Member's Bill Research Articles

Bumdes Loan And Payment Apllication At The Bandar Telu Plantation Village Office Is Website-Based

The aim of this research is to obtain a lending and payment application that can be applied to the Bandar Telu Plantation BUMDes. This research uses the RnD research method and the Waterfall development method. Data collection was carried out by means of observation, interviews and literature study. This results of this research show that BUMDes was established to help the community meet their needs by borrowing from the community. The websote-based application for borrowing and payment for the BUMDes Plantation Village in Bandar Telu produces an application that can be accessed by administrators or members. Where the management uses a website based system, and members use a mobile-based system that can be accessed via the internet and applications. With this application, it can make it easier for administrators and members to obtain information about ongoing loans and payments, so that there is no longer a need for general ledger recapitulation which is at risk of errors in calculating interest or accumulating the amount of members bills.

Something in the air

This paper considers the issue of environmental racism as it relates to Indigenous and Black communities in Canada. Although the climate crisis affects us all, certain communities have felt the effects of environmental degradation more acutely and for a longer period. Environmental policy or practice that disproportionately disadvantages a racial group is an example of environmental racism. The article examines different policy responses to environmental racism in a Canadian context. The paper looks at proposed avenues for addressing environmental racism through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Private Members Bills, Senate Bills or the new Federal Housing Advocate position associated with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. It also examines a number of grassroots initiatives taking action against environmental racism. The article argues that having the right to a healthy environment encoded in the Charter is the best option for policy reform and that grassroots organizations working in coalitions continue to make meaningful social change as the policy battle continues. 
 
 How it fits theme:
 The political power of the Canadian government has important implications for all citizens, but that power is not exerted equally against all sectors of society. There is implicit power in policy and practice that has lived consequences for those living in communities that experience systemic inequalities in healthcare, employment, and environment. However, these systemic barriers do not render individuals powerless. Grassroots movements are the fundamental origin of all civil rights victories experienced thus far, and will continue to have an integral role in changing the balance of power for generations to come. The example of environmental racism in Canada is a good place to examine the role of state power in racialized communities. At the same time, the individuals fighting against environmental racism through policy and social movements simultaneously are an inspiring example of resistance in praxis.

Note from the Editor

Free AccessAboutSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Go to SectionFree Access HomeINFORMS Journal on ComputingAhead of Print Note from the EditorAlice E. Smith Alice E. Smith Published Online:12 Apr 2023https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2023.1299000We continue to announce the winners of the INFORMS Journal on Computing (IJOC) Test of Time Paper Award to cover the backlog of awards since the journal’s inception. The energetic and able committee chaired by John Chinneck with members Bill Cook (recused for this selection), Bruce Golden, Pascal Van Hentenryck, and David Woodruff have selected the awardee, covering the period 1990 through 1994. What follows is the citation from the award committee and then a reflection on the paper and this award by the authors. We have also made the landmark code from this paper available at the IJOC GitHub site (please see the link below).I want to thank the committee members for their superb efforts and am very pleased to share this recognition of the impactful heritage of our journal.All my best,The Test of Time Award for papers published in the INFORMS Journal on Computing in the years 1990–1994 is awarded toA Computational Study of the Job-Shop Scheduling ProblemDavid Applegate and William CookORSA Journal on Computing 3(2):149–156https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/ijoc.3.2.149Test of Time Award Citation 1990–1994This paper, together with one by Carlier and Pinson that closed the famous MT-10 problem, started a golden decade for research in job-shop scheduling and scheduling in general. It demonstrated that challenging job-shop problems could now be solved optimally in a few minutes, using beautiful mathematical programming concepts, including cutting planes and combinatorial relaxations. It was widely influential, studied both complete and heuristic methods, closed a number of open problems, and promoted the edge-finder algorithm that became standard in commercial scheduling packages.Comments on this IJOC Test of Time Paper Award from the Authors David Applegate and William CookWe thank IJOC editor-in-chief Alice E. Smith and the selection committee for the recognition of our work. At the time of the paper’s submission, Jan Karel Lenstra was the journal’s area editor for optimization. That was a great fortune for us. We still appreciate his encouragement and his smooth handling of the review process.In the job-shop scheduling project reported in our paper, we set out to solve instances of a model that had a well-earned reputation as a tough nut to crack. We were therefore more than happy to adopt all ideas we could find in the literature. This gives the paper a survey flavor, providing a snapshot of the computational techniques available at the time. In this, we were following up groundbreaking work by Carlier and Pinson, who had several years earlier solved for the first time a 10 × 10 problem that had been open for 25 years.One idea we would like to single out is our use of a simple branching rule in a combinatorial branch-and-bound algorithm. When evaluating a branching choice, we computed lower bounds that would be produced for the two child subproblems. Because we wanted to increase the overall lower bound, we chose the branch that maximized the minimum of these two bounds. Simple enough. However, to our great surprise, this rule, together with a fast lower-bound algorithm, was able to solve the famous 10 × 10 example. We adopted it in our branch-and-bound code, and it evolved into the “strong-branching rule” used in the Concorde TSP solver, written together with Robert Bixby and Vasek Chvatal.In looking back at our scheduling paper, it occurs to us that a reason for its early success is that we made the source code and problem instances easily available. We are therefore happy that IJOC now hosts this material at https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/TestOfTime2023.1. The authors thank Ted Ralphs for setting up the repository.On a personal note, this was our first joint project. It was Bill’s introduction to computational work and David’s introduction to combinatorial optimization. Previous Back to Top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation Articles In Advance Article Information Metrics Information Published Online:April 12, 2023 Copyright © 2023, INFORMSCite asAlice E. Smith (2023) Note from the Editor. INFORMS Journal on Computing 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2023.1299000 PDF download

