Editing Bicameralism (section)

==History of bicameral legislatures==
[[File:Casas del Parlamento. Palacio de Westminster - panoramio.jpg|thumb|The [[Palace of Westminster]], seat of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]]]
[[File:12-07-13-washington-by-RalfR-10.jpg|thumb|The [[United States Capitol]], seat of the [[United States Congress]]]]
[[File:Glimpses of the new Parliament Building, in New Delhi (2).jpg|thumb|The [[New Parliament House, New Delhi|New Sansad Bhavan]], seat of the [[Parliament of India]]]]

The British Parliament is often referred to as the "[[Mother of Parliaments]]" (in fact a misquotation of [[John Bright]], who remarked in 1865 that "England is the Mother of Parliaments") because the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its [[Act of Parliament|Act]]s have created many other parliaments.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seidle|first1=F. Leslie|last2=Docherty|first2=David C.|title=Reforming parliamentary democracy|date=2003|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=9780773525085|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6je60BF-3sC&pg=PA3}}</ref> The origins of British bicameralism can be traced to 1341, when the Commons met separately from the nobility and clergy for the first time, creating what was effectively an Upper Chamber and a Lower Chamber, with the knights and burgesses sitting in the latter. This Upper Chamber became known as the [[House of Lords]] from 1544 onward, and the Lower Chamber became known as the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]], collectively known as the [[Houses of Parliament]].

The [[Founding Fathers of the United States]] also favoured a bicameral legislature. The idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. [[Benjamin Rush]] saw this though, and noted that "this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence". The Senate was created to be a stabilising force, not elected by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more deliberate—a sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what [[James Madison]] saw as the "fickleness and passion" that could absorb the House.<ref name="HG1">{{cite web |title=The Constitutional Background – House of Representatives archives |url=http://archives.democrats.rules.house.gov/Archives/jcoc2br.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150730195430/http://archives.democrats.rules.house.gov/Archives/jcoc2br.htm |archive-date=30 July 2015 |access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref>

He noted further that "The use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch." Madison's argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, and caution were deemed especially important.<ref name="HG1" /> State legislators chose the Senate, and senators had to possess significant property to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In 1913, the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|17th amendment]] passed, which mandated choosing Senators by popular vote rather than State legislatures.<ref name="HG1" />

As part of the [[Great Compromise]], the Founding Fathers invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate had an equal number of delegates per state, and the House had representatives by relative populations.

Many monarchies then followed them to some degree emulated the British "three-tier" model.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Julian Go |title=Constitutionalism and political reconstruction |date=2007 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004151741 |editor1-last=Arjomand |editor1-first=Saïd Amir |pages=92–94 |chapter=A Globalizing Constitutionalism?, Views from the Postcolony, 1945–2000 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYmmnYKEvE0C&pg=PA94}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2 December 2013 |title=How the Westminster Parliamentary System was exported around the World |url=http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-the-westminster-parliamentary-system-was-exported-around-the-world |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216190945/http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-the-westminster-parliamentary-system-was-exported-around-the-world |archive-date=16 December 2013 |access-date=16 December 2013 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref>

In the 20th century most countries in Europe and the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] abolished the monarchy, and the upper house. Often a largely ceremonial [[head of state]] who formally opens and closes parliament was introduced, a larger house representing the population, and a smaller house mostly representing the regions was established.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LIJPHART |first=AREND |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1ww3w2t |title=Democracies |date=1984-09-10 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-23620-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tsebelis |first=George |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511609350 |title=Bicameralism |last2=Money |first2=Jeannette |date=1997-06-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-58972-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shah |first=Anwar |last2=Watts |first2=Ronald L. |date=March 1999 |title=Comparing Federal Systems in the 1990s |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3551415 |journal=Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=152 |doi=10.2307/3551415 |issn=0317-0861|url-access=subscription }}</ref>