INSTITUTIONS.pdf

I N ST I T U T I ON S CONSTITUTIONS | ELECTORAL SYSTEMS | EXECUTIVES & BUREAUCRACIES | LEGISLATIVES | FEDERALISM & DECENTRALIZATION | JUDICIAL SYSTEMS INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to: a. explain the changes in the different political institution...

I N ST I T U T I ON S CONSTITUTIONS | ELECTORAL SYSTEMS | EXECUTIVES & BUREAUCRACIES | LEGISLATIVES | FEDERALISM & DECENTRALIZATION | JUDICIAL SYSTEMS INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to: a. explain the changes in the different political institutions and how does it affect governance. INSTITUTIONS The formal and informal rules that organize social, political, and economic relations (North, 1990). They are the systems of “established and prevalent social rules that structure social interactions” (Hodgson, 2006, p. 2). KEY FEATURES OF INSTITUTIONS Reproduced through routine actions—they live through the enactment. Provide relative certainty and predictability for everyday social, economic, and political interactions. It tends to persist over time but can change incrementally and, in rare instances, suddenly. Often internalized and unconscious, social actors may not even recognize that they are following institutionalized ways of interacting. Shape behavior and thus affect developmental outcomes. INSTITUTIONS CAN BE FORMAL OR INFORMAL Formal institutions are the (written) laws, regulations, legal agreements, contracts, and constitutions that third parties enforce. Informal institutions are the (usually unwritten) norms, procedures, conventions, and traditions often embedded in culture (Leftwich & Sen, 2010, p. 16). Informal institutions can complement, compete with, or overlap formal institutions (Jutting et al., 2007, p. 36; Leftwich & Sen, 2010, p. 17). They are implicit and are revealed by investigating the incentives and norms that drive actors’ behaviors.  Public sector institutions are the policies, legal frameworks, informal norms, and codes of conduct that create the incentives that drive government decision-making, the behavior of public sector workers, resource allocation – and ultimately the exercise of power within the state bureaucracy. CONSTITUTIONS It sets out the fundamental principles by which the state is governed. It describes the main institutions of the state and defines the relationship between them (for example, between the executive, legislature, and judiciary). It limits the exercise of power and sets out the rights and duties of citizens.  Codified constitutions are typically produced following a revolution (like the American constitution of 1787 or the French constitution of 1791); or total defeat in war (like the post-war constitutions of Germany and Japan); or a complete collapse of legitimacy of the previous system of government (like post-apartheid South Africa, or post-Soviet Russia); or the attainment of independence (like all the countries of the former British empire). None of these things have happened to the UK, so it has never had cause to codify its constitution.  The general idea of a constitution and constitutionalism originated with the ancient Greeks, especially in Aristotle's systematic, theoretical, normative, and descriptive writings. In Aristotle's Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, Constitution of Athens, and other works, Aristotle used the Greek word for the constitution (politeia) in several different senses. The simplest and most neutral was “the arrangement of the offices in a polis” (state). In this purely descriptive sense of the word, every state has a constitution, no matter how badly or erratically governed it may be. ELECTORAL SYSTEMS An electoral (or voting) system is the process through which the electorate – those eligible to vote in a particular election – choose whom they want to represent. An electoral system is a set of rules governing an election, and many scholars distinguish between three main elements of any system: - ballot structure (how and "for what" a vote is cast); - constituency structure (whether and how the electorate is divided into territorially defined constituencies) - and the electoral formula (in an assembly election, this is the method of translating votes into seats).  The main types of electoral formulae are majoritarian, plurality, and proportional. The most common way of classifying electoral systems is to distinguish between proportional (PR) and nonproportional systems. Electoral systems are crucial to how people participate in politics and who holds power in a representative democracy. The type of electoral system used can influence individuals' choices when casting their vote(s) and the kind of government that can be formed. Electoral systems, therefore, play a defining role in the character of the political system. EXECUTIVES The branch of government is responsible for the overall governance of a state. In countries that base their political system on the separation of powers, the executive branch of government is responsible for enforcing and executing laws made by the legislative branch.  Cabinet departments, independent agencies, government corporations, and independent regulatory commissions are four different operating parts of the bureaucratic whole. Departments are organized hierarchically, with a cabinet secretary at the top, several top administrators and undersecretaries beneath him or her, a specialized bureau level, and often many divisions, offices, and units within bureaus.  “Clientele agencies” are those executive departments and agencies like, for example, the Department of Agriculture, that serve and represent particular interests in society; other examples include the Departments of Interior, Labor, and Commerce. “Agencies for the maintenance of the union” are those that, in performing essential functions like securing governmental revenue and maintaining internal and external security, keep the government going; examples include the Departments of Treasury, State, Justice, and Defense.  “Regulatory agencies” are those that guide individual conduct by imposing disincentives designed to eliminate or restrict certain behaviors that the government deems undesirable; examples include the Food and Drug Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission. “Agencies of Redistribution,” like the Federal Reserve System and the Social Security Administration, implement fiscal, monetary, and welfare policies and, in so doing, influence the amount of money in the economy as well as who has money and credit. BUREAUCRACIES The administrative heart and soul of government. Policies passed by authoritative decision-makers are interpreted and implemented by executive agencies and departments. Created by elected officeholders, bureaucratic organizations exist to perform essential public functions both on a day-to-day basis and, especially, at times of national emergencies. Despite these efforts and functions, bureaucracy is generally unpopular in the American government and often criticized as “big government” run amok.  Public bureaucracies are full of routines that ensure that services are delivered regularly; those routines are the product of political deals among a variety of political actors. Although it performs essential functions, bureaucracy is the subject of a great deal of mistrust and criticism from politicians and the public.  A bureaucratic organization enhances efficiency by providing a hierarchical division of labor, allocating jobs and resources, and promoting the accumulation of expertise. Bureaucracy represents a significant human achievement, in which public aims can be accomplished by dividing up tasks and matching them to a specific labor force that develops specialized skills, routinizing procedures, and providing necessary incentive structures and oversight arrangements.  