Confronting the Governance Challenges of Developing Nigeria's Extractive Industry: Policy and Performance in the Oil and Gas Sector1

The issue of economic growth and human development has been a central concern in the oil and gas sector of Nigeria's extractive industry, and this has featured prominently in the agitations and generalized restiveness in the Niger Delta, the oil‐producing region. While many studies have focused on these problems, policies aimed at confronting them have not received much broad attention. This article bridges this research gap by holistically focusing on the solution to the problem. In doing this, the article examines the policies during the Obasanjo administration from 1999 to 2007 in order to critically assess the efficacy or inefficiency of the policies in reversing the general problem now known as the “resource curse,” and to offer a better understanding of the deeper political, social, and economic issues that drive outcomes. The article finds that while significant efforts were made to avoid the boom and bust cycle of oil and lower volatility by de‐linking public expenditure from oil revenue through the “oil‐price‐based fiscal rule,” generally, progress in this area was not matched by improvement in the other areas examined by this study, notably peace and safety of lives and oil/gas installations, the development of the oil‐producing region, environmental security and sustainability, and the transparent and accountable use of oil/gas revenues.     

Why change party finance transparency? Political competition and evidence from the ‘deviant’ case of Norway

This article focuses on the development of a key type of regulation ensuring public surveillance of political finance: party finance transparency rules. It makes two contributions to the emerging theory on the evolution of political finance regulation. First, using previous research, it conceptualises the underlying causal mechanisms that explain when and why party finance transparency regulation changes. Second, it presents the first detailed study of party finance transparency reforms in Norway, which is a deviant case for the introduction of such reforms. It is found that, in the absence of major scandals, an intense political discourse on corruption and political competition are sufficient factors to launch transparency reforms. Whether reforms are enacted depends on the interaction of several factors. Parties that predominantly rely on state funding and grassroots support push for and adopt more constraining transparency regulation, while parties that are close to business oppose it. Experience of regulation in similar contexts and intense discourse on corruption – stimulated by domestic or international events – are necessary for the reform to succeed. Norwegian cooperation with the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) further demonstrates that the success of party finance transparency reforms initiated by a foreign actor is a function of the existing tradition of party regulation, the policy position of a governing party and the international reputational costs of non-compliance.     

Civil society institutions or semi-public agencies? State regulation of parties and voluntary organizations in Norway

The relationship between the Norwegian State on the one hand, and political parties and voluntary organizations on the other, has traditionally been based on mutual trust. To assess the claim that civil society institutions are developing towards ‘semi-public agencies’, we review state regulation of Norwegian voluntary organizations and political parties. The State does demand more accountability and transparency in return for public funding, but many aspects are also regulated scarcely or not at all. This indicates that substantial mutual trust remains. This relationship might be characterized as a partnership based on interdependence, rather than colonization.     

Regulating business or policing crime? Tracing the policy convergence between taxation and crime control at the local level

Policing is commonly associated with street‐level crime, whereas regulation is instead associated with the complexities of business and market governance. However, this distinction has been questioned by recent research and it seems that the worlds of regulation and policing are tending to merge. Still, little is known about how this convergence is unfolding. By following the intersection of two international policy‐level processes – the financialization of organized crime and the upgraded monitoring of tax evasion – down to the level of organizational practice in the Swedish restaurant trade, this article contributes to an understanding of the institutional dynamic behind the recent convergence. At the same time, it discusses the conceptual relationship between policing and regulation, and the counter‐arguments that may be needed to overcome the distinction between the two. I specifically address the neglected issue of the differential social valuation of “crime” and “business,” and find that it is relativized by a common focus on unreported transactions.     

What is the Norway Model? Mode of Affiliation or Political Compromise?

Brexit is a high‐stakes political process, but there is still no clear understanding of the political factors that underpin the various affiliation modes that the UK is currently debating. These are treated as quite static constructs, with emphasis on legal detail not the political and societal conditions that make them operate. What does the inclusion of the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement—which is the core component of the Norway model—do to that arrangement, itself a domestic Norwegian compromise? Will the arrangement continue to function, or will the UK's presence fundamentally alter or even abrogate the arrangement? This article spells out the specific political presuppositions that the Norway model rests on, and notes that the UK cannot emulate these. In addition, it argues that the more closely attached to the EEA agreement the UK is, the more precarious the arrangement will be.     

Institutionalizing fairness in financial markets: Mission impossible?