Reevaluating the policy success of private members bills

Members of parliament routinely submit private bills. Yet, a minority of these bills are enacted. Existing research suggests that, because of the low enaction rates of private members' bills, policymaking motivation is not the primary purpose of members of parliament in submitting these bills. We question this assumption and argue that existing research examines the policy effect of Private Member Bills (PMB) too narrowly. Taking a policy process perspective, we propose, first, that a more accurate assessment of the success rate of private members' bills should look only at the bills entering the legislative process. Second, we propose that the policy effect of private members' bills should not be limited to the end result of enactment, but rather to examine their effect on the agenda-setting stage. We demonstrate these propositions using the case of private members' bills in Israel, a country that has one of the highest rates of PMBs and has institutionalized the process of evaluating them. The study provides a better understanding of private members' bills in parliamentary democracies.

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Balancing Victims' Rights and the Insanity Defence

Under s 23 of the Crimes Act 1961, defendants in New Zealand that are deemed insane at the time of committing the actus reus of an offence are able to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. As the defendant cannot be found criminally responsible for their actions, they are not punished with a criminal record or prison sentence. However, due to public safety concerns, those acquitted under the insanity defence are usually required to undertake compulsory mental health treatment and are therefore dealt with under the health system, in lieu of the criminal justice system. Due to this, victims of those found not guilty by reason of insanity are not afforded the same rights as victims that fall under the ambit of the criminal justice system. With the current focus on victims’ rights following the Te Tangi o te Manawanui Recommendations for Reform as part of the H paitia te Oranga Tangata Safe and Effective Justice initiative, attention is also being focused on improving the experience for victims of those found not guilty by reason of insanity. The recent drawing from the ballot of the Rights for Victims of Insane Offenders Private Member's Bill and the publicity surrounding Wendy Hamer’s victims’ rights petition has highlighted the need to discuss this issue. Using cases from New Zealand, Canada and Australia, this paper considers why reform is needed and considers how the rights and interests of victims of defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity can be strengthened, whilst still ensuring the overarching rationale of the insanity defence is protected. A number of suggested reforms intended to improve victims’ rights are found to be inappropriate due to the fact they undermine the key rationales of the defence: treatment, not punishment; community safety; and the medical nature of decision making. The paper recommends and concludes that strengthening service rights and providing specialised assistance will provide a better system for victims of those found not guilty by reason of insanity without undermining the working of the defence itself.

Pay the board member's bill and learn your lesson

A board member offers his company's office staff and equipment to help the organization send out a fundraising appeal. The response to the fundraising letter is painfully low, but not nearly as painful as the bill the board member submits for handling the job.

