PART A
Unicameral legislatures frequently occur in a system with the national government having a single unit. It has been seen that approximately half of the sovereign states in the world are unicameral which also includes the most populous country the People’s Republic of China and also the Vatican City, least populous.
It has been observed that governments having unicameral legislature are usually found in the small countries having homogeneous populations of less than 10 million people and are even seen to have opposing political interests. Fewer unicameral legislatures have seen to adopt a quota system which guarantees adequate representation to certain minority groups. However, it has been argued that the upper and a lower house present in the state legislatures are highly duplicative understanding the fact that the legislators serve the same population essentially. The same people maintain the fact that the legislative process is simplified by the unicameral system, therefore, allowing greater transparency and for bringing the representatives close to their constituents and then the reduction of power along with influencing the special and money interests. The benefits are usually given to the public in unicameral systems due to the simple legislative procedure which can be understood and observed easily, therefore, allowing the higher number of participation from the people. Furthermore, the unicameralists have pointed out that the representation of the minority in these bodies is not dependent on the chamber number but on the quality of the institution. Further examples of unicameral legislatures are New Zealand, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Portugal and several other states. The state legislatures of Swiss cantons and Canadian states are unicameral.
Whereas the bicameral legislatures are seen in the federal system. In this type of legislature, the disbursement of power takes place in the state, federal and local government. The people are the representative of the lower and the upper class. The representation in the lower house is based on the population division of the districts. A same number of citizens are represented by each member of the house. Whereas in the upper houses, greater variation is seen in the representation of people. The upper house members are elected through the direct or indirect elections and even inherit or get appointed to the positions. On the basis of subdivisions the representation in the upper house takes place, for example in the United States Senate. The authority and the responsibilities of the chamber vary in all the nations. In the bicameral system, the members in the two houses include the members of the representative serving on the different committees and having different relationship with the communities and to experience various life experiences to draw on. Therefore these features help in creating a more responsive legislative system responding more towards the interests of the varying and diverse communities. Therefore it enables the electorate having more than one representative towards giving higher opportunities to the constituents on connecting to the other representatives. Therefore the goal of the Founding Fathers to adopt to the bicameral system to thwart the tyranny of the majority and further in balancing the political interests. Therefore this complexity of the bicameral system helps in creating additional barriers against the influence of special interests by forcing those interests to gain the support of larger numbers of political leaders. Examples of the bicameral legislatures include India,
France, USA, UK, Australia, Switzerland etc. have bicameral legislature
The legislative authority helps its members with the confidence, expertise, and ability towards acting towards the interests of its constituents in order to maintain a check on the executive branch and further during the policy process when the executive over reaches the authority. It has been seen that in the bicameral system the nature of the if te competing principals of the two houses is split. The nature of the bicameral system is seen to thwarts the decision-making and therefore encourages the rivalry and the conflicts in the two chambers. It has been seen that in the unicameral legislator the beneficial pressure is felt for acquiring the in-depth expertise as they cannot be relying on the second chamber of the identification of their mistakes. Whereas the legislators in the unicameralism constrained by the electorate, judicial review, and executive veto. The bicameral legislator, on the other hand, helps in affording the legislators towards the higher opportunity for developing the high level of expertise in order to foster independence in case of dealing with the executive branch and further expressing the interests of the variety of people. However, the unicameral fails to do so due to the fewer committees and fewer opportunities are given to the members for developing specialized knowledge which in turn results in weakening the legislative oversight of the executive branch. Therefore it has been seen that one house legislature does not influence the executive and further fails to express the interests of the variety of people. Although the bicameralists highly maintain the legislative restraints instead of the legislative authority on the basis of the democratic governance. Therefore, in short, the bicameral rejects all the comparisons due to the different traditions, environment and even the expectation from the customers. Therefore the unicameral is seen to lack parallel experiences of the business work and therefore not allowing the government boards to cite with a lack or proper experience.
Therefore although the bicameral system is highly complex in enacting the suitable legislature it also fails to attract potential public, but it is able to recognize and to express the variety of interest which in turn helps the system and to understand the needs of the people.
The bicameral system can act as a barometer for the opinion of the public. In case of Unicameral the single house is ossible to grow out and therefore might fail in keeping iwth the harmony of the public opinion whereas the second house is helpful in overcoming all the defects of the legislature. Furthermore, a convenient means for representation of various classes and the interests of all the communities can be represented. In bicameral system the lower house can have all the elected representatives of the all the peopel of the society as a whole whereas the upper house represents the special interests of all the minorities and groups like poor people, women, artists, individuals, chambers, teachers etc.
