This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Chambers of parliament is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007) |
| Legislature |
|---|
|
This series is part of |
| Politics Portal · |
Many parliaments or other legislatures consist of two chambers (or houses): an elected lower house, and an upper house or Senate which may be appointed or elected by a different mechanism from the lower house. This style of two houses is called bicameral. Legislatures with only one house are known as unicameral.
The lower house is almost always the originator of legislation, and the upper house is the body that offers the "second look" and decides whether to veto or approve the bills. In the United Kingdom legislation can be originated in either house, but the lower house can ultimately prevail if the two houses repeatedly disagree. In most countries the lower house, regarded as more particularly the representatives of the people, has sole or predominant control over matters to do with finance and taxation.
A parliament's lower house is usually composed of at least 100 members, in countries with populations of over 3 million. The number of seats rarely exceeds 400, even in very large countries. In the United Kingdom however, the lower house (the House of Commons) has 650 members. The upper house customarily has anywhere from 20, 50, or 100 seats, but almost always significantly less than the lower house. In the United Kingdom however, the upper house (the House of Lords) currently has slightly more members than the lower house, and at one time (before the exclusion of most of the hereditary peers) had considerably more.
Contents |
Merging of chambers
Until 1971, the Riksdag in Sweden was similarly divided into the Första kammaren and Andra kammaren, but has since been a unicameral legislature. The Norwegian parliament (Storting) is officially divided in two chambers, but functions as a single chamber in practice, a situation called Qualified unicameralism.
Floor and Committee
The Floor is the name for the full Assembly, and a Committee is a small deliberative Assembly that is usually subordinate to the floor.
 |
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) |
See also
Parliaments
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 7 November 2008, at 19:14.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Chambers of parliament".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.