Gender and parliamentary activity

Does gender matter in the daily work in parliaments? Scholars have inconclusive answers to this question. Using fresh data with a recently developed activity scale, I analyze female legislators' activity levels compared to those of men in three democracies: the US, UK and Israel. While legislation exists in all of them, they differ from each other in their electoral system and the availability of other non-legislative tools. The results show that country matters. US legislators are more active than Israeli or UK legislators. Second, gender matters with regard to the use of some parliamentary tools. Unlike their UK and Israeli counterparts, American female representatives are more active than male legislators, and deliver more one-minute speeches. Furthermore, female legislators make more one-minute speeches than male legislators and pass more private member bills. The study makes three contributions to the literature. First, it demonstrates that activity can and should be assessed using both separate measurements and one scale, because each measurement provides insights into different aspect of the legislators' behavior. Second, gender plays a role in the activity of legislators. Third, combining two theoretical fields—representation and activity—shows the connection between descriptive representation and legislators' activity.

February–May 2019

The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill, originally introduced by Tim Loughton MP as a private Member's bill in the Commons, received Royal Assent on 26 March and came into force two months after it was passed. Section 1 empowers the Secretary of State to amend by regulations the Marriage Act 1949 to provide for a central register of marriages in England and Wales ‘which is accessible in electronic form’. Section 2 requires the Secretary of State to amend the Civil Partnership Act 2004 so that opposite-sex couples become eligible to form a civil partnership in England and Wales – and the amending regulations must be in force no later than 31 December 2019. Section 3 requires the Secretary of State to report on whether the law should be changed to allow the registration of pregnancy losses which cannot be registered as stillbirths under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 and section 4 requires the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the preparation of a report on whether, and if so how, the law should be changed to enable or require coroners to investigate stillbirths.

The UK Politics of Overseas Voting

AbstractThe enfranchisement of non‐resident citizens has always been controversial in the UK, where for historical reasons, voting rights are not as closely associated with citizenship as elsewhere. The introduction of ‘overseas’ voting in the 1980s by the Conservatives was contested by Labour as a form of ‘international gerrymandering’ since expatriates were widely assumed to be disproportionately wealthy and therefore more likely to vote Tory. Expatriate campaigners have been increasingly vocal in denouncing the ‘electoral injustice’ of the ‘fifteen‐year rule’ which disenfranchises them after fifteen years abroad, and the exclusion of so many from the EU referendum highlighted their cause. A recent private member's bill proposing ‘votes for life’ for UK expatriates aimed to meet their demands to abolish the time restriction, now considered anachronistic. But their arguments were hijacked by historically embedded attitudes and disputes driven by party politics, ending in a dramatic and bewildering filibuster which this paper elucidates.

Personalized politics and weakened parties—an axiom? Evidence from the Israeli case

Personalization of politics describes a process in which the power of individual politicians rises, ostensibly at the expense of the parties. This is manifested, among other ways, by the manner in which politicians use parliamentary tools. In this study, we focus on one such tool, the private member bill, assessing whether its use necessarily expresses personal behavior, which weakens the party, as suggested in the literature—or not. To test this, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the way Israeli legislators use private member bills in the Knesset, which is regarded as an indicator of personalized politics. We found that partisan-oriented behavior can be found even when using such a highly personal tool. This suggests that personalized politics does not always weaken the party. We also examined under which conditions Knesset members demonstrate partisan-oriented behavior while using private member bills. Testing institutional party-level variables revealed that MKs from parties with exclusive candidate selection methods, opposition parties, and small parties are more likely to exhibit such behavior.

Tackling Voyeurism: Is The Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 A Wasted Opportunity?

AbstractThe Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 amended the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to introduce a new offence that would seek to tackle so‐called ‘upskirting’. Whilst it originated as a Private Members Bill, it was quickly taken over by the Government following a backbench blocking manoeuvre. The Act ostensibly seeks to fill a loophole that exists within the law and to protect the sexual autonomy and inherent dignity of women. Instead, I will argue, the legislation deals with a niche area and is a wasted opportunity. Parliament chose to kick the issue into the long grass, from where it will be difficult to recover, with parliamentary time likely to be scarce over the coming years.

Insights from outside BJOG

Insights from outside BJOG

More of the Same: Discursive Reactions of Members of Knesset to the 2011 ‘Social Protest’ in Israel

The 2011 ‘Social Protest’ in Israel was motivated by discontent with the outcomes of neo-liberal economic policies. Moreover, during rallies protest leaders used explicit counter-neo-liberal ideas and discourse. Nonetheless, this article shows that Members of Knesset (the Israeli parliament) used neo-liberal ideas and discourse more following the protest than they had done before its outbreak. Relying on recent theoretical developments emphasizing the importance of ideas and discourse in social and political analysis, I account for Members of Knesset’s ideas and discourse through analyzing explanation clauses accompanying private member bills. The article concludes by suggesting that the protest may have turned neo-liberal ideas from a means used by economic experts to promote economic liberalization to a means used by politicians to demonstrate their democratic responsiveness to citizens’ economic demands.

