Bicameralism, Representation and Governance: An Australian-American Comparison

Bicameralism: European Tendencies and Perspectives for Ukraine

“…It is believed that the bicameral system contributes to the improvement of legislative work due to the fact that the duties of the upper chamber include a thorough check of often hasty decisions of the lower chamber, playing the role of a "filter" in the legislative process. It is often emphasized that bicameralism, in the context of constitutional design, contributes to the balance in the state mechanism between the legislative power, the head of state and the executive power (e.g., Lijphart, 1999;Slovska, 2013;Loomis & Manning, 2014).…”

“…At the same time, two chambers of the parliament are incompatible if they differ significantly in their composition. In turn, B. Loomis and H. Manning rightly point out that "by design, bicameral legislatures often produce tensions between lower chambers, with their direct, localized ties that often link members and constituents, and upper chambers by varying sizes of constituencies and electoral mechanisms" (Loomis & Manning, 2014). In our opinion, bicameralism in Ukraine is justified only in the "strong" version; otherwise the second chamber will initially have a rudimentary nature, which will only discredit the very idea of bicameralism.…”