The "real" regime of Nigeria?
Most Americans would be hard pressed to name a state in Nigeria. But government in states may be the most important part of the regime.
Nigeria’s state elections are more violent than national ones
Most of Nigeria’s 36 states, which elect[ed] their governors and state legislators on March 9th, have [politically linked [gangs of hoodlums who terrorise the city.] These straddle the boundary between party cadres and criminal gangs. They embody the rottenness of state politics in Nigeria. Governors run their states like personal fiefs, amassing fortunes and grooming protégés once they have hit the two-term limit. Although outsiders often pay little attention to them… Since states are in charge of budgets for education and health, their elections are also more important.
When it gained independence from Britain in 1960 Nigeria was divided into three regions. These were later split into four regions before being sliced up into 12 states in 1967 as the government tried to prevent the secession of one of the regions, Biafra. It was brought to heel in a bloody civil war. In the years since then the country has been further diced into 36 states, several of which are failing…
Governance is often abysmal. At the end of 2017, according to BudgIT, an NGO, only two states generated more than half of their revenue internally, instead of relying on federal handouts…
Checks on governors’ power are feeble. Although each state has its own legislative assembly and electoral commission for local polls, Maliki Kuliya, who served as Mr Kwankwaso’s justice commissioner, says that these are “just appendages of the executive”. As a result, political parties usually matter less than the politicians who constantly switch between them…
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More Nigerian elections
Most Nigerian states held local elections on Saturday.
Nigerians vote in governor elections in 29 states
Nigerians are heading to the polls to elect state and local representatives, two weeks after the presidential poll.
Ballots are being cast in 29 of the country's 36 states.
In oil-rich Nigeria, some state governors control budgets larger than those of neighbouring countries and so these are often keenly contested.
President Muhammadu Buhari beat his main rival Atiku Abubakar in the 23 February election, securing a second term.
Across the country, Mr Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) got 15.2 million votes while Mr Abubakar's People's Democratic Party (PDP) received 11.3 million. There are 73 million registered voters.
The APC won 19 states, while the PDP secured 16 plus the capital Abuja.
Mr Abubakar said the election was a "sham" and was not free and fair. He has since filed a petition challenging President Buhari's win.
Although turnout for the presidential election was low across the country, it was higher in the northern states - one factor behind Mr Buhari's victory.
Fears of possible election-related violence has led to the massive deployment of security personnel across the country…
The turnout for the state elections is expected to be higher than the 35.5% in last month's presidential election, down from 44% in 2015.
Most Nigerians take state elections seriously because their lives are directly impacted by the governor and representatives in the state legislature…
Lagos, one of the most contested states, has an estimated population of 17.5 million people - this is more than the combined population of Gabon, The Gambia, Liberia, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone.
The state's GDP is more than that of Kenya. In fact, Lagos would be the fifth largest economy in Africa if it were a country.
Other key battle grounds that will be hotly contested between the APC and PDP are Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Kano and Kwara.
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Labels: elections, federalism, Nigeria
Reconstruction in Nigeria
Creating a federal system in Nigeria has been a delicate issue since independence. It's come up again.
Nigeria’s Election Is Shattering Political Taboos
On Feb. 16, Nigerians [went] to the polls for a presidential election. At stake [was] not only who will be president but also fundamental issues about the structure of the Nigerian state and relations between its constituent units. Who should control the country’s oil resources and security forces? In which areas should the federal and state governments have preeminence over each other? These previously taboo questions have been elevated as key topics on the national political agenda. Regardless of who wins, President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress and his main opposition rival, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, have opened the door to political forces they cannot control or stop.
 |
| Buhari (left) and Atiku Abubakar (right) |
At first glance Buhari and Atiku (as he is known in Nigeria) appear to be opposites. Buhari is austere, tough on corruption, and lacking in flair…
Atiku is a gregarious multibillionaire businessman and veteran politician who is seen as business-savvy and has promised economic liberalization, but he has been dogged by corruption allegations. It seems that voters can have a fight against corruption or economic stimulus, but not both. But there is a third and more serious issue bubbling beneath the surface…
Since both men are ethnic Fulani Muslims from northern Nigeria, neither can resort to pandering based on ethno-regional or religious sentiment to take votes away from the other, as is frequently the case in Nigerian elections…
For the past 20 years since Nigeria returned to democracy, the country has been stuck with a highly centralized federal structure bequeathed to it by past military governments.
