Street level bureaucrats, policy entrepreneurship, and discretion in enforcing bans on motorcycle taxis in Lagos, Nigeria

Ackrill, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-1812, Igudia, E, Olusanya, O and Oyalowo, B, 2023. Street level bureaucrats, policy entrepreneurship, and discretion in enforcing bans on motorcycle taxis in Lagos, Nigeria. European Policy Analysis, 9 (4), pp. 440-464. ISSN 2380-6567

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Abstract

Recently, the authorities in Lagos have implemented policies progressively restricting the operation of okadas (motorcycle taxis). We analyse the enforcement of these measures through the lens of Street Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) and Street Level Policy Entrepreneurs (SLPEs). Doing so, we introduce two novel features into the literature. First, the extant literature focuses primarily on policies that deliver public services, whereas policies can also control proscribed behaviour. We refer to these as service delivery and regulation, respectively. Second, the exercise of discretion by SLBs and SLPEs can result in both ‘under-enforcement’ and ‘over-enforcement’ of regulatory policies, the latter potentially involving breaking the law. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Lagos between 2021 and 2023, we find strong evidence of both under- and over-enforcement of okada bans over time, but with more over-enforcement. This offers important insights conceptually for the SLPE literature, and empirically to the challenges of policing urban Lagos.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	European Policy Analysis
Creators:	Ackrill, R., Igudia, E., Olusanya, O. and Oyalowo, B.
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Date:	November 2023
Volume:	9
Number:	4
ISSN:	2380-6567
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/epa2.1196 DOI 1821917 Other
Rights:	© 2023 The Authors. European Policy Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Policy Studies Organization. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	01 Nov 2023 09:53
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2023 10:09
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/50179

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