Therefore it can be estimated that the bicemral legislature is a vital part of the federal system. Therefore the lower houseis known for providing representation of the people as a whole whereas the upper house is able to represent the units of federal system.
Furthrrmore, the bicameral system is known to act like an instrument for the utilisation of the services for the able as well as the experienced person. The political and the administrative ability of the people is usually made possible for the whole state. Therefore the induction of the ability and experience is highly helpful in the legislature due to the second chamber of the federal system.
The bicameral system can act as a source of stability by providing a continous and longer term for securing the stability. The representative of the people that is the lower house is provided with a short tenure. Whereas a longer tenure is provided to the people present in the second chamber along with a permanent or the quasi-permanent character for attainment of some security and stability. This can be seen by taking the example of memmer of Indian Rajya sabha where they have been provided with a six year tenure and the house has a quasi-permanent character. The whole house has never been seen to dissolve as a whole and it has been seen that after two years, around 1/3rd of the total members retire. Further the second chamber cana ct as a safeguard against the despotism of the single chamber. The second chamber helps in preventing the first house from becoming despotic and arbitary. In case of single chamber the probability of legislative power to become despotic and corrupt. Therefore the second chamber helps in keeping away all the despotic and arbitary. The strength of the the bicameral system is the expertise, greater deliberation and the oversight of the legislative. The unicameral are seen to have an ineffective oversight towards itself and its the executive branch due to which it fails to express the interests of people. Whereas the bicameral due to the work it undertakes is highly adapted. It is highly advantageous as the second house provides a representativee towards the federal units for serving as a pillar of strength and health of the federal state.
PART B
All the countries struggled with the query of how they develop the political institutions that support all the functions, prosperous and open society which is overseen by the law. The outcome of these arguments revealed in a country’s constitution. Legislative institutions are considered an area in which all the countries have a multiple range of choices. How the countries should select their legislative? What powers should be credited to the legislature? All these are certain kind of matters which is necessary to resolve before a legislative body can act. Another key decision related to the choice of the structure of the legislation whether the country adopt unicameral legislature or bicameral legislature. In this paper, we will study about the challenges and benefits of both unicameral and bicameral legislature. It is not an easy task, knowledge over the previous century has helped to reveal the weakness and strength of both model. All the historic, traditional and the political factors influence this decision. Experiences of the other countries help all the countries to learn which system will be better for their country and which serves the future goals and the current needs of the country. This paper recognizes some of the basic features of both unicameral model and bicameral model and offers a proof as to why a particular country chooses one model over the other model. These two models are defined further with an example to understand their importance in encouraging public participation.
A unicameral legislature is a representative form of the government with a singer legislative chamber. Unicameral legislature or one chamber, are mostly established in those countries which are systematized on a unitary governmental system. For example, in the federal model, power is only disseminated among the constituent territorial units and the central government, on the other hand, in the unitary system power is concentrated in a particular dominant division. The unitary model is mostly found in those countries which are geographically small and with homogeneous populations of less than 9 million inhabitants.
• The Unicameral Legislature has the potential to enact proposed legislation very efficiently. Unicameral Legislature need only one form to accept legislation which eliminates the need to reconcile different bills.
• Greater accountability because if legislations fail or pass or the citizens of the countries are not interested than the legislators cannot blame the other chambers.
• In this legislature, fewer elected officials are there to monitor the population of the country.
• Reduced costs to the taxpayers and the government.
• Singleness of purpose is involved in this legislature, due to which it is easier to achieve the coordination between the various legislative branches and the executives.
• The unicameral legislature is considered less costly, since the state merely has to pay for one set of legislators, officers, and legislative staffs, etc. it is very cheaper and easier to sustain a legislature with a single house and thus fewer representatives.
• Because of involvement of the single body, there is higher transparency.
• The unicameral legislature is more liable to the public and their different constituency because the situation is a matter of public record.
Unicameral legislature also has some problems or challenges which can be following:-
• The unicameral legislature is a smaller legislature which means a weaker power check on all the executives.
• A unicameral legislature mostly faces trouble related to hampering the passage of flawed legislation.
