Bavarian Senate

The Bavarian Senate was after the Bavarian constitution of 1946 and 1999 corporate state second chamber, beside the Bavarian state parliament as the people's representatives.

Structure and history

The 60 members of the Bavarian Senate, which had to be at least 40 years old, were chosen by social, economic, cultural and municipal corporations for six years or appointed in the case of religious communities. Each of the groups was to a fixed number of seats. Since the Senate was a permanent body, every two years a third of the seats has been newly or re-occupied. Senate members were not allowed at the same time be member of parliament and enjoyed similar rights like this. The Senate worked to some extent with the country's legislation, but had essentially advisory and assessment tasks. An appeal of the Senate could be overruled by Parliament by a simple majority.

The Senate came in the course of the general discussion bureaucracy in the 1990s in the criticism. The meeting held in June 1997 referendum " Lean State without Senate ", which was initiated by the ödp, finally demanded the abolition of the Bavarian Senate. It was 927 047 entries supported ( = 10.5% of the Bavarian electorate ). On the necessary thereafter referendum on 8 February 1998, 39.9 % of the voters participating. Of the valid votes voted 2,412,944 ( 69.2%) for the abolition of the Senate. For borne by the CSU counter-proposal of the Parliament, which provided for a change in the composition of the Senate, voted 23.6 %. In September 1999, the Bavarian Constitutional Court declared the rules of the referendum for constitutional. Thus, on 1 January 2000, the Act for the abolition of the Senate in force.

Composition

The Senate was composed of representatives of the following groups:

President

  • Josef Singer (1947-1967)
  • Hippolytus Poschingerstraße Frauenau (1968-1982)
  • Hans White (1982-1993)
  • Heribert Thallmair (1996-1999)

Appreciation

The composition of the Bavarian Senate can be compared internationally with the Irish Seanad Éireann. There were also echoes of pre-democratic corporate state structures.

Landtag of Bavaria Representative assembly Religious organization Academy Politics of Bavaria Integrated Authority File
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