Upper house
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| Politics Portal · edit |
An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. An upper house is often called a senate. A legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral.
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Possible specific characteristics
An upper house is usually distinct from the lower house in at least one of the following respects:
- It has more power than the lower house, with special reservations, e.g. only when seizing a proposal by evocation, not on the budget, nor the house of reference for majority assent.
- Only limited legislative matters, such as constitutional amendments, require its approval.
- It is a house of review which cannot initiate or veto legislation, but only consider matters raised by the lower house.
- It has (in presidential systems) the sole power to try impeachments against the executive, following enabling resolutions passed by the lower house.
- Its members are often not popularly elected; membership may be hereditary or by appointment.
- Its members represent administrative divisions of a federation.
- It has fewer seats than the lower house.
- Members' terms are longer than in the lower house, and may be for life.
- Members are elected in portions, for staggered terms, rather than all at one time.
Powers
Parliamentary systems
In parliamentary systems the upper house is frequently seen as an advisory or "revising" chamber; for this reason its powers of direct action are often reduced in some way. Some or all of the following restrictions are often placed on upper houses:
- Lack of control over the executive branch.
- No absolute veto of proposed legislation, though suspensive vetoes are permitted in some states.
- A reduced role in initiating legislation.
- It cannot block or modify supply (Though see the Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 for an example of an upper house blocking supply).
The role of a revising chamber is to scrutinise legislation that may have been drafted over-hastily in the lower house, and to suggest amendments that the lower house may nevertheless reject if it wishes to. An example is the British House of Lords, which under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 may not stop bills but only delay them. It is sometimes seen as having a special role of safeguarding the Constitution of the United Kingdom and important civil liberties against ill-considered change. Even without a veto, an upper house may nevertheless defeat legislation by delaying it: by giving the lower house the opportunity to reconsider, by preventing it from having sufficient time for a bill in the legislative schedule, or simply by embarrassing the other chamber into abandoning an unpopular measure.
Nevertheless, some states have long retained powerful upper houses. For example, the consent of the upper house to legislation may be necessary (though, as noted above, this seldom extends to budgetary measures). Constitutional arrangements of states with powerful upper houses usually include a means to resolve situations where the two houses are at odds with each other.
In recent times, Parliamentary systems have tended to weaken the powers of upper houses relative to their lower counterparts. Some upper houses have been abolished completely (see below); others have had their powers reduced by constitutional or legislative amendments. Also, conventions often exist that the upper house ought not to obstruct the business of government for frivolous or merely partisan reasons. These conventions have tended to harden with passage of time.
Presidential systems
In presidential systems, the upper house is frequently given other powers to compensate for its restrictions:
- Executive appointments, to the cabinet and other offices, usually require its approval.
- It frequently has the sole authority to give consent to or denounce foreign treaties.
Institutional structure
There is great variety in the way an upper house's members are assembled: by direct or indirection election, appointment, heredity, or a mixture of these. The German Bundesrat is composed of members of the cabinets of the German states, in most cases the state premier and several ministers; they are delegated and can be recalled anytime. In a very similar way the Council of the European Union is composed of national ministers.
Many upper houses are not directly elected, but appointed: either by the head of government or in some other way. This is usually intended to produce a house of experts or otherwise distinguished citizens, who would not necessarily be returned in an election. For example, members of the Canadian Senate are appointed by the Governor General on advice of the Prime Minister.
The seats are sometimes hereditary, as still is partly the case in the British House of Lords and formerly in the Japanese House of Peers until it was abolished in 1947.
It is also common that the upper house consist of delegates chosen by state governments or local officials. The United States Senate was chosen by the State legislatures until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.
The upper house may be directly elected but in different proportions to the lower house - for example, the Senates of Australia and the United States have a fixed number of elected representatives from each state, regardless of the population.
Abolition
Many jurisdictions, such as Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Hungary, Peru, Venezuela, New Zealand, and most Canadian provinces, once possessed upper houses but abolished them to adopt unicameral systems. Newfoundland had a Legislative Council prior to joining Canada, as did Ontario when it was Upper Canada. Nebraska is the only state in the United States with a unicameral legislature, having abolished its lower house in 1934.
The Australian state of Queensland also once had an appointed Legislative Council before abolishing it in 1922. All other Australian states continue to have bicameral systems.
Titles of upper houses
Common terms
- Senate - by far the most common
- Legislative Council
- Federation Council (Russia), Bundesrat (Germany, Austria)
- Council of States (Switzerland), Rajya Sabha (Council of States, India)
- House of Councillors (Sangi-in, Japan)
- House of Peoples (e.g. House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Unique titles
- House of Lords - Seen only in the United Kingdom, previously in Ireland
- Chambre des Pairs (Chamber of Peers) – France under the Bourbon Restoration
- Rajya Sabha (Council of the States) - India
- Dewan Negara (National Hall) – Malaysia
- Főrendiház (House of Magnates) in the former Kingdom of Hungary, also called simply Felsőház (Upper House)
- Eerste Kamer (Dutch: First Chamber) - Netherlands - when Sweden had a bicameral system in 1867-1970, its upper house was called Första kammaren, which also means First Chamber.
- Shura Council (Consultative Council) - Egypt
- Regional Representative Council - Indonesia
- House of Councillors (Japanese: 参議院, Sangi-in) - Japan
- National Council - Slovenia; also the title of the lower house of the Parliament of Austria
- House of Elders - Republic of Somaliland. The term senate is derived from Latin senex, meaning "old man".
See also
- List of national legislatures
- Lower House
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