This structure gives the federal government huge power over states, control of the country’s oil deposits and security forces, and the power to declare a state of emergency in any state whether or not that state consents. Rather than being reservoirs for local interests, Nigeria’s states are consequently little more than conduits for the implementation of federal government policies.
Atiku has described Nigeria’s current political system as “unworkable” and has advocated “devolution of powers and resources to states and local governments” and greater autonomy for states. To combat the insecurity that has led to the military being deployed in at least 32 of Nigeria’s 36 states, he also supports allowing Nigeria’s states to form their own police forces to reinforce Nigeria’s currently federally-controlled military and police forces. Buhari [a former military ruler] is a conservative and has rejected a political restructuring of Nigeria.
Such proposals will reverberate at both ends of Nigeria. The issue of restructuring Nigeria’s unusual federal system has been a big talking point for the last three decades. However, regional autonomy is a potentially explosive issue in a country that fought a civil war from 1967 to 1970 and sacrificed over 1 million of its citizens to prevent one of its southern regions from seceding, and in which just three of the country’s 36 states today produce 75 percent of the country’s oil and over 50 percent of government revenues.
Atiku’s proposals will delight many younger and southern Nigerians who have campaigned for such measures for three decades, hoping that it will allow Nigeria’s oil-producing states to have a greater say over and share of the profits from the oil drilled from their lands…
Historically, many northerners feared that such changes to Nigeria’s constitutional order would reduce the poorer northern states’ share of lucrative revenues from the oil fields in Nigeria’s south. The chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Ango Abdullahi, claimed that some have “personalized restructuring with a view to targeting a section of the country, and this is the area that we feel very sensitive about, and we will resist it.”
Yet the north also has its own reasons to support Atiku’s restructuring ideas. Many complain that Nigeria’s police and soldiers (who are recruited from all over the country under a quota system) are disadvantaged in their fight against the militants of Boko Haram because most of them are not from the northeast where the insurgency emerged, are not familiar with the terrain, and don’t speak the local Kanuri language of the region, thereby making it difficult for them to win the trust of locals and obtain intelligence from them. Some argue that troops should be locals with knowledge of the local language, terrain, and customs…
Some of the military’s successes against Boko Haram have been due to the assistance given to them by a militia of local volunteers called the Civilian Joint Task Force. Using their local knowledge, the group has provided vital intelligence to the military, set up security checkpoints, arrested or executed Boko Haram members, and even assisted the military during raids. Twelve states in Nigeria’s north operate under sharia. Some of these states created enforcement corps known as Hisbah to police their legal code. Several years ago, some southern states also allowed vigilante groups to apprehend armed robbers…
[L]ocal ethno-cultural and religious differences demonstrate the challenges of allowing local communities to create their own security forces. In one part of the country they may be used to fight insurgents, to enforce a theocracy in another, or as political thugs in another. In a country with deep sectarian cleavages such as Nigeria, legislating different legal regimes for these groups would be impossible without accusations of ethnic, geographic, or religious bias. Thanks to Buhari and Atiku’s candor, these are no longer academic debates but immediate real-life problems that Nigeria’s next government must confront.
If Buhari holds on to power, he will be under pressure to respond to these thorny issues. If Atiku wins, the electorate will expect him to deliver on his campaign promises. Even if neither man intends to touch the restructuring time bomb, the issues they have raised are likely to be picked up by whoever contests the next election…
In Nigeria, younger politicians are far more likely than their conservative elders to implement massive reforms. No matter what Buhari and Atiku do, a southern successor is far more likely than them to push for radical changes to Nigeria’s structure. And that means four years from now Nigeria may have a president with the motivation to not only espouse reforms, but implement them, too.
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Labels: election, federalism, leaders, Nigeria, politics
Reverse transfer
Royalties for oil extracted in Nigeria are paid to the national government. From there, the money is distributed to the states. (Does that help explain the dominance of the national government to you?)
