Upper house
An
upper house is one of two chambers of a
bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the
lower house.
An upper house is usually distinct from the lower house in at least one of a number of ways. Upper houses are frequently:
* Given less power than the lower house, with special reservations.
* Composed of members selected in a manner other than by popular election, such as
peers or
nobles.
* Used to represent the
states of a
federation.
* Smaller than the lower house.
* Elected for longer terms than those of the lower house (If elected; if composed of peers or nobles, they generally sit for the duration of their life or sanity, whichever is shorter).
* Elected in portions for staggered terms, rather than all at once.
* 'Houses of review', in that they cannot start legislation, only consider the lower houses'. Also, they may not be able to outright veto legislation.
* In
presidential systems, the upper house usually has the sole power to try
impeachments against the
executive following enabling resolutions passed by the lower house.
* 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 blunted or totally nonexistent in some of these ways:
** It usually has no control over the
executive branch.
** It cannot outright
veto or block legislation.
** It cannot start legislation.
** It cannot block or modify
supply (Though see the
Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 for an example of an upper house blocking supply).
It is the role of a revising chamber 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: The
British House of Lords, which under the
Parliament Acts may not stop, but only delay bills. 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. By delaying but not vetoing legislation, an upper house may nevertheless defeat legislation: 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.
* In
presidential systems, the upper house is frequently given other powers to compensate for its restrictions:
** It usually has to sign off on appointments the executive makes to the
cabinet and other offices.
** It frequently has the sole authority to ratify or denounce foreign
treaties.
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 be returned in an election. For example, members of the
Canadian Senate are appointed by the
monarch on the direction of the prime minister. In these systems, the seats are sometimes hereditary, as was the case in the British
House of Lords (until 1998), and the Japanese
House of Peers (until this house was abolished in 1947).
However, it is also common that the upper house consist of delegates who are indirectly elected by state governments - for example, in the
German Bundesrat and in the
United States Senate until the passage of the
Seventeenth Amendment in
1913. In addition, the upper house of many nations is 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.
Many jurisdictions, such as
Denmark,
Sweden,
Venezuela,
New Zealand, and the Canadian provinces of
Quebec,
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island,
Manitoba and
New Brunswick, 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 to have a unicameral legislature, which it achieved when it abolished its lower house in
1934.The
Australian state of
Queensland also once had a legislative council before abolishing it in 1922; at this time members of the Legislative Council (the formal name of the state parliament) were not elected by the citizenry and so the council was found to be undemocratic and thus unconstitutional. As this was a purely internal matter, all other Australian states continue to have bicameral systems.
Common Terms
*
Senate - By far the most common
*
Legislative Council* Council of States (in a Federation) -
Bundesrat (
Germany,
Austria),
Council of States (
Switzerland),
Federation Council (
Russia),
Rajya Sabha (
India)
Unique titles
*
House of Lords - Seen only in the
United Kingdom, previously in
Ireland*
Chambre des Pairs (French for 'Chamber of Peers') in France under the restored royal house of Bourbon
*
Főrendiház or House of Magnates in the former Apostolic kingdom of
Hungary*
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (中國人民"治"商會議) -
People's Republic of China (Not officially an upper house)
Eerste Kamer (
Dutch: First Chamber) -
Netherlands*
Shura Council (Consultative Council) -
Egypt*
House of Councillors -
Japan*
National Council -
Slovenia, also the title of the lower house of the
Parliament of Austria*
List of national legislatures.''
