Legislative Structures: Unicameral vs. Bicameral Systems Explained

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of unicameral and bicameral legislatures, exploring their structures, benefits, and challenges. It begins with an introduction to legislative institutions and the key decision of choosing between a unicameral or bicameral system. The report then defines and compares the two models, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each. For unicameral legislatures, the report highlights efficiency, accountability, reduced costs, and transparency, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks like weaker executive checks and the possibility of flawed legislation. Examples of countries with unicameral systems, such as Singapore and Portugal, are provided. For bicameral legislatures, the report discusses representation of diverse interests, premeditated legislation, and stable governance, as well as challenges like inefficiency and increased costs. The United Kingdom is presented as an example of a country with a bicameral system. The report also examines how each system encourages public participation, concluding that while both have a role, unicameral systems may be more efficient due to lower costs and the ability to correct mistakes more quickly. The report references several academic sources to support its findings.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:-...................................................................................................................................2
Unicameral Legislature:-.................................................................................................................2
Benefits of Unicameral Legislature:-...............................................................................................2
Challenges of Unicameral Legislature:-..........................................................................................3
Example of Unicameral Legislature:-..............................................................................................3
Bicameral Legislature:-...................................................................................................................3
Benefits of Bicameral Legislation:-.................................................................................................3
Challenges of Bicameral Legislation:-............................................................................................4
Example of Bicameral Legislation:-................................................................................................4
Legislative system for encouraging public participation:-..............................................................4
Conclusion:-.....................................................................................................................................5
References:-.....................................................................................................................................6

Introduction:-
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 (Feigenbaum, 2015). 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.
Unicameral Legislature:-
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 (Roosevelt,2015). 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.
Benefits of Unicameral Legislature:-
 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.
Challenges of Unicameral Legislature:-
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.
Example of Unicameral Legislature:-
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 (Carreira, 2016). 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.
Bicameral Legislature:-
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 (Bittner, 2015). Upper chambers are smaller of the

two legislative bodies. Chambers mostly formed by the indirect and the direct elections, unlike
heredity or appointed chambers.
Benefits of Bicameral Legislation:-
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.
Challenges of Bicameral Legislation:-
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.
Example of Bicameral Legislation:-
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 (Feigenbaum,2015).

 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.
Conclusion:-
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.

References:-
Fortunato, D., König, T., & Proksch, S. O. (2013). Government agenda-setting and bicameral
conflict resolution. Political Research Quarterly, 1065912913486197.

Roosevelt, F. D., Landon, A. M., & Bryan, C. W. (2014). Article Title: Innovation in State
Government: Origin and Development of the Nebraska Nonpartisan Unicameral Legislature.
Bittner, A. (2015). Unicameral Legislature.
Feigenbaum, J. J., Fouirnaies, A., & Hall, A. B. (2015). The Majority-Party Disadvantage:
Revising Theories of Legislative Organization.
Bittner, A. (2015). Bicameral Legislature.
Carreira, V., Machado, J. R., & Vasconcelos, L. (2016). Legal citizen knowledge and public
participation on environmental and spatial planning policies: A case study in
Portugal. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 2(7), 22-33.