Things must be bad when Nigerian states fund a national government program.
Nigeria governors approve $1 billion to fight Boko Haram
Dozens of Nigerian state governors on Thursday approved the transfer of $1 billion to aid the federal government’s fight against the deadly Boko Haram insurgency, signaling that previous announcements of victory over the Islamic extremists had come too soon.
Attacks have increased in recent weeks as Boko Haram turns to using women and children, often abducted and indoctrinated, as suicide bombers to target cities and towns in the country’s vast northeast.
Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki said 36 state leaders approved the transfer of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account, which is used to hold revenues from oil production and protect planned budgets from shortfalls…
Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency has proven to be one of Africa’s more persistent threats, killing more than 20,000 people.
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Federalism, Nigerian style
In the USA, states rely on the national government for certain expenses and emergencies. In Nigeria, states have relied on the national government for nearly all their revenues. Can you guess why that makes states less powerful in Nigeria than in the USA?
Nigeria’s struggling states: Running out of road
Weddings do not come cheap, as Kano’s state government has found out. Over the past four years its Islamic morality police, the Hisbah, has arranged, and helped pay for, marriages for more than 4,000 lonely ladies… As Nigeria’s economy heads into recession, the state now says that it cannot afford to pay bride prices… Ten thousand disappointed daters have been left to find love and marriage the normal way.
They can hardly be so aggrieved as Nigeria’s 36 state governors. Most of them have little in the way of either local industry or foreign investment, meaning that they are incapable of providing for themselves. They borrowed heavily when oil prices were high, and also rely on monthly allocations from the federal government to keep afloat. But two years of low oil revenues have eaten nastily into those disbursements, leaving them unable to service their debts or pay their inflated workforces.
Out of the window have gone more pricey programmes, such as pilgrimages sponsored by Niger state… Politicians in Bayelsa, a southern state that has a reputation for oil and alarming kidnap rates, waved goodbye to a five-star hotel which has been over a decade in the making…
More important investments in roads and schools have long since dried up, according to BudgIT, a fiscal analysis group in Lagos. Civil servants no longer hope to get their salaries on time, and in some places their already meagre pay has been slashed by half…
Governors best known for fast cars and love nests are suddenly professing restraint. In Niger state, Mr Bello has said he will cut spending on housing for officials by at least 80%; an easy promise to make, given that his books are not made public.
This points to a general problem within federal Nigeria. With a couple of exceptions, its local and state governments do not publish budgets…
Last month Nigeria’s finance minister agreed to lend the states 90 billion naira, provided they start publishing audited accounts. That is a start. Meanwhile, the governors will take hope from a resurgence in their gross June and July allocations (thanks to higher federal tax collections)…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
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Labels: economics, federalism, fiscal policy, Nigeria, political culture
Celebrating Nigeria's independence day
The celebrations are muted because there's so much yet to be done for true independence.
What is Nigeria celebrating at 53?
On October 1, 1960, the future of Nigeria was bright. But, 53 years after, there is gap between expectation and reality… despite its rich human capital and abundant natural resources.
Many Nigerians living in the towns and cities may not have the opportunity to listen to President Goodluck Jonathan’s live independence broadcast today… As usual, electricity is beyond their reach due to power failure… From this week, many people will transfer their ailing relations from the public hospitals to private clinics in sorrow because another strike is imminent in the health sector.
Already, confused and restless university students are at home, owing to the prolonged lecturers’ strike. There is no end in sight yet…
Across the six geo-political zone, there no peace. In the North, the Boko Haram sect is on the prowl… In the Middlebelt, the Ombatse Group has intensified killings. The brands of terrorism in the South are armed robbery and commercial kidnapping. Corruption, according to Transparency International, has not abated among public office holders. Rather than making the transformation agenda to work, the preoccupation of those in power is the 2015 election. This is the story of Nigeria at 53…
At independence, Nigeria emerged as a country of many nations struggling for relevance. The sustaining power was the subscription to federalism by the leaders who built on the foundation laid by the colonial masters…
Fifty three years after flag independence, the rich country is in pains. Its oil is both a blessing and curse…. A majority of its citizens wallow in poverty. Life expectancy has dropped abysmally in Nigeria. Basic amenities, including portable water, electricity, medical facilities, and roads, are in pitiable state of disrepair. The only prosperous people are those in government…
Government has become the greatest corrupter of society. “There is a disconnect between the government and the people”, observed Ayo Opadokun, the Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), who blamed the leadership for lack of vision.