• In the progressive outlook, the unicameral may insensitively follow definite measures. Once such a measure is taken, it is the people who suffer.
• The unicameral legislation does not provide any chance for the revision of bills. It can be possible that the sole parliamentary house may pass ill-considered bills.
There are various countries which follow the unicameral legislature like – Singapore, Portugal, Costa Rica, China, Uganda, New Zealand and the Sweden.
Much like all the above countries, Portugal also has a unicameral legislative system. In the Portugal this system is strengthened by the various constitutional amendments that bound the deliberation of the power in the hands of the military. Politics of the Portuguese were conquered by string of civilian dictators who used autocratic approaches for maintain and gain the power. In the Portuguese legislature, the Assembly of the Republic has 220 members who serving three-year terms. Members are elected through 22 electoral constituencies.
A bicameral legislature is the combination of two chambers which are known as the upper house chamber or the lower house chamber. The lower chamber consists House of Representatives, House of Commons, and Chamber of Deputies and Federal Assembly, while the Upper House consists House of Lords or Federal Council. Upper chambers are smaller of the two legislative bodies. Chambers mostly formed by the indirect and the direct elections, unlike heredity or appointed chambers.
Bicameral Legislation also has some advantages and challenges. Benefits of the Bicameral Legislation are following:-
• Bicameral Legislation formally represents diverse contingencies like- region, state, class or ethnicity.
• It enable a premeditated approach to legislation.
• Bicameral Legislation hamper the passage of reckless or flawed legislation.
• It also delivers boosted oversight or control of all executive branch.
• Stable governance: – Supporters of the Bicameral legislature consider that it offers more stable governance in terms of membership and action rather than the unicameral legislature.
• Better representation: – it represents the various interests of the society in a significance and suitable manner. Using bicameral legislature is less prone to control or influence by more powerful minorities.
Bicameral legislation also faces many challenges. One of the important challenge which it face is inefficiency. Following are the important challenges of the Bicameral Legislation:-
• Inefficiency: – it is the very effective challenge for the Bicameral Legislation. It never be possible that two chambers agreeing on the same bill. Inefficiency of the system makes the process extremely slow and laborious.
• Expensive: – bicameral legislation is also very expensive to maintain. The second chamber of the system increases the level of expenditure of the legislature. The cost factor of this system may not be suitable for national government.
• The bicameral legislation is also not useful for Texas. Having two representations chambers in the legislature is redundant representation.
The United Kingdom a country have, 230,000 square kilometers follow a bicameral legislature that evolved regardless of the absence of a proper written constitution. The House of Commons and the lower house convened during the 12th century as a counselling body of the House of Lords. House of lords than further established some legislative reforms in 1910 or1948. Through all this, it is known as a central lawmaking body. The 650 members of the British house are nominated by the universal adult.
Legislative system for encouraging public participation:-
• A unicameral system is more efficient than the bicameral system in encouraging participation of the public. It is so because it is less expensive due to which it have to pay only to a one set of legislators, offices and legislative staffs which attract the public attention more.
• Bicameral system makes it more difficult to enact a suitable legislation, as well as it also makes more difficult to repeat a legislation which cannot attract potential number of public towards itself, but on the other hand Unicameral Legislation acts more expeditiously to recognize and correct their overall mistakes which help the system in encouraging more and more participation from the public.
• Unicameral system promotes civic education for the people so that they can understand various things regarding their constitution, functions, and various government organizations. This helps the whole system in attracting informed and knowledgeable citizens who can participate in the various national or local decisions.
• The unicameral system strives to empower the citizens to participate actively in every governance process through active participations in the elections, contributing in a significant manner for agenda of the government policy and for constitutional reforms.
After studying all, anyone can conclude that both legislations play an important role in achieving public participation. Various variations exists between the different countries regarding the structure of their legislations. All the smaller, unitary countries mostly use unicameral legislatures, and larger, countries mostly employ a bicameral system. All these presumptions are not in stone. Every nation possesses its own different motivations to adopt either a bicameral system or the unicameral system. The reason for the selection of one model can be different as per the wish of the country. These reasons can be related to the historical, demographic and cultural characteristic that may solely applied in that particular country. Political factors and the Existing institutional factors such as party methods and the party systems have a significant influence on this process. Most importantly, all the political personalities play an important role in shaping the legislative design. Finally, protection of interests, power will contribute largely towards the cameral design.