This article analyzes the institutionalization of process‐oriented regulation, namely: regulatory institutions that allow firms to adapt regulation to their individual circumstances, while holding them to account for the adequacy and efficacy of their internal compliance systems. The article's main focus is on the strategies sought by compliance professionals to attain managers' receptiveness to regulatory expectations. It analyzes British financial firms' responses to a process‐oriented regulatory initiative, which sought to transform the widespread culture of product “mis‐selling” in this industry. Three key arguments and hypotheses are put forward: first, it is suggested that the existing theoretical literature on process‐oriented regulation overly stresses managers' rational, profit‐maximizing motivations for (non‐)compliance, whilst overlooking their emotive motivations. Second, it is proposed that managers' emotive resistance is expected when regulatory expectations challenge firms' “organizational identities” and thereby their individual identities. Third, it is hypothesized that when process‐oriented regulation poses a threat to organizations' identities, its institutionalization will entail delegation of the design and subsequent implementation of compliance systems to managers outside compliance, and reframing of regulatory expectations into existing businesses discourses and methodologies.     

Is experimentalist governance self-limiting or self-reinforcing? Strategic uncertainty and recursive rulemaking in European Union electricity regulation

Is experimentalist governance (XG) self-limiting or self-reinforcing by virtue of its relationship to strategic uncertainty as an essential scope condition? This article tackles this important but understudied question by elaborating a series of idealtypical pathways for the temporal evolution of XG in specific policy domains, ranging from reversion to hierarchical governance through endogenous reduction of strategic uncertainty at one extreme to institutionalization of experimentalism as a multipurpose governance architecture at the other. It then goes on to test the empirical validity of these contrasting theoretical expectations about the long-term relationship between XG and strategic uncertainty through a process-tracing analysis of electricity regulation in the European Union over a series of policy cycles since the 1990s. Building on and extending previous research in this domain, this article's findings strengthen empirical confidence in the theoretical expectation that XG is self-reinforcing, while diminishing confidence in the claim that it is self-limiting.     

Risk Analysis of Nanomaterials: Exposing Nanotechnology's Naked Emperor

Risk analysis (encompassing risk assessment, management, and communication) is touted internationally as the most appropriate approach for governing nanomaterials. In this article, we survey existing criticisms of risk assessment as a basis for regulatory decision making on emerging technologies, particularly highlighting its exclusion of key societal dimensions, its epistemological underdetermination, and its lack of democratic accountability. We then review the specific case of nanomaterials and identify six major barriers to the effective operation of both risk assessment and risk management. These include a lack of: nano‐specific regulatory requirements, shared definitions, validated and accessible methods for safety testing, available scientific knowledge, reliable information on commercial use, and capacity for exposure mitigation. Finding the knowledge, standards, methods, tools, definitions, capacity, and political commitment all insufficient, we argue that risk analysis is a “naked emperor” for nanomaterial governance. We therefore suggest that additional concepts and approaches are essential for nanomaterials policy and regulation.     

Meta‐Governance of Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Actors' Perspectives from Kenya

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes multi‐stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) as a means of implementation while at the same time putting renewed focus on the need for national‐level ownership and implementation. Despite the fact that an ever growing body of literature on the merits and drawbacks of MSPs delineates several success conditions for partnerships, efforts to translate this knowledge into national‐level meta‐governance for MSPs remain marginal to date. This study outlines the benefits the literature alleges for such “meta‐governance” frameworks, before it uses a country‐level study with a series of stakeholder interviews to take a closer look at national‐level context conditions and lessons learned with regard to two water partnerships in Kenya. Our findings suggest that to date the existing meta‐governance for partnerships in Kenya is rather weak and fragmented. Yet respondents support the view that MSPs could benefit from such a framework, in particular regarding local ownership of MSPs and the potential to scale successful cases. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kazakhstan＇s energy policy： Its evolution and tendencies

As a young sovereign state, Kazakhstan tries to conduct policy that makes it an equal partner among other countries of the world community. Rich deposits of oil and natural gas in the country and the Caspian Sea attract the interests of energy consuming states. At the same time, the landlocked position and weak infrastructure lead a more active foreign policy based on the energy factor. This paper is an attempt to study the development of energy policy of Kazakhstan focusing on the country＇s relations with Russia, China, the USA and the European Union. The complex geopolitical environment and relatively small, young economy of Kazakhstan emerge as the main reasons for conducting multi-vector and balanced foreign policy. The author defines peculiarities and tendencies of possible future developments with respect to Kazakhstan＇s place in the energy sphere.     

论法规批准制度

法规批准制度是指有关主体制定的法规范性文件需经特定主体的批准才能生效的法律制度。现行法规批准制度存在批准范围小、批准程序缺少操作性等不足。完善法规批准制度需合理设置批准范围、完善批准程序等,并对经批准的法规性质进行了法理考察。