Bicameralism

Bicameralism is a way that some governments make laws. Instead of having just one group of people decide everything, they have two separate groups or "chambers." This is called a bicameral legislature.

Right now, about 40% of countries around the world use this two-group system. The two groups are usually chosen in different ways, so they can have very different kinds of members.

For a law to be made, often both groups need to agree. This is called a concurrent majority. In some countries, one group can make the final decision, even if the other disagrees. This depends on how the government is set up.

History of bicameral legislatures

Significance of the British Parliament

Main article: Parliament of the United Kingdom

The British Parliament is often called the "Mother of Parliaments" because many other countries have modeled their parliaments after it. The idea of having two groups, or chambers, in a parliament began in 1341 in Britain. This created an upper chamber and a lower chamber. The upper chamber later became known as the House of Lords, and the lower chamber became the House of Commons. Together, they are called the Houses of Parliament.

Debate in the founding of the United States

Main article: Federal government of the United States

See also: Worldwide influence of the Constitution of the United States

The leaders who helped create the United States wanted a parliament with two chambers too. They thought the upper chamber, called the Senate, would be wiser and more stable than the lower chamber, called the House of Representatives. The Senate was meant to help balance decisions made by the more active lower chamber. Over time, the way senators were chosen changed, and by 1913, people began voting for senators directly.

See also: Commonwealth of Nations

Rationale for bicameralism and criticism

Having two groups of lawmakers can help prevent any one group from having too much power at any time. This idea comes from older thoughts on how governments should work.

Some countries with many different areas or states choose to have two groups to balance power between these areas and the people as a whole. Sometimes, groups that hold a lot of power might not want to give it up, so having two groups can help keep things fair.

People have different views on whether having two groups makes it harder to get things done. Some say it slows down important changes. Others believe it helps stop bad decisions by giving each group a chance to review the other's work, like a safety check.

Communication between houses

Different ways help the two parts of a parliament talk to each other. One way is sending messages in writing. This might be about decisions made or new laws suggested.

Another way is having both parts meet together at the same time. Sometimes, special groups from each part work together to solve problems, like when they disagree on a new law.

In the past, some countries had special meetings just for solving these disagreements, but now they usually just send messages to each other.

Examples of bicameralism at the national level

Federal

Some countries, such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States, link their bicameral systems to their federal political structure.

In the United States, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Nepal for example, each state or province is given the same number of seats in one of the houses of the legislature, despite variance between the populations of the states or provinces.

Australia

The bicameral Parliament of Australia consists of two Houses: the lower house is called the House of Representatives and the upper house is named the Senate. The lower house has 151 members, each elected from single-member constituencies. The upper house, the Senate, is also popularly elected, and there are a total of 76 senators.

Canada

Canada's elected lower house, the House of Commons, comprises Members of Parliament (MPs) from single-member "ridings" based mainly on population. The Commons is democratically elected every four years. In contrast, in Canada's upper house, Senators are appointed to serve until age 75 by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister through an Independent Advisory Board as of 2016.

Others

In German, Indian, and Pakistani systems, the upper houses are even more closely linked with the federal system, being appointed or elected directly by the governments or legislatures of each state or province. There is also bicameralism in countries that are not federations, but have upper houses with representation on a territorial basis. For example, in South Africa, the National Council of Provinces has its members chosen by each province's legislature.

In Spain, the Senate functions as an upper house, and there has been some pressure to reform it. The European Union maintains a legislative system consisting of the European Parliament, which is elected, and the Council of the European Union, which consists of one representative for each government of member countries.

Aristocratic and post-aristocratic

House of Lords of the United Kingdom

The best known example is the British House of Lords, which includes a number of hereditary peers. The House of Lords is a vestige of the aristocratic system that once predominated in British politics, while the other house, the House of Commons, is entirely elected. Over the years, some reforms to the House of Lords have been made. The power of the House of Lords to block legislation is curtailed.

Japan's former House of Peers

Another example of aristocratic bicameralism was the Japanese House of Peers, abolished after World War II and replaced with the present House of Councillors.