‘Our clean cities have become slums. Infrastructure has collapsed, roads are now death traps, killing more people annually than the dreadful diseases like AIDS and malaria. Corruption is on the increase daily. More than 60 percent of our people have no access to pipe borne water and medical facilities. Our country is a country of imports and moral values have collapsed, making us the object of scorn and derision in civilized circles’, former university don and politician Dr. Femi Okunrounmu added…
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Labels: corruption, federalism, history, Nigeria
Legitimacy
Nation states sometimes have trouble maintaining the legitimacy of their governments and regimes. It's even more difficult for a supranational organization like the EU.
To me it's distressing that the dangers of emotional nationalism that inspired the creation of the EU are apparent now as threats to the survival of international cooperation. Do your students of European history recognize history repeating itself?
Crisis for Europe as trust hits record low
Public confidence in the European Union has fallen to historically low levels in the six biggest EU countries, raising fundamental questions about its democratic legitimacy more than three years into the union's worst ever crisis, new data shows.
After financial, currency and debt crises, wrenching budget and spending cuts, rich nations' bailouts of the poor, and surrenders of sovereign powers over policymaking to international technocrats, Euroscepticism is soaring to a degree that is likely to feed populist anti-EU politics and frustrate European leaders' efforts to arrest the collapse in support for their project…
The findings… represent a nightmare for Europe's leaders, whether in the wealthy north or in the bailout-battered south, suggesting a much bigger crisis of political and democratic legitimacy…
EU leaders are aware of the problem, utterly at odds over what to do about it, and have yet to come up with any coherent policy proposals addressing the mismatch between the pooling of economic and fiscal powers and the democratic mandate deemed necessary to underpin such radical policy shifts.
José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, said… the European "dream" was under threat from a "resurgence of populism and nationalism" across the EU…
Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk… [said] "We can't escape this dilemma: how do you get a new model of sovereignty so that limited national sovereignty in the EU is not dominated by the biggest countries like Germany… "
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Labels: concepts, democratization, EU, federalism, International Organizations, legitimacy, nationalism, sovereignty
Whose corruption is it?
National and local politicians are blaming each other for the problem of corruption in Mexico.
Inmate massacre highlights Mexico jail corruptionNine guards have confessed to helping Zetas drug gangsters escape from prison before other Zetas slaughtered 44 rival inmates, a state official said late Monday, underlining the enormous corruption inside Mexico's overcrowded, underfunded prisons…
The massacre in this northern state was one of the worst prison killings in Mexico in at least a quarter-century and exposed another weak institution that President Felipe Calderon is relying on to fight his drug war…
An increase in organized crime, extortion, drug trafficking and kidnapping has swelled Mexico's prison population almost 50 percent since 2000. But the government has built no new federal prisons since Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels when he took office in late 2006, leaving existing jails overcrowded…
Of the 47,000 federal inmates in the country, about 29,000 are held in state prisons. That has drawn complaints from Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina and other state governors, who say their jails aren't equipped to hold members of powerful and highly organized drug cartels.
The federal government counters that none of the escapes or mass killings have occurred at federal lockups, and it cites corruption on the state level, not overcrowding, as the main cause of the deaths and escapes…
Prison employees say guards are underpaid, making them more likely to take bribes. And even honest guards are vulnerable to coercion: Many live in neighborhoods where street gangs and drug cartels are active, making it easy to target their families with threats.
The same can be said for Mexico's municipal police forces, another weak flank in Calderon's attack on organized crime. Thousands of local officers - often, entire forces at a time - have been fired, detained or placed under investigation for aiding drug gangs…
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Labels: China economics politics, corruption, federalism, Mexico
Federalism's experiments
Some states in Mexico have tried to eliminate corruption by removing one opportunity. The results have not been all good.