Private Member Bills and Electoral Connection in Wales

The ‘best of both worlds’ thesis contends that mixed-member electoral systems should provide individual legislator accountability via single-member district (SMD) elections, as well as collective party accountability via a multi-member district (MMD) tier. This study evaluates the mandate divide and electoral connection under the Welsh mixed-member proportional system of representation during the 3rd (2007–11) and 4th (2011–16) Assemblies. Consistent with the best of both worlds thesis, electorally vulnerable SMD legislators are found to make more member bill attempts, and those whose member bills are randomly selected for introduction enjoy a significant boost in their electoral margin of victory. There is some evidence that MMD legislators are rewarded by their party selectorates for member bill efforts with a move up the party list, although this result is less robust. An additional check confirms the absence of contamination across electoral tiers.

RUU 355 from an Islamic Perspective: Improve Legal Safeguards in Tandem with Higher Punishments

Muslims generally favour upholding the Shari’ah, especially at the highest levels of government. Any implementation of this aspiration, however, must follow the necessary guidelines. It should not take place at the expense of the principles and values of the Shari’ah itself. This article takes a look at RUU 355 and some concerns arising from it. On 26 May 2016, Abdul Hadi Awang, an opposition leader in Malaysia’s Parliament and President of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), introduced a Private Members Bill, known as RUU 355 (Bill, Malay: Rang Undang-Undang) to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965. The Bill seeks to raise the upper boundaries of Syariah courts sentencing limits while retaining the offences under the jurisdiction of Syariah courts, as specified in List II of the State List of the Ninth Schedule to the Federal Constitution.

Two nations in Canada: the New Democratic Party, the Waffle movement and nationalism in Quebec

Following the election of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) to a minority government in September 2012, the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), which had used a large number of first-time victories in Quebec to help propel them to a record number of seats and the status of Official Opposition in the federal election the previous year, was forced by the media to clarify its position on Quebec sovereignty. The official policy had been drafted in 2005 under then-leader Jack Layton in what became known as the Sherbrooke Declaration; it stated that the party would support Quebec's claim to independence if a majority of voters, or 50 per cent plus one, voted in favour in a referendum. The media, however, claimed that this position seemed to 'run counter to the federal Act, which was passed into law in 2000. It says negotiations leading to the secession of Quebec from Canada could take place only after a referendum result with a majority, as determined by the House of Commons' (Galloway 2012). Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, referencing the Act rather than the Sherbrooke Declaration, later admitted that a 50 per cent plus one vote would require the federal government to negotiate but not necessarily accept independence (Macpherson 2012). Yet in January 2013, the NDP tabled a private member's bill in the House of Commons that attempted to put 'clarity back into the Clarity Act' (Pfeffer 2013); the so-called Unity Bill 'would see the federal government enter into negotiations after a simple majority vote on a clear question' (Macfarlane 2013). While these attempts to clarify the NDP's position and establish a process by which to negotiate sovereignty perhaps did not satisfy anyone, they nevertheless highlight the struggle the NDP has had addressing nationalist sentiment in Quebec.As a social democratic party that takes seriously government intervention and involvement as a way to improve the lives of Canadians, and as an explicitly federalist political party that has historically viewed the unity of the country as imperative to progress, nationalist sentiment remains a difficult issue. Yet in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as separatism gained support within Quebec, one group within the NDP sought to acknowledge these ideas while at the same time promoting a different Canadian nationalism. This group, which came to be known as the Waffle, recognised the 'existence of two nations within Canada, each with its own language, culture and aspiration', and insisted that '[a]n English Canada concerned with its own national survival would create common aspirations that would help tie the two nations together once more'. Concerned with the increasing dominance and influence of the United States over Canada, they argued that the country could maintain unity if it adopted socialism and acknowledged that Canada was comprised of two nations ('For an Independent Socialist Canada' 1969). Yet members of the Waffle also recognised Quebec's right to self-determination; they insisted that all people, including Quebeckers, should have the right to make their own decisions free from external force or influence. These positions proved to be enormously controversial and divisive at the time. Nevertheless, the Waffle played an important role in the ongoing struggles within the NDP to develop a position regarding Quebec sovereignty and self-determination.Time for reassessment: literature on the NDP and QuebecShockingly little scholarly attention has been paid to the history and development of the New Democratic Party. Monographs by Desmond Morton (1974, 1986), Ivan Avakumovic (1978), Norman Penner (1992), and Alan Whitehorn (1992) chronicle the existence of socialism in Canada, the emergence of the NDP, and the evolution of the party. As well, there are biographies and autobiographies of varying quality on many of the major players in the NDP that provide further insight into the evolution of social democracy in Canada (see Lewis 1981; MacDonald 1998; Shackleton 1975; Smith 1989; and Stewart 2003). …

