sejmie Ustawodawczym została przedstawiona przed pół wiekem w jednym artykule, lecz warta jest przypomnienia i przedstawienia z innej perspektywy

Рецензия на книгу: Комментарий к Федеральному закону от 27 декабря 2018 г. № 498‑ФЗ «Об ответственном обращении с животными и о внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Российской Федерации» (постатейный) / С. А. Боголюбов, Д. Б. Горохов, Н. В. Кичигин и др.; отв. ред. Д. Б. Горохов. М., 2020. 280 с.)

Рецензия на книгу: Комментарий к Федеральному закону от 27 декабря 2018 г. № 498‑ФЗ «Об ответственном обращении с животными и о внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Российской Федерации» (постатейный) / С. А. Боголюбов, Д. Б. Горохов, Н. В. Кичигин и др.; отв. ред. Д. Б. Горохов. М., 2020. 280 с.)

The Politics of Wrongful Conviction Legislation

AbstractWrongful convictions are an increasing salient feature of criminal justice discourse in the United States. Many states have adopted reforms to mitigate the likelihood of wrongful convictions, discover errors, and provide redress in the wake of exonerations, yet we know little about why some are seemingly more committed to reducing such errors than others. We argue that public opinion is consequential for policy reform, but its effects are contingent on the electoral vulnerability of state lawmakers. We also suggest that advocacy organizations play a critical role in policy adoption. Incorporating data from all 50 states from 1989 to 2018, we investigate the adoption of five types of wrongful conviction reforms: (1) changes to eyewitness identification practices, (2) mandatory recording of interrogations, (3) the preservation of biological evidence, (4) access to postconviction DNA testing, and (5) exoneree compensation. Our results highlight a more nuanced view of how public opinion shapes policy.

Political restructuring, bureaucratization and minority groups in Myanmar: The case of Rohingya from 2011 to 2018

Abstract Politics of ethnicity can have serious repercussions if balance of interests is not maintained and this can lead to internal destabilization of states. This is the case in Myanmar, a situation which has brought suffering and deaths of thousands; effectively raising concerns and opprobrium against the government of Myanmar. Minority groups in Myanmar are greatly oppressed, though recent proceedings have seen the democratically elected government trying to avert the situation, while facing great restraints from the military which has been in control of the government for decades. The transformation process to uphold minority rights is marred with controversy as the Rohingya systematic alienation has persisted even in the new political dispensation. Discriminatory, cumbrous bureaucratic tendencies, are constantly used to control and manipulate the Rohingya to force them out of the country, a system which is ultimately backed by state sponsored violence. This research therefore, seeks to critically examine how the bureaucratic systems in Myanmar has been weaponized to systematically suppress rights of the Rohingya. Most research has focused on the butchering and series of violence against the Rohingya but this is generally a condensed and comprehensive analysis of the direct contribution of the bureaucrats as the implementers of public policy. This research concludes that, the doctrine of sovereignty has largely remained the salvation harboring and facilitating the continuity of repressive regimes despite the existence of the doctrine of limited sovereignty. Most importantly, the Rohingyian ordeal hints on the failures of the United Nations as actions of member states are conditioned by their selfish interests and states would only act where their national interest lie. There is need to create a global authority with executive legislative, judiciary, military and constitutional authority to exert authority over governments.

A corpus-based study of ethically sensitive issues in EU directives, national transposition measures and the press

This paper is set in the framework of the Eurolect Observatory Project, which is studying the differences between the EU varieties of legislative language (Eurolects) and their corresponding national legal varieties in 11 languages (Mori 2018). In this paper, our focus is on ethics and legislation: more specifically, the research question is whether any differences can be detected in the discursive construction of ethically sensitive issues in the English version of EU directives, their related national transposition measures adopted in the UK, and press articles reporting on the introduction, revision or implementation of such laws. In this sense, news reports and comments are seen as sitting at the end of a genre chain covering the whole spectre of knowledge dissemination, from the expert (legislation) to the popularising level (newspaper article). The ethically sensitive issues in question concern human health and animal welfare, and the corpora used for the study were selected from the English section of the EOMC (Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus) and from the Lexis-Nexis database of press articles.