The lawless roadsSIX out of ten road deaths worldwide take place in just 12 countries, one of which is Mexico. Dented doors and battered bumpers are backed up by official figures: every year some 24,000 people lose their lives on Mexico’s potholed roads…
In Mexico’s case the main problem is the drivers. Fourteen of Mexico’s 32 states, home to just over half the population, grant licences without setting a practical driving test…
Mexico was not always so freewheeling. Until the 1990s driving tests were near-universal, but it took unusual robustness of character to pass without paying a bribe. Rather than tackle corruption, some states simply abolished the test. Others followed suit in order to attract applicants (and income) from out-of-state residents.
The disregard for road safety goes wider. The ring roads that roar around Mexico’s big cities have speed limits of up to 80kph. By contrast in Costa Rica the urban speed limit is 40kph. Drivers are slack about seat belts and child-seats are rarer still. A PAHO study in 2008 estimated that on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in Mexico City a total of 200,000 people drove while drunk…
Given the right training, Mexico’s drivers are as safe as any other country’s. An American study found that Mexican truckers had fewer accidents in the United States than their American counterparts. That might be because Mexican hauliers, along with taxi-drivers and other professionals, have to sit a driving test. Until testing becomes universal, Mexico’s roads will remain lethal.
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Federalism fad
How is federalism a solution to some problems and the cause of others? Is there an inherent conflict between federalism and democracy? Is the price of federal "unity" worth the cost of some democracy? (Discuss among yourselves.)
The fashion to be federalWHAT short rallying-cry sums up the hopes of people who risk their lives—anywhere from Tunis to Cairo to Rangoon—because they believe in free, universal suffrage? In years past, it was “one man, one vote”. That slogan was heard in apartheid South Africa, and in the 1960s in Northern Ireland, where Catholics said a property-based vote for local councils favoured Protestants.
The formula has since been corrected to “one person one vote” (OPOV, as wonks call it)—and the ideal itself has been challenged. Among campaigners for political change, it is agreed that universal suffrage is not enough to give power to the people. Other things, like the rule of law, are needed too. And less obviously, most federal systems violate the OPOV principle by giving some votes more weight than others. That is important because over a third of humanity lives in countries that aspire to be both democratic and federal…
According to Rupak Chattopadhyay, a Canadian scholar, federations (and the constitutional anomalies that go with them) are desirable in countries that are large or ethnically mixed or both…
Why is the tie between federalism and democracy so awkward? In most federations the units have formally equal status, regardless of population, so voters in small units fare better. Thus the 544,270 residents of Wyoming have two senators—the same as the 37m people of California…
As research at Queen’s University Belfast has shown, large deviations from OPOV are the norm in newly democratic federations, including ex-war zones where outsiders have designed systems to hold divided societies together. These systems are often very contentious. Iraq’s constitution is decentralising enough to please Shia and Kurdish voters, but anathema to the once-dominant Sunni Muslims…
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Labels: concepts, devolution, federalism, theory
Cleaner air in Mexico City
For all its experiments, the government of Mexico City has cleaned up at least one thing.
Where the air is clear: Mexico City enjoys life with less smog I stopped in surprise a couple months ago, in early spring, while crossing a pedestrian bridge over the roaring Periferico highway on Mexico City's westside. I looked up to see an unfamiliar white form shimmering in the distance to the east — the snow-capped Popocatepetl volcano.
For decades, this active peak rising almost 18,000 feet over Mexico's teeming capital has been mostly shrouded behind a layer of smog. Lately, though, the "Popo" peak and its twin the Iztaccihuatl volcano are peeking through the pollution, even during the current dry season, when the smog is at its worst...
[A]ir quality in the Federal District has improved markedly in the last decade. The city, governed by leftists without interruption since 1997, has implemented aggressive measures to combat air pollution, from a successful fast-lane bus system to a European-style public bike program that allows commuters to rent and drop off city bicycles at various rack stations in different locations…
While the D.F., as Mexico City is often called, may no longer carry the banner of being the world's "most polluted," the metropolitan region still has a long way to go before being entirely free of unhealthful pollutants for its 20 million residents…
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Labels: federalism, Mexico, policy
Retreat from federalism?
Does the governors' approval of a plan to replace local police forces amount to a retreat from federalism? or just an attack on corruption?
