Bicameralism

  • Countries with unicameral
  • Countries with bicameral
  • Countries without legislative
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In a bicameral ( or even bicameralism bicameral parliament ) has two chambers Parliament. In general, the chambers of Parliament of different tasks, and they are selected or assembled in different ways. Be Historically the chambers as the House of Lords ( " First Chamber " ) and referred to the House ( " Second Chamber ").

Designations

Political science tends to be the more powerful of the two chambers, usually chosen by the people, than to describe the First Chamber, the less powerful, usually with a federal or ständischem reference, as Second Chamber. Historically, however, the representation of the people was mostly the Second Chamber, as it was considered less initially and also less powerful. So also the names commonly used for the lower house parliament and the House of Lords for the corporative or federally defined representation explain. The following are the historical variant of the term is used to avoid confusion.

Functions of the chambers

The division of the two chambers usually follows the following two schemes:

  • Variant with a different meaning of the chambers and to direct election of the second chamber. One chamber is elected by the people and is responsible for the actual legislative work. She also has influence on the formation of a government, if it is not even the government chooses explicitly.
  • The members of the other chamber are elected indirectly in the rule or partly appointed. It often is a federal structure of the country to be considered (representing the member states). For historical reasons, but it can also be the representative of the nobility, such as in the British House of Lords. This chamber has nowadays often only a limited influence on legislation.
  • Variant with equal importance of the two chambers - Breakdown mostly by population density and representation of member states in federal political systems, etc.; here, the two chambers have the same powers, but should on the one hand, the population represent the individual member states as such in the number and on the other hand. This prevents populous urban areas can always outvote the smaller rural areas; the (usually " small chamber " called ) member states representation is not tied to other political structures ( party affiliation of state government responsible, etc.). Both chambers are elected directly by the people One chamber is elected by the population number
  • The other chamber is elected by number federation parts: each part of the state has the same number of representatives

Many political systems with bicameral know a special joint session of both chambers, for example, the United States of America, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Such a session is used to select or welcome a head of state or has extraordinary powers.

Depending on the country, there can be big differences. In Italy it is called a perfect bicameralism because both chambers have the same influence on legislation. In Switzerland, the National Council is formed by population, in the Senate, however, has only two representatives from each canton, only a half-cantons. A similar system in Switzerland is in the USA: there also both chambers are elected by the people, albeit in different ways. In Austria there is next to the National Council, the Chamber of Deputies, and the little significant Bundesrat, which represents the federal states, and primarily occurs in constitutional law or international treaties in appearance.

Criticism

At the bicameral criticism is that it tend to prevent flexible policy. One chamber can block the other. This is happening at different political majorities in both chambers. Under the aspect of the distribution of this blockade effect is, however, also seen as positive, especially if one chamber is significantly different composition than the other ( for example, the interests of the member states represents ).

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