Laws are the basic fundamental governing elements in a society. The term Law can be referred as set of rules and regulations that are enforced in a society to keep the balance of the society in true order and discipline. A society cannot exist in a civilized form unless and until there are laws to ordain the people who live in a specific society. A society without a law or a set of rules will be a jungle to dwell in, therefore, all societies in today’s civilized world are based on law or rules or articles of their specific constitution.
Laws or set of rules are usually enforced in a society through various institutions, which normally includes Judiciary, law enforcement agencies i.e. police, public sector subject of the law and governmental body. If any entity may be a public, governmental, organizational or any other commits an act that is contradictory to the law then the authorities i.e. law and enforcement agencies are responsible to identify, register the unlawful act and make necessary actions to bring the entity to the court, then afterwards Judiciary has to examine the case and proceedings have to be made further. The verdict of the Judiciary is to be whole heartedly implemented by the state and all different authorities must work hand in hand ideally to observe the verdict.
Law encompasses three major areas of a society that is the politics, economics and social structure of the society. Political laws is about the mechanics of ruling, administration and all affairs related to state in general, while economical laws are concerned with the affairs of wealth dynamics, as for social laws it is about organization of relationships.
2 The Rule Making Process And Outcomes
The rule making process is about formulating a law or a set of rules. However the rule making process is never simple, because several entities are involved in making of a law therefore, rule making process is itself a very controversial and complex framework. In some cases when rules are generally aligned with public emotions or in case where masses are ignorant of any specific law, then there is no such aggressive repercussion. On the other hand if a rule making process directly transcends the public willingness then there is severe chance of a negative outcome where normal public can react and change the existing regime.
What is a rule making process ideally?
Ideally, it is suggested that a rule making process should involve the well being of the people; all people are publically informed about the proposed law prior to the formation of a law. Public opinion should be incorporated with in the law; the public should have the accessibility of all the related information regarding a rule making process. All the details should be made accessible so that public can develop an understanding of this issue, furthermore different segments of the society should participate in the rule making process by public discussions and finally through discussions and dialogue all the segments of the society should come to a point of agreement regarding a specific law.
What happens practically in a rule making process?
The discussion about the proposed ideals regarding a rule making process is not practical rather actual participation of all public in rule making process is just a distant dream. Rather in democracy it is the so called representatives sitting in the legislative assemblies who are the actual key players in a rule making process.
Now, the people sitting in the legislative and rule making executive assemblies have different agendas and they usually come in assemblies from various grounds rather on a specific public agenda. The campaign that is required during elections for competing maximum vote bank is usually based on huge funding, and this huge funding is actually invested by some giant corporate. Now the question is why a giant corporate will fund millions for a candidate in elections. Is it just marketing their products? Or there is some other serious agenda? Definitely if a corporate funds a candidate there is some participation of the corporate as well in the rule making process. It can be a favor regarding a tax cut rule or a bail out package for example the bail out package was announced for few banks and corporate in the US during recession. The rule making process can also serve the corporate in its strategic planning regarding copy right extension, stiff patents as a result of which a common man suffer greatly. So the theory and practice of a rule making is two highly deviating concepts. In the formation of a law there are key players instead of public, these key players are the foundations of a rule making process in reality.
What is the outcome of a rule making process?
A rule making process can result in various ways, if a specific rule is known by a public commonly and it is taken negatively by the public then there can be mass movement against the rule that can finally result in annulment or amendment of a specific rule. The second case is that public is not aware of the proposed rules very much and the application of the rules in reality worsen the conditions of the people in general as in the case of some of the property rights. However the rules will last then.
3 Case Studies About The Outcome of a Rule Making Process
As two specific outcomes of a rule making process is discussed.
As for the first reality a public law known as Volstead Act[1] which was also called as national prohibition act, which was proposed in October 1919 and was effective in January 1920. This law was about the prohibition of intoxicant beverages in the US. It was introduced by Congress; Congress put forward the bill after wide research on this subject of intoxicant beverages negativities. However the consequence of the law was even more virulent and the consumer market did not leave the intoxicant beverages and started to consume it illegally, which actually resulted in well structured powerful gangs. The gangs appeared so powerful that they used to bribe the law and enforcement agencies further there was warfare among different supplier gangs for huge profit they were making that time. The prohibition resulted in denial of the law itself and the people did not care about the law, as a result of such public denial the law was taken off in 1933 and rule outcome was severely rebellious. Therefore, in 1935 consumption of such beverages were actually further formalized and procedures regarding these beverages were developed then. As for the second reality where people do not know and the public reaction is normal the law sustains. If the law is general or for some productive objective it is alright but if the law is driven by some other force then public usually suffer. For example in severe US recession where normally people were also suffering with the corporate US government passes an act that time to rescue the corporate that was called bail out plan. Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008[2] was also a public law but rather it was only focusing to rescue the corporate rather the jobless public in general.
The bail out plan was only specific to big giants and corporate, there were strong knits of people sitting in the senate and other governmental positions with these giants and some how they managed to fund up their respective entities through this act, while on the other hand few segments of public were aware of this and protests broke out through out, but as the overall public did not take it that serious the matter was lately became further cold.
In this Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, only $700 billions were utilized for mortgages backed security, in order to provide them liquidity in order to sustain those entities hit by the mortgage crisis that time.
Both the examples of two specific laws are evident that rule making process involves the active role of other funding entities that actually make and run the state from the back end. Even though the public was equally more affected due to the crisis of recession which is more appropriately called as depression, but the bail out was only specific to some giant business entities. Further the first example National prohibition law elaborates the fact about the public emotional and daily life attitude also play a part for the success of a public law.
The research work is made by SM Waqas Imam, he is a fresh engineer and has graduated from NED university of engineering and technology in 2010.