Thanks to Daniel Wilson at the blog
Under the Volcano.
Governors back abolishing local police in favor of new state forcesThe National Governors’ Conference (Conago) backed the Government’s proposal to establish one state-level police force for each state. Most municipal police would be transferred to new state-level forces, after undergoing background checks and additional training. Municipal governments would retain responsibility only for traffic enforcement… Establishing the new state-level forces requires amendment of the federal Constitution.
The original is from Reforma.
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Labels: corruption, federalism, Mexico
Governing lab
When local governments are able to legislate, they can become sites for experimentation in governance. While Anna-Marie O'Connor, writing in the
Washington Post headlines the culture war theme, comparativists should be paying attention to the scope and limits of local government in Mexico. [Thanks to Rebecca Small who teaches at Herndon High School in Virginia for suggesting I take a second look at this article.]
With same-sex marriage law, Mexico City becomes battleground in culture warsThe Mexican wedding may never be the same.
On Thursday, this sprawling megalopolis will catapult to the front lines of gay rights in Latin America when a city law legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption goes into effect.
The prospect of gay marriage has… spotlighted the power of Mexico City's center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) leaders to advance a liberal agenda that contrasts with provincial traditionalism.
Mexico allows the federal district of Mexico City to pass its own laws, and the metropolis of more than 20 million people has become a major battleground in the culture wars playing out across the Americas.
In recent years, the city's PRD-dominated Legislative Assembly has recognized civil unions and no-fault divorce, legalized abortion in the first trimester and given terminally ill patients the right to refuse treatment.
The Legislative Assembly passed the gay marriage act by a broad majority in December… Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, a PRD leader, signed the bill into law -- a first in Latin America...
Mexico's ruling party does not want the Mexico City law to be the catalyst for a domino effect.
The attorney general filed a challenge with the Supreme Court, arguing that the law violates the constitution…
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Federalism in Nigeria
When the national government collects all the oil revenues and hands them out to state governors for disbursement to state and local governments, guess who gets the least. Ah, the problems of a
rentier state that imposes practically no taxes.
Rural Dwellers Will Continue to Suffer Lack Unless ...Rural dwellers in Nigeria would continue to be down-trodden, suffer lack and deprivation if the Federal Government failed to increase the allocation to the third tier of government, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, has said.
"The major problem the country is facing is the top-to-bottom approach of disbursing funds instead of from bottom-to-top. The local governments are financially handicapped yet we say the people are the most important, there is the need to reverse the system," he said.
Amaechi, who met with members of the Committee on States and Local Government Affairs of the House of Representatives, in Port Harcourt, was of the view that "until we accept that the local governments are the foundation of this country and admit that they are financially handicapped to execute development projects for the people, the country will continue to decay."...
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Labels: federalism, Nigeria, politics
Political maturity
It would have been helpful if Mr. Osayande had explained (or if journalist Chizoba Ogbeche had reported) what he meant by "politically mature." However, it seems he was referring to corruption.
Police Decentralisation - Country Not Politically MatureThe Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Parry Osayande, DIG (rtd) has said that Nigeria was not politically mature for decentralisation of its police force...
Contrary to calls that the police be decentralised, the commission chairman argued that the system could be abused given the disposition of Nigerian politicians, but however, acknowledged that in a federalism country like Nigeria, there should be a federal, state, and local police...
According to him, having being a member of the police reform committee which spelt out guidelines for the on-going reforms of the force, which would make for easier and effective implementation of the process, stating that there was a sustained effort to right the damages done to the police force by long years of military rule...
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Labels: corruption, federalism, Nigeria, politics
Fixing a hole in the safety net
There's less substance to this announcement than you might expect. A national program that relies on local government's financial participation. Guess where the system will fall apart? (That's not unique to China.)
New pension plan to benefit China's 900 mln farmersFarmers will soon enjoy the same guaranteed incomes later in life as urban workers do, as the government Tuesday announced that a trial pension plan would be implemented across China by October.
Sponsored by the government, farmers over the age of 60 will be able to receive a monthly endowment of varying amounts according to certain areas' income standards, Hu Xiaoyi, vice minister of the Department of Human Resources and Social Security (DHRSS), said yesterday at a press conference...