Legislators' Patterns of Cooperation

This study attempts to identify the patterns of cooperation between legislators. We argue that if legislators decide to cooperate, they prefer to do so first with their colleagues who share similar affiliations and then across affiliations. In order to examine this hypothesis, we devised a unique cooperation scale and tested it using a sample of the private member bills that were initiated in the 18th Knesset (Israel’s parliament) between 2009 and 2013. We then looked at each bill with regard to its initiators and co-sponsors to see if they were members of the same party, members of the opposition or coalition, or members of a minority group. Based on the quantitative analysis, we found that of all of the factors, only being a minority was significant. Based on the qualitative analysis, we determined that intra-party cooperation does exist. In three parties – Hadash, Meretz and Israel Beitenu -- legislators tended to cooperate with each other. Finally, with regard to inter-party cooperation, Jewish and Arab MKs tended to cooperate, and Russian Jewish legislators tended to cooperate regardless of party affiliation. Our study is innovative in its creation of a cooperation scale that can be used in other legislatures and that is based on measures of co-sponsorship instead of analyses of dyadic or social networks used in previous studies.

Is bipartisanship dead?: policy agreement and agenda-setting in the House of Representatives

Is Bipartisanship Dead? looks beyond (and considers the time before) roll call voting to examine the extent to which bipartisan agreement in the House of Representatives has declined since the 1970s. Despite voting coalitions showing a decline in bipartisan agreement between 1973 and 2004, member's bill cosponsorship coalitions show a more stable level of bipartisanship. The declining bipartisanship over time in roll call voting reflects a shift in how party leaders structure the floor and roll call agendas. Party leaders in the House changed from prioritizing legislation with bipartisan agreement in the 1970s to prioritizing legislation with partisan disagreement by the 1990s. Laurel Harbridge argues that this shift reflects a changing political environment and an effort by leaders to balance members' electoral interests, governance goals, and partisan differentiation. The findings speak to questions of representation and governance. They also shed light on whether partisan conflict is insurmountable and whether bipartisanship in congressional politics is dead.

I Do? On geography, marriage and love in Australia

ABSTRACTCalls for law reform in Australia reveal marriage as central to the notions of family and citizenship. Attention here is drawn to the recent lack of willingness to debate marriage equality in Australia—from either its advocates or opponents—following a cross-party marriage equality private members bill. Federal Liberal/National Coalition politicians dismiss legislative frameworks that recognise marriage equality in Australia because it is thought to cause the demise of social mores, or is at best unimportant. Advocates for same-sex marriage present promises based on rights, justice and equality, yet fail to reflect on the social implications for those who arrange their sexual lives outside this institutionalised partnership. I argue that the lack of debate is operating to narrow rather than widen understandings about ‘love', drawing attention to geographical understanding of the links between sex, bodies, gender, families and belonging.

Sponsoring Private Member's Bills in Finland and Estonia: The Electoral Context of Legislative Behaviour

This article examines the degree to which sponsored private member's bills (PMBs) in parliament can be explained by electoral incentives. Such bills are a peculiar piece of draft legislation – technically simple, topically unimportant and with negligible passage rates. Yet members of parliament (MPs) sponsor them in large numbers. One possible explanation for this behaviour is the electoral context arising out of the variance in electoral district size and electoral list types, which makes a strong personal reputation comparatively more important for some MPs. Sponsoring bills that have no realistic chance of becoming actual regulations could be a form of personal reputation-building and/or vote-seeking behaviour. Evidence is examined on the sponsoring of such bills in Finland between 2003 and 2007 and in Estonia between 1999 and 2007 in order to determine if the electoral context explains why some MPs do this more frequently. The results suggest that the electoral system does have an effect. MPs who have been elected under rules where personal reputation is not central in getting elected are less likely to sponsor such bills the larger their electoral district becomes.