Legislative Structures: Unicameral vs. Bicameral Systems Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive comparison of unicameral and bicameral legislative systems. It begins by defining and describing the characteristics of each system, including their prevalence and typical contexts. The essay then delves into a discussion of the challenges and benefits associated with each type of legislature, considering factors such as legislative process efficiency, transparency, representation of diverse interests, and the potential for checks and balances. The analysis includes examples of countries with each system, such as China (unicameral) and the United States (bicameral), to illustrate the arguments. A key focus is on which system is better at expressing a variety of interests, with the essay ultimately concluding that the bicameral system is better equipped to represent diverse interests. The essay highlights the bicameral system's capacity for expertise, deliberation, and oversight, emphasizing the importance of a second chamber in providing a platform for varied perspectives and acting as a safeguard against the potential for legislative overreach. The essay draws on references to support the arguments made.

4. Discuss the challenges and benefits of unicameral and bicameral legislatures and
answer the question: which legislative system is better at expressing a variety of interests?
Choose one country as an example of each system (two countries total) to help your
argument.
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. (Bittner, A., 2015).
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
Expressing a variety of interests
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. (Roosevelt et al, 2014) 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.
(Feigenbaum,2015).
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.

Reference
Bittner, A. (2015). Unicameral Legislature.
Feigenbaum, J. J., Fouirnaies, A., & Hall, A. B. (2015). The Majority-Party Disadvantage:
Revising Theories of Legislative Organization.
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.