Apuesta por un reconocimiento constitucional amplio del derecho al trabajo y a la seguridad social en Ecuador

La integración del derecho al trabajo en el constitucionalismo social de posguerra se caracterizó, entre otras cuestiones, por la incorporación de la división del trabajo, diferenciando entre aquél remunerado, integrado en las normas constitucionales y sobre el que se asentó en gran medida el reconocimiento de un amplio conjunto de derechos sociales; y el no remunerado, ausente del reconocimiento constitucional y normativo y condenado a la invisibilización y a ser acumulado sobre el anterior. Esta diferenciación se fundamentó, evidentemente, en la división sexual del trabajo integrada en la conjunción del patriarcado con el sistema capitalista y recogida en las normas del constitucionalismo social de posguerra. Sobre un marco constitucional permeado por esta división sexual del trabajo, el conjunto de normas que han regulado las prestaciones de trabajo asalariado se basó igualmente en esta división. ¿Es posible acometer un reconocimiento constitucional del trabajo no remunerado de cuidados y anudarle derechos? El presente artículo sostiene que sí y mantiene que no solo es posible sino imprescindible y que el reconocimiento debe conllevar el establecimiento de una serie de derechos a las personas que lo realizan. En este sentido, la Constitución de Ecuador demuestra cómo el nuevo constitucionalismo latinoamericano incorporó una concepción amplia del trabajo, reconociendo tanto aquel valorado en términos económicos, remunerado, como aquél no remunerado en la esfera de los cuidados y de la reproducción de la vida. 
 Sin embargo, y el ejemplo de Ecuador en el ámbito del desarrollo normativo del derecho anterior es clave para apuntalar esta hipótesis, que sea posible no implica en absoluto que sea fácil en el plano de la técnica legislativa y que no genere importantes cuestionamientos desde el punto de vista doctrinal

Small in Size but Powerful in Parliament? The Legislative Performance of Minority Governments

Minority cabinets do not control a legislative majority and are thus vulnerable to parliamentary defeat. Consequently, the legislative performance of minority cabinets has been often brought into question. In this article, I argue that minority cabinets do not perform generally worse than majority cabinets. I hypothesize that only substantive minority cabinets which do not enjoy formal majority support by noncabinet parties work significantly worse than majority ones. The empirical analysis is based on a large new dataset that combines original information on minority‐cabinet attributes and legislative data for 197 governments in 21 parliamentary democracies since the 1980s. The results of a fractional logit analysis support my theoretical expectations and show that not all types of minority cabinets perform worse than majority governments. My findings provide a comparative insight into the functioning of minority governments and have important implications for our understanding of legislative politics, party competition, and policymaking.

Legislative Reviews to Promote Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation by Local Governments

Legislative Reviews to Promote Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation by Local Governments

POLITIK HUKUM PEMERINTAHAN DESA

The State recognizes and respects regional government units that are special or special in nature which are regulated by law. Second, the State recognizes indigenous and tribal peoples' units along with their traditional rights insofar as they are alive and in accordance with the development of society and the principles of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, which are regulated in law. Politics of village government law, it cannot be separated from 3 (three) main bases, namely philosophical, sociological and juridical basis. The politics of regulatory law above are the base for legal politics for regulations that are below, so that there should not be any universal inconsistencies. In addition, horizontally the legal politics of legislation must also be consistent.

Revisiting Section 32(1) of the Victorian Charter: strained constructions and legislative intention

This article revisits s 32(1) of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic). In particular, the article examines the potential ability of the courts to deploy s 32(1) to reach ‘strained’ constructions and ‘depart’ from legislative intention. This article disputes the following three propositions from the post-Momcilovic v The Queen jurisprudence in the Victorian Court of Appeal. Firstly, s 32(1) does not allow for a departure from the ‘ordinary meaning’ of a statutory provision (an ordinary meaning usually denotes a literal and grammatical, ie not strained, meaning). Secondly, s 32(1) does not allow for a departure from, or overriding of, legislative intention upon enactment. Thirdly, the qualifications placed on s 32(1) are such that it will not usually permit the ‘reading in’ or ‘reading down’ of words as techniques used to reach strained constructions. The article also argues that issues as to s 32(1)’s strength and methodology appear to have been conflated in the recent jurisprudence. It concludes that as the jurisprudence currently stands, s 32(1)’s ability to reach strained constructions is weaker than the principle of legality. This is inconsistent with s 32(1) being at least equal to the principle of legality.