The old insurance system has benefited 80 million farmers in China since the 1990s. However, the system virtually failed, as it required payment solely from farmers, who eventually gave up because of a lack of money...
The biggest obstacle in applying for the new insurance is the low revenue of local governments.
"Local governments with low revenue have no capability to promote the new policy. With no financial support from the local government, the related department has no enthusiasm to promote the new insurance," said Ding Yifan, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council...
Ding suggested that the governments make a reasonable and balanced financial contribution.
He also called on the government to promote and implement this new endowment insurance policy as soon as possible."
Labels: China, economics, federalism
Federalism at work
In textbooks about US government and politics, the states are often described as policy proving grounds. New ideas get tried out in states, and if they work well, the policies are copied by other states and sometimes the national government.
Could it be that something similar is happening in the Nigerian state of Kwara? (Thanks again to Imnakoya for bringing this story to my attention.)
Constant Light in Kwara"Constant “light” - the Nigerian euphemism for electric supply, is the most valuable upgrade... Nigeria needs at this time for obvious reasons.
"[I]t is uplifting to read how kwara State went about taking care of business, locally...
"Among his peers, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the state Governor
[right], demonstrates an uncommon out-of-the-box mentality to governance...
"Kwara power project is the first and the only one to be completed. It’s been in operation since January 2009."
Imnakoya cited a report from the newspaper,
Daily Trust:
One month of non-stop power supply: How is Kwara doing it?"Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara State, is a city that is usually counted among Nigeria’s sleepiest because of its low level of economic and social activity. But it is now stirring to life... in front of business centres, hotels, supermarkets, workshops and offices there are no more irritating noises coming from the small buzzing generators that used to supply electricity round the clock, holding up to the world Nigeria’s ridiculous failure to supply enough power to meet both its domestic and industrial needs. In Ilorin the noise these days is to be found indoors in welding workshops, furniture workshops, barbing salons, business centres and grain mills. The buzz all around is ‘light, light, light’.
"‘Light’, which has become the local euphemism for electricity supply has been steady for four weeks now and this has infused a new found productivity...
"What the Kwara State government built was not a power generating plant which is the buzz in the top tier of government at the moment but it simply built a transmission station on a 2.5 hectares of land at Ganmo that could better utilize and maximise the available power that is been generated by the existing generating stations but wasted because of inadequate power infrastructures. Now, the state capital and the towns and villages in the state heave a sigh of relief for this simple foresight...
"But nowhere is the impact more significant than in small scale industries. The South Africa-born General Manager of Kwara Technix, a joint venture business between the Kwara state government and a South African furniture manufacturer, Mr. Frank Cross says the recent improvement in electricity supply in the state has reduced significantly the company’s expenditure on diesel to fuel generators...
"But the recent success in Ilorin goes beyond the state and says much about the Federal Government’s approach to provide the nation with electricity. It is beginning to look like states waiting for the magical Seven-Point Agenda to connect them with constant and regular electricity will have to abandon their lethargy and act to help themselves..."
What You Need to Know -- a study guide for AP Comparative Government and Politics
Labels: federalism, Nigeria
Preserving federalism and presidential legitimacy
In a move that appears to fight corruption, President Yar'Adua also "wins friends and influences people" by ensuring that local leaders won't see a reduction in their oil production revenues.
The proposed health clinics would have been funded with money to be withheld by the national government from the monthly checks delivered to local officials.
Nigeria blocks huge clinic deal"Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has ordered the suspension of a multi-million dollar contract awarded by his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo.
"The 18bn naira ($145m) contract to build health clinics across the country was awarded to a company believed to be owned by a former aide to Mr Obasanjo.
"'It was an illegal contract,' Mr Yar'Adua's spokesman told the BBC...
"'There's no law backing it. It was being funded with illegal local government funds,' President Yar'Adua's spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi told the BBC News website.
"This is the second time in less than three weeks that President Yar'Adua would be reversing a major decision taken by his predecessor and political benefactor...."
