Question 1
Once the Bills have been prepared they are then presented to the committee. The committee convenes a series of stakeholder consultations to seek consensus and/or fill any gaps which will not have been addressed during the Line Ministry public consultations. The committee then convenes a roundtable over the draft Bill incorporating the participation of the AG, the KLRC, Line Ministries and any Institution involved in the generation of the Bill to finalize the Bill by making various amendments which will have been informed by the internal and external consultations. The committees are powerful so that they can operate without interference. A committee is put in place so that the process of polishing the Bill is fastened. The committee is acquainted with the necessary expertise and the process will be fast. The committee members especially the chairman has power in congress so that so that their efficiency is enhanced.
Question 2
Political parties in the House and the Senate operate in a political line. If a Bill is tabled, for instance, it is more likely that members of a particular party will take one common view. It is a fact that parties have their origin in Congress, not in the electoral process. In the House and the Senate, members of the same opinion merge together and when their common interests build up, they end up in one political party. Political parties have tried to take control over the legislation process by interfering with the appointed committees. The stronger political sides have often been successful. They have also applied politics to convince the public to vote for Bills. A good example is that one of the New Constitution. The problem that arises if party leaders supersede committee chairs is that they will be biased in their duties because they have already taken their sides. Neutrality is important in the writing of legislation.
Question 3
At the beginning, a raw draft Bill emanates from the Ministry. The committee also releases the draft Bills to the widest possible range of stakeholders. The AG prepares the Bill. Cabinet receives the proposed Bill, if need be, changes to the Bill are made and finalized before it is approved. AG then publishes the Bill as approved by Cabinet and the Bill is then tabled in Parliament for debate. After Parliament debates and passes the Bill, it is taken back to the AG for preparation of the vellum copy before being handed over to the President for assent.
Question 4
The goal of the federal election act of 1971 was to change the involvement of money when campaigning during election times. This was meant to have them disclose their sources of campaign funds and how they were going to use it. Later amendments to the piece of legislation brought about statutory limits to the amount of funds that could be contributed for campaign elections. The amendments also brought about the formation of the Federal Election commission. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act came into to curtail unregulated contributions to the political parties. Nongovernmental organizations had the habit of spending a lot of money during election times; although they were bipartisan they spent a lot of funds over this period and had to be regulated. The Bipartisan Act has been criticized for being undemocratic as regulating the funding of bipartisan groups like the media.
Question 5
The free rider problem is all about how people (players) use up something that other people (players) have earned and end up without giving anything back. The free rider problem is well understood by the terminology freeloader. Interest groups are commonly faced with the free rider problem. They claim to be democratic but some interest groups are only lobbying and campaigning for their preferred candidates. Interest groups focus on very limited issues. They are narrow minded and some interest groups’ benefit from the collective action of their counterparts. Some interest groups like the League of women have been able to overcome the free-rider problem by widening their issues and coordinating with other interest groups. They have worked with likeminded groups to bring democracy to America and have been in the fore front of rooting out corruption.
