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An 'upper house' is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.

Contents

Possible specific characteristics

Powers

Election or appointment

Abolition

Titles of upper houses

Common Terms

Unique titles

See also

Possible specific characteristics

An upper house is usually distinct from the lower house in at least one of the following respects:

★ Given less power than the lower house, with special reservations, e.g. only when seizing a proposal by evocation, not on the budget, not the house of reference for majority assent.

★ Only limited legislative matters, such as constitutional amendments, may require its approval

★ 'Houses of review', in that they cannot start legislation, only consider the lower houses' initiatives. 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.

★ 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.

★ Fewer seats than the lower house (or more if hereditary).

★ If elected, often for longer terms than those of the lower house; if composed of peers or nobles, they generally hold their hereditary seats for life

★ Elected in portions for staggered terms, rather than all at once.

Powers

★ 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:

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★ It usually has no control over the executive branch.

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★ In most cases cannot outright veto or block legislation.

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★ In most cases doesn't start legislation.

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★ 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:

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★ It usually has to sign off on appointments the executive makes to the cabinet and other offices.

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★ It frequently has the sole authority to ratify or denounce foreign treaties.

Election or appointment

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 still is partly the case in the British House of Lords, 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.

Abolition

Many jurisdictions, such as Denmark, Sweden, Peru, 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.

Titles of upper houses

Common Terms

★ Senate - By far the most common

★ Legislative Council

★ Council of States (in a Federation) - Federation Council (Russia), Bundesrat (Germany, Austria), Council of States (Switzerland), ''Rajya Sabha'' (or "Council of States," India), ''Sangi-in'' (or "House of Councillors," Japan).

★ Supreme Soviet - as in the ex-Soviet Union.

Unique titles

★ Seanad Éireann (Irish for 'Irish Senate') in the Republic of Ireland from 1919-Present.

★ 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 Kingdom of Hungary, also called simply Felsőház i.e. Upper House

★ Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Chinese: 中国人民政治协商会议) - People's Republic of China (not officially an upper house and possess no legislative power)

★ ''Eerste Kamer'' (Dutch: 'First Chamber') - (Senaat-Senate is also frequently used) Netherlands

★ Shura Council (Consultative Council) - Egypt

★ 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

See also

★ List of national legislatures.''