Unitary states

Many unitary states like Italy, France, the Netherlands, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Ireland and Romania have bicameral systems. In countries such as these, the upper house generally focuses on scrutinizing and possibly vetoing the decisions of the lower house.

Italian Parliament

In Italy the Parliament consists of two chambers that have the same role and power: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The main difference among the two chambers is the way the two chambers are composed.

Indirectly elected Upper Houses (France, Ireland, Netherlands)

In some of these countries, the upper house is indirectly elected. Members of France's Senate and Ireland's Seanad Éireann are chosen by electoral colleges. In Ireland, it consists of members of the lower house, local councillors, the Taoiseach, and graduates of selected universities, while the Netherlands' Senate is chosen by members of provincial assemblies (who, in turn, are directly elected).

Semi-bicameral (Hong Kong, Northern Ireland; earlier in Norway, the Netherlands)

In Hong Kong, members of the unicameral Legislative Council returned from the democratically elected geographical constituencies and partially democratic functional constituencies are required to vote separately since 1998 on motions, bills or amendments to government bills not introduced by the government.

Another similar situation are cross-community votes in Northern Ireland when the petition of concern procedure is invoked.

Norway had a kind of semi-bicameral legislature with two chambers, or departments, within the same elected body, the Storting. These were called the Lagting and the Odelsting, and were abolished after the general election of 2009.

Examples of bicameralism in subnational entities

In some countries with federal systems, individual states like those of the United States, Argentina, Australia and India may also have bicameral legislatures. A few such states like Nebraska in the U.S., Queensland in Australia, Bavaria in Germany, and Tucumán and Córdoba in Argentina have later adopted unicameral systems. (Brazilian states and Canadian provinces all abolished upper houses).

Argentina

Only 8 out of 24 provinces still have bicameral legislatures, with a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies: Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Mendoza, Salta, San Luis (since 1987) and Santa Fe. Tucumán and Córdoba changed to unicameral systems in 1990 and 2001 respectively. Santiago del Estero changed to a bicameral legislature in 1884, but changed back to a unicameral system in 1903.

Australia

When the Australian states were founded as British colonies in the 19th century, they each had a bicameral Parliament. The lower house was traditionally elected based on the one-vote-one-value principle, with universal male suffrage, later expanded to women, whereas the upper house was either appointed on the advice of the government or elected, with a strong bias towards country voters and landowners. After Federation, these became the state Parliaments. In Queensland, the appointed upper house was abolished in 1922, while in New South Wales there were similar attempts at abolition, before the upper house was reformed in the 1970s to provide for direct election.

Beginning in the 1970s, Australian states (except Queensland, which is unicameral) began to reform their upper houses to introduce proportional representation in line with the Federal Senate. The first was the South Australian Legislative Council in 1973, which initially used a party list system (replaced with STV in 1982), followed by the Single Transferable Vote being introduced for the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1978, the Western Australian Legislative Council in 1987 and the Victorian Legislative Council in 2003.

Nowadays, the upper house both federally and in most states is elected using proportional representation while the lower house uses Instant-runoff voting in single member electorates. This is reversed in the state of Tasmania, where proportional representation is used for the lower house and single member electorates for the upper house.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Legislature of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a bicameral legislative body. The House of Representatives has 98 delegates, elected for four-year terms by proportional representation. The House of Peoples has 58 members, 17 delegates from among each of the constituent peoples of the Federation, and 7 delegates from among the other peoples. Republika Srpska, the other entity, has a unicameral parliament, known as the National Assembly, but there is also a Council of Peoples who is de facto the other legislative house.

India

Only 6 of the 36 states or Union Territories of India have bicameral legislatures, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, while the rest all have unicameral legislatures. The lower houses are called Legislative Assemblies, and their members are elected by universal adult suffrage from single-member constituencies in state elections, which are normally held every five years called Vidhana Sabha. In the six states with bicameral legislatures, the upper house is called the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) or Vidhana Parishat, one-third of whose members are elected every two years. Members of the Legislative Council are elected in various ways:

• One-third are elected by the members of local bodies in the state such as municipalities, gram panchayats, block development councils and district councils.
• One-third are elected by the members of the state's Legislative Assembly from amongst persons who are not members of the State Legislative Assembly.
• One-sixth are nominated by the governor of the state from amongst persons having knowledge or practical experience in fields such as literature, science, arts, the co-operative movement and social service.
• One-twelfth are elected from special constituencies by persons who are college graduates of three years' standing residing in those constituencies.
• One-twelfth are elected by persons engaged for at least three years in teaching in educational institutions within the state not lower than secondary schools, including colleges and universities.

From 1956 to 1958 the Andhra Pradesh Legislature was unicameral. In 1958, when the State Legislative Council was formed, it became bicameral until 1 June 1985 when it was abolished. This continued until March 2007 when the State Legislative Council was reestablished and elections were held for its seats. In Tamil Nadu, a resolution was passed on 14 May 1986 and the state's Legislative Council was dissolved on 1 November 1986. Again on 12 April 2010, a resolution was passed to reestablish the council, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Similarly, the states of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and West Bengal have also dissolved the upper houses of their state legislatures.^{[citation needed]}

United States

During the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Nebraska was reduced from bicameral to unicameral with the 43 members that once comprised that state's Senate. One of the arguments used to sell the idea at the time to Nebraska voters was that by adopting a unicameral system, the perceived evils of the "conference committee" process would be eliminated.

A conference committee is appointed when the two chambers cannot agree on the same wording of a proposal, and consists of a small number of legislators from each chamber. This tends to place much power in the hands of only a small number of legislators. Whatever legislation, if any, the conference committee finalizes is presented in an unamendable "take-it-or-leave-it" manner by both chambers.

During his term as governor of the State of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesotan legislature to a single chamber with proportional representation, as a reform that he felt would solve many legislative difficulties and impinge upon legislative corruption. In his book on political issues, Do I Stand Alone?, Ventura argued that bicameral legislatures for provincial and local areas were excessive and unnecessary, and discussed unicameralism as a reform that could address many legislative and budgetary problems for states.

Historical

The German federal state of Bavaria had a bicameral legislature from 1946 to 1999, when the Senate was abolished by a referendum amending the state's constitution. The other 15 states have used a unicameral system since their founding.

In the Soviet Union, regional and local Soviets were unicameral. After the adoption of the 1993 Russian Constitution, bicameralism was introduced in some regions. Bicameral regional legislatures are still technically allowed by federal law but this clause is dormant now. The last region to switch from bicameralism to unicameralism was Sverdlovsk Oblast in 2012.

Four Brazilian states (Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco, and São Paulo) had bicameral legislatures that were abolished when Getúlio Vargas came to power after the Revolution of 1930

Reform

Arab political reform

In 2005, a report by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations suggested that Arab countries consider having two groups in their parliaments. This idea was meant to help protect the rights of smaller groups and prevent unfair decisions.

In 2002, Bahrain decided to have two groups in its parliament. However, some people were unhappy with this change and did not participate in the elections that year.

Romania

In Romania on November 22, 2009, people voted in a vote about changing their parliament to have just one group instead of two. Most people voted "Yes," but more steps were needed to make this change happen.

Ivory Coast

On October 30, 2016, Ivory Coast held a vote on a new set of rules for their country. These new rules would change their parliament to have two groups. One group would represent different areas and people living outside the country.

Georgia

In 2017, Georgia made a plan to change its parliament to have two groups once certain areas under control from another country are back under Georgia’s control.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh suggested creating a second group in its parliament called the Senate of Bangladesh. The members of this group would be chosen based on votes from the main parliament and some would be selected by the country's leader. There would be 105 seats in this new group. A vote in 2026 will decide if this second group will be created.

List of bicameral legislatures

Current

Federal

Unitary

Territorial

State parliaments with limited recognition

List of historical bicameral legislatures