In theory, bicameral legislatures are desirable because they avoid hasty and extreme legislation by ensuring more thoughtful deliberation. Because of their requirement for mutual agreement of both chambers, bicameral legislatures are considered to be more likely than unicameral legislatures to result in a measured compromise between different political and social ideals. Bicameral legislatures are intended to provide representation at the central or federal level of government for both the individual citizens of the country, as well as the legislative bodies of country’s states or other political subdivisions.
- In England, these groups eventually developed into the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
- This is also reflected in the powers delegated to each house by the Constitution, with the Senate given a more deliberative, advisory, and oversight role, while the House of Representatives was given primary authority over the taxation of their constituents.
- Enactment of primary legislation often requires a concurrent majority—the approval of a majority of members in each of the chambers of the legislature.
- As a result, Congress, among other things, was unable to stop states from adopting “discriminatory and retaliatory” trade practices among the states.9 FootnoteFor example, New York, in an effort to capitalize on its position as a port of entry, imposed duties on goods imported by nearby states.
- The upper House of Lords represents a smaller, more elite social class, while the lower House of Commons represents a larger, less-exclusive class.
- A referendum on introducing a unicameral Parliament instead of the current bicameral Parliament was held in Romania on 22 November 2009.
Why Are the House and Senate So Different?
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 term “bicameral legislature” refers to any lawmaking body of government that consists of two separate houses or chambers, such as the House of Representatives and the Senate that make up the United States Congress. The Constitutional Convention4 FootnoteFor discussion of the Constitutional Convention, see Intro.6.1 Continental Congress and Adoption of the Articles of Confederation.
A famous (though perhaps fictional) quip often quoted to point out the differences between the House and Senate involves an argument between George Washington, who favored having two chambers of Congress, and Thomas Jefferson, who believed a second legislative chamber unnecessary. The story goes that the two Founding Fathers were arguing the issue while drinking coffee. Suddenly, Washington asked Jefferson, “Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?” “To cool it,” replied Jefferson. “Even so,” said Washington, “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”
Called the “Great Compromise” or the “Connecticut Compromise,” this unique plan for congressional representation resolved the most controversial aspect of the drafting of the Constitution. Theoretically, this dualism in the bicameral system is justified as an application of the principle of checks and balances. A bicameral system is desirable, it has been argued, to avoid hasty and harsh legislation, limit democracy, and secure deliberation. Although the bicameral system remained prevalent in the 20th century, there were reactions against it. Unicameral councils or commissions came to predominate in American cities, which had often been organized along bicameral patterns in the 19th century.
In the modern U.K., the House of Lords is still considered a more elite body, while the House of Commons represents a larger, more common class. A state legislature is a generic term referring to the legislative body of any of the country’s 50 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. 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. As part of the Great Compromise, the Founding Fathers invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate had an equal number of delegates per state, and the House had representatives by relative populations.
Key Takeaways: Bicameral Systems
A referendum on introducing a unicameral Parliament instead of the current bicameral Parliament was held in Romania on 22 November 2009. The turnout rate was 50.95%, with 77.78% of “Yes” votes for a unicameral Parliament.38 This referendum had a consultative role, thus requiring a parliamentary initiative and another referendum to ratify the new proposed changes. 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.
Legislative Branch
Its responsibilities include funding government functions and programs, holding hearings to inform the legislative process, and oversight of the executive branch. 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. 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. The passage of these motions, bills or amendments to government motions or bills requires double majority in both groups simultaneously. (Before 2004, when elections to the Legislative Council from the Election Committee was abolished, members returned through the Election Committee vote with members returned from geographical constituencies.) The double majority requirement does not apply to motions, bills and amendments introduced by the government.
- Bicameral legislature is a common constitutional design model, with bicameral legislatures making up roughly 41 percent of all legislatures worldwide.
- 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.
- Ballotpedia features 558,817 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers.
- In 2002, Bahrain adopted a bicameral system with an elected lower chamber and an appointed upper house.
- At 242; see also Intro.6.1 Continental Congress and Adoption of the Articles of Confederation.
- After months of great debate, delegates arrived at the “Great Compromise,” under which the small states got equal representation (two Senators from each state) in the Senate, and the large states got proportional representation based on population in the House.
By dividing power within the legislative branch, bicameralism helps prevent the legislative branch from having too much power—a kind of intrabranch check. Within the legislative body, bicameralism has historically functioned to balance the power of different social classes or groups within a society. In a bicameral legislature, the two chambers of the legislative body can have different organizations, rules, methods of selecting members, and designated powers regarding the legislation and oversight of the other branches of the government.
Why Did the U.S. Constitution Establish a Bicameral Legislature?
The bicameral legislature in the U.S. consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate—collectively known as the U.S. The trifecta analysis over this period shows a notable trend toward one-party control of state governments. At the how many states have bicameral legislature outset of the study period (1992), 18 states had trifectas while 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states had divided governments, while single-party trifectas hold sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years we studied. 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. Municipal governments—those defined as cities, towns, boroughs (except in Alaska), villages, and townships—are generally organized around a population center and in most cases correspond to the geographical designations used by the United States Census Bureau for reporting of housing and population statistics.
In the U.S., the other branches of the government are the executive branch and the judiciary branch. 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 have proposed reforms to the House of Lords, some of which have been at least partly successful. The House of Lords Act 1999 limited the number of hereditary peers (as opposed to life peers, appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister) to 92, down from around 700.
A bicameral system can be contrasted with a unicameral system, in which all members of the legislature deliberate and vote as a single group. The legislative branch of the U.S. federal government uses a bicameral system, in addition to all of the U.S. states, with the exception of Nebraska. The small-state delegates continued to protest proportional representation in the Senate with increasingly heated language, threatening to unravel the proceedings.
In response, William Paterson proposed what became known as the New Jersey Plan, presenting it to the Convention on June 15. The centerpiece of Paterson’s plan was a unicameral (one-house) legislature in which each state had a single vote. The Convention voted down Paterson’s proposal on June 19 and affirmed its commitment to a bicameral legislature on June 21. During the summer of 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia established equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives.