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tiếng việt მარგალური 粵語 中文 edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikimedia commons wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia legislature with two chambers this article is about a form of legislature for other uses see bicameralism disambiguation legislature chambers unicameralism bicameralism tricameralism multicameralism upper house senate lower house parliament parliamentary system parliamentary group speaker parliamentary leader member of parliament whip clerk international parliament parliamentary procedure committee quorum motion no confidence mass meeting types parliament member of parliament congress member of congress supreme state organ of power deputy municipal council councillor the estates states general legislatures by country v t e bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies chambers or houses known as a bicameral legislature bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism in which all members deliberate and vote as a single group as of 2022 update roughly 40 of the world s national legislatures are bicameral while unicameralism represents 60 nationally and much more at the subnational level 1 since the 1970s the number of bicameral legislatures has increased significantly following a period of decline in the early 20th century 2 3 4 often the members of the two chambers are elected or selected by different methods which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members enactment of primary legislation often requires a concurrent majority the approval of a majority of members in each of the chambers of the legislature when this is the case the legislature may be called an example of perfect bicameralism however in many parliamentary and semi presidential systems the house to which the executive is responsible e g house of commons of the uk and national assembly of france can overrule the other house e g house of lords of the uk and senate of france and may be regarded as an example of imperfect bicameralism some legislatures lie in between these two positions with one house able to overrule the other only under certain circumstances history of bicameral legislatures edit the palace of westminster seat of the parliament of the united kingdom the united states capitol seat of the united states congress the new sansad bhavan seat of the parliament of india significance of the british parliament edit main article parliament of the united kingdom the british parliament is often referred to as the mother of parliaments in fact a misquotation of john bright who remarked in 1865 that england is the mother of parliaments because the british parliament has been the model for most other parliamentary systems and its acts have created many other parliaments 5 the origins of british bicameralism can be traced to 1341 when the commons met separately from the nobility and clergy for the first time creating what was effectively an upper chamber and a lower chamber with the knights and burgesses sitting in the latter this upper chamber became known as the house of lords from 1544 onward and the lower chamber became known as the house of commons collectively known as the houses of parliament debate in the founding of the united states edit main article federal government of the united states see also worldwide influence of the constitution of the united states the founding fathers of the united states also favoured a bicameral legislature the idea was to have the upper chamber the senate be appointed by the legislatures of the states unlike the lower chamber the house of representatives benjamin rush noted however that this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence the senate was created to be a stabilising force not elected by mass electors but selected by the state legislators senators would be more knowledgeable and more deliberate a sort of republican nobility and a counter to what james madison saw as the fickleness and passion that could absorb the house 6 he noted further that the use of the senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness with more system and with more wisdom than the popular branch madison s argument led the framers to grant the senate prerogatives in foreign policy an area where steadiness discretion and caution were deemed especially important 6 accordingly state legislators initially chose the senate this lasted until 1913 after which the 17th amendment required senators be elected by popular vote 6 as part of the connecticut compromise the founding fathers invented a new rationale for bicameralism in the context of federalism the senate would have exactly two delegates per state and the house would have representatives by relative populations rise of the commonwealth edit see also commonwealth of nations many monarchies then followed and to some degree emulated the british three tier model 7 8 in the 20th century some countries in europe and the commonwealth abolished the monarchy and the upper house although the trend towards abolishing upper houses has since halted 9 often a largely ceremonial head of state who formally opens and closes parliament was introduced a larger house representing the population and a smaller house mostly representing the regions was established 10 11 12 rationale for bicameralism and criticism edit a formidable sinister interest may always obtain the complete command of a dominant assembly by some chance and for a moment and it is therefore of great use to have a second chamber of an opposite sort differently composed in which that interest in all likelihood will not rule walter bagehot the english constitution 1867 in norman st john stevas ed the collected works of walter bagehot london the economist vol 5 pp 273 274 federal states have often adopted it as an awkward compromise between existing power held equally by each state or territory and a more democratic proportional legislature 13 for states considering a different constitutional arrangement that may shift power to new groupings bicameralism could be demanded by currently hegemonic groups who would otherwise prevent any structural shift e g military dictatorships aristocracies the growing awareness of the complexity of the notion of representation and the multi functional nature of modern legislatures may be affording incipient new rationales for second chambers though these do generally remain contested institutions in ways that first chambers are not an example of political controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the senate of canada or the election of the senate of france 14 the relationship between the two chambers varies in some cases they have equal power while in others one chamber the directly elected lower house with proportional representation 13 is clearly superior in its powers the first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments the second tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems two streams of thought exist critics believe bicameralism makes meaningful political reforms more difficult to achieve and increases the risk of gridlock particularly in cases where both chambers have similar powers while proponents argue the merits of the checks and balances provided by the bicameral model which they believe help prevent ill considered legislation communication between houses edit formal communication between houses is by various methods including 15 sending messages formal notices such as of resolutions or the passing of bills usually done in writing via the clerk and speaker of each house transmission of bills or amendment to bills requiring agreement from the other house joint session a plenary session of both houses at the same time and place joint committees which may be formed by committees of each house agreeing to join or by joint resolution of each house the united states congress has conference committees to resolve discrepancies between house and senate versions of a bill similar to conferences in westminster parliaments conferences conferences of the houses of the english later british parliament met in the painted chamber of the palace of westminster 16 historically there were two distinct types ordinary and free the british parliament last held an ordinary conference in 1860 its elaborate procedure yielding to the simpler sending of messages a free conference resolves a dispute through managers meeting less formally in private the last free conference at westminster was in 1836 on an amendment to the municipal corporations act 1835 17 the previous one had been in 1740 with not much more success than ordinary conferences the free type yielded to the greater transparency of messages 18 in the parliament of australia there have been two formal conferences in 1930 and 1931 but many informal conferences 15 19 as of 2007 update the conference of managers remains the usual procedure for dispute resolution in the parliament of south australia 20 in the parliament of new south wales in 2011 the legislative assembly requested a free conference with the legislative council over a bill on graffiti after a year the council refused describing the mechanism as archaic and inappropriate 19 the two houses of the parliament of canada have also used conferences but not since 1947 although they retain the option examples of bicameralism at the national level edit federal edit the national congress of brazil seat of the chamber of deputies and the federal senate 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 edit the federal bicameral parliament of australia which contains a house of representatives and a senate 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 as of 31 august 2017 21 the lower house has 151 members each elected from single member constituencies known as electoral divisions commonly referred to as electorates or seats using full preference instant runoff voting this tends to lead to the chamber being dominated by two major groups the liberal national coalition and the labor party the government of the day must achieve the confidence of this house to gain and hold power the upper house the senate is also popularly elected under the single transferable vote system of proportional representation there are a total of 76 senators 12 senators are elected from each of the 6 australian states regardless of population and 2 from each of the 2 autonomous internal territories the australian capital territory and the northern territory this makes the total number 76 i e 6 12 2 2 in many respects australia is a unique hybrid with influences from the united states constitution as well as from the traditions and conventions of the westminster system and some indigenous features australia is exceptional in this sense because the government faces a fully elected upper house the senate which must be willing to pass all its legislation although only the lower house the house of representatives can hold a no confidence vote against the government in practice the support of the senate is also necessary in order to govern the senate maintains the ability similar to that held by the british house of lords prior to the enactment of the parliament act 1911 to block supply against the government of the day a government that is unable to obtain supply can be dismissed by the governor general however this is generally considered a last resort and is a highly controversial decision to take given the conflict between the traditional concept of confidence as derived from the lower house and the ability of the senate to block supply see 1975 australian constitutional crisis many political scientists have held that the australian system of government was consciously devised as a blend or hybrid of the westminster and the united states systems of government especially since the australian senate is a powerful upper house like the u s senate this notion is expressed in the nickname the washminster mutation 22 unlike upper houses in most westminster parliamentary systems the australian senate is vested with significant power including the capacity to block legislation initiated by the government in the house of representatives this block can however be overridden in a joint sitting after a double dissolution election at which the house of representatives has the dominant numbers as a result of proportional representation the chamber features a multitude of parties vying for power the governing party in the lower house rarely has a majority in the senate and so generally needs to negotiate with other parties and independents to get legislation passed 23 this variant of bicameralism has also been further explored by tarunabh khaitan who coined the phrase moderated parliamentarism to describe a parliamentary system with several distinctive features mixed bicameralism moderated but distinct electoral systems for each chamber weighted multipartisanship asynchronous electoral schedules and deadlock resolution through conference committees 24 canada edit the federal bicameral parliament of canada which contains a house of commons and a senate canada s elected lower house the house of commons comprises members of parliament mps from single member ridings based mainly on population updated every 10 years using census data the commons is democratically elected every four years constitutionally up to five 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 the government i e executive is responsible to and must maintain the confidence of the elected house of commons although the two chambers formally have many of the same powers this accountability clearly makes the commons dominant determining which party is in power approving its proposed budget and largely the laws enacted the senate primarily acts as a chamber of revision it rarely rejects bills passed by the commons but does regu...