Bicameral Legislature

Bicameral legislatures are law-making institutions of a country with two chambers or houses—a lower house representing the democratic interests of the common people and an upper house to represent specific classes, regions, or people of experience. The term bicameral was coined by Jeremy Bentham in 1832, and bicameralism gained popularity in the 18th century, even though the concept was adopted in Britain much earlier, in the 14th century. Bicameral legislatures provide an institutionalized veto power that aims to prevent tyranny of the majority [Page 72]as described by Alexander Hamilton and others, as well as tyranny of the minority.

In most bicameral legislatures, members of the lower house are directly elected, whereas those in upper house are indirectly or directly elected, or appointed based on criteria such as regional representation, heredity, and expertise in a particular field. In many countries, members of directly elected local, provincial, or state governments elect the members of upper house. About two thirds of democratic national legislatures are bicameral, with one third of these located in federal polities. Examples of upper and lower houses include the Senate and the House of Representatives in the United States and the House of Lords and House of Commons in the United Kingdom.

Different political parties can dominate in lower and upper houses, so bicameralism can lead to power struggles to influence legislation and policy making. The upper house can delay, oppose, or in some cases even veto a legislation, thus acting as a check on the powers of the lower house. However, in most polities, the lower house has the ultimate power to legislate and can overrule the objections of the upper house. Arend Lijphart categorizes bicameral legislatures by congruence of the political composition and symmetry of power of the two houses. Thus, bicameral legislatures can be strong (incongruent and symmetric), weak (congruent and symmetric, or incongruent and asymmetric), and insignificant (congruent and asymmetric). Under symmetric bicameralism, both chambers have equal power—for example, in polities with federal units or presidential systems, such as the United States—whereas in asymmetric bicameralism, the lower house has more power, as in parliamentary democracies and unitary systems such as Britain.

An upper house that has veto power increases the number of veto players and can thus result in higher policy stability. For example, in the United States, the Senate as a veto-player can shift the legislative status quo. However, this can also lead to unnecessary deadlocks, delays, and hindrance to policy making. Powers and practices of the upper house have come under review in many countries. Britain, for example, partially abolished hereditary peerage in the House of Lords in 1999 with a view to making it more democratic.