Labels: corruption, federalism, Nigeria, politics
Local power in a unitary system
The example in this story from the
Washington Post is much less important than the processes it illustrates about how China's political system works. Local authorities, in that unitary regime, have a great deal of power. That power fuels economic development, creates environmental hazards, and protects local elites through a wide range of bureaucratic orders and economic enticements.
China's Local Censors Muffle an Explosion"By 9 p.m., the Tianying karaoke bar was jumping...
"More than 400 pounds of nitrate-based explosives, used in nearby coal mines, ripped through the Tianying compound, reducing it to debris. Many of those partying inside were killed, along with several passersby...
"What happened that sultry evening of July 4 seemed to be news by anybody's definition. It was the worst disaster in ages to hit Tian Shifu, a raw town of 40,000 residents in the wooded hills of Liaoning province... But local Communist Party censors decided otherwise. They blacked out news of the explosion, barring papers and television stations here in Benxi county and the nearby provincial capital of Shenyang from investigating what had happened and telling the public about it.
"The party's vast propaganda and censorship bureaucracy, although best known for curbing national media, has long exercised its most drastic controls in the newsrooms of China's provincial papers and television stations... Unfavorable news -- information that could put local leaders in a bad light in Beijing -- is routinely suppressed by multiple layers of party propaganda officials in towns, counties, cities and provinces.
"As a result, Chinese who live in towns or in the countryside -- the majority of China's 1.3 billion inhabitants -- have grown used to living largely in ignorance of what goes on around them... This tight control of information has long been an effective tool for the Communist Party to maintain its monopoly on power. It has become even more important in the last two decades as corruption has spread through the party hierarchy, with many city, county and provincial officials eager to hide their association with local entrepreneurs..."
Labels: China, federalism
Confusion of names
In the face of the confusing names for sub-national units of government in Russia, Rebecca Small asked perfectly logical questions: What is the difference between a republic, an
oblast, and a
krai? What is an
okrug? What is the autonomous
oblast?
I answered with the help of the anonymous
Wikipedia authors (who we will consider as conditional authorities - correct them if they're wrong).
These are all various types of sub-national units of government in Russia. Some of them have Medieval origins; others are Soviet; still others have even older origins. There may be differences in the organization of the local government, but they are basically synonyms for "republic." (Local residents might rightly insist that their home "republic" is not like all the others, but political scientists have to deal with generalizations as well as technical specifics.)
Wikipedia says (I don't recognize any mistakes or biases in these entries, but that doesn't mean they are Right):
- Oblast refers to a type of administrative division in Slavic countries and in some countries of the former Soviet Union. [It] ... is often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region".
- Krai or kray (Russian: край) is a term used to refer to seven of Russia's 86 federal subjects. The term is often translated as territory, province, or region.
In Russia, krais were historically vast territories located along the periphery of the country. Currently, however, the usage of the term is mostly traditional as some oblasts also fit this description and there is no difference in legal status between the krais and the oblasts.
- Okrug is a term to denote a subnational entity in some Eastern European Slavic states. Etymologically, the word is a calque of the German word Bezirk ("district"). Both okrug and Bezirk refer to something literally "encircled".
- Main article: "Subdivisions of Russia"
In the present-day Russian Federation, the term okrug is... translated as "district..." and is used to describe the following types of divisions:- Federal Districts (federalny okrug), such as the Siberian Federal District;
- Autonomous okrugs (avtonomny okrug), such as Koryak Autonomous Okrug;
- Komi-Permyak Okrug, a territory with special status within Perm Krai.
Okrug is also used to describe the administrative divisions of the two "federal cities" in Russia:- the administrative okrugs of Moscow are an upper-level administrative division.
- the municipal okrugs of St. Petersburg are a lower-level administrative division.
Furthermore, the designation okrug denotes several... administrative divisions:- okrugs, such as okrugs of Samara Oblast.
- rural okrugs (selsky okrug), such as the rural okrugs of Adygea.
- rural territorial okrugs (selsky territorialny okrug), such as the rural territorial okrugs of Murmansk Oblast.
- stanitsa okrugs (stanichny okrug), such as the stanitsa okrugs of Krasnodar Krai.
I think that explains why most introductory textbooks don't go into depth on this subject. Happy generalizing.
Labels: federalism, Russia