Bureaucrats fulfill important roles, including implementing laws, making and enforcing rules when legislative prescriptions are vague, and settling disputes (as courts would) through administrative adjudication. Bureaucracies exist, too, because Congress finds it valuable to delegate; it is common practice for legislatures to express their intent toward a certain action and to have that action fulfilled and supervised by the bureaucracy. L E G I S L AT I V E S The branch of government is in charge of making laws. It is made up of Congress and several Government agencies. Congress has two parts: The House of Representatives and the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are voted into office by qualified voters. What does the Legislative branch do? The main function of the legislative branch, whether it is at the federal or state level, is to create laws. A proposed law is called a bill and it is first introduced by a member of Congress. The Legislative Branch's Powers Borrow money Regulate commerce Coin money Declare war Establish post offices  The House of Representatives has powers of its own, including the power to deliver articles of impeachment against the President. The Senate has unique powers as well, including the power to ratify treaties and confirm appointments made by the president. FEDERALISM Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government is responsible for broader governance of larger territorial areas, while the smaller subdivisions, states, and cities govern the issues of local concern. Both the national government and the smaller political subdivisions have the power to make laws and both have a certain level of autonomy from each other.  In a federal system, power is shared by the national and state governments. The Constitution designates certain powers to be the domain of a central government, and others are specifically reserved for the state governments. Federalism provides a way for different groups of people in different parts of the country to live together.  Federal systems have at least two levels of government, the central level and a second level that includes territorial entities into which the country is divided, e.g. regions, states, and provinces. Federalism provides ways by which these different groups share power over common interests, but it also provides for these groups to have a level of autonomy vis-à-vis central state institutions.  But federalism is not a panacea. There are specific challenges that federalism alone cannot resolve, e.g. how to protect minorities or the fact that federalism can be expensive as you need to build institutions not only and the central, but also at the region, state, and provincial level. Sometimes the different levels have difficulties coordinating policies or policy responses, such as to pandemics or natural disasters. D E C E N T R A L I Z AT I O N The transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the central government to subordinate or quasi-independent government organizations and/or the private sector—is a complex multifaceted concept. Different types of decentralization should be distinguished because they have different characteristics, policy implications, and conditions for success. Ty p e s o f D ec e nt ra l izat i o n Political decentralization aims to give citizens or their elected representatives more power in public decision-making. It is often associated with pluralistic politics and representative government, but it can also support democratization by giving citizens, or their representatives, more influence in the formulation and implementation of policies. The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents. Ty p e s o f D ec e nt ra l izat i o n Administrative decentralization seeks to redistribute authority, responsibility, and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of government. It is the transfer of responsibility for the planning, financing and management of certain public functions from the central government and its agencies to field units of government agencies, subordinate units or levels of government, semi-autonomous public authorities or corporations, or area-wide, regional or functional authorities. Ty p e s o f D ec e nt ra l izat i o n Financial responsibility is a core component of decentralization. If local governments and private organizations are to carry out decentralized functions effectively, they must have an adequate level of revenues –either raised locally or transferred from the central government– as well as the authority to make decisions about expenditures. Ty p e s o f D ec e nt ra l izat i o n Fiscal decentralization can take many forms, including: a) self-financing or cost recovery through user charges b) co-financing or co-production arrangements through which the users participate in providing services and infrastructure through monetary or labor contributions c) expansion of local revenues through property or sales taxes or indirect charges d) intergovernmental transfers that shift general revenues from taxes collected by the central government to local governments for general or specific uses e) authorization of municipal borrowing and the mobilization of either national or local government resources through loan guarantees. JUDICIAL SYSTEM Refers to the system of courts that pass judgment on whether a person or legal entity has broken the law and impose appropriate punishments. It includes a variety of professionals, who work as judges, lawyers, defense and prosecution services, paralegal practitioners, and court personnel (such as bailiffs and ushers). Critical for ensuring the rule of law and this affects both public safety and national security in two separate ways. ROLE OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM The first role of the courts is to administer justice by ensuring that people accused of crimes are appropriately judged in a timely manner and fairly punished accordingly. This justice function is essential to the work of security providers in preventing impunity and also means the judicial system works closely with both police and prisons. The process whereby a suspect is apprehended, charged, judged, and punished involves all of these state security institutions and is sometimes called the criminal justice chain. ROLE OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM The second role of the courts is to provide a check on government power by ensuring that all of the laws passed by governments and parliaments respect the fundamental principles and rights set down in a country’s constitution, and its other organic laws. The courts may be the last line of defense when governments enact laws or policies that do not respect the fundamental principles of human rights or try to politicize security institutions. Failings in the judicial system result in violations of rights and insecurity, to which journalists can draw attention.  REFERENCES https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/public-sector-institutional-reform/concepts/what-are-institutions/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/explainers/what-constitution https://www.britannica.com/topic/constitution-politics-and-law https://consoc.org.uk/the-constitution-explained/electoral-systems/#what https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/electoral-systems https://wwnorton.com/college/polisci/american-government12/core/ch/08/quiz.aspx https://www.polyas.com/election-glossary/executive-branch https://bensguide.gpo.gov/a-legislative https://study.com/academy/lesson/legislative-branch-of-government-definition-power-function.html http://www.ciesin.org/decentralization/English/General/Different_forms.html https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/federalism https://www.idea.int/news-media/media/what-federalism https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/imce/SSAD/Media%20Toolkit/MediaSSR_Toolkit_Tipsheet%2015.pdf