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Chambers of parliament
 
 
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Many parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
s or other legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
s consist of two chambers (or houses): an elected
Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
 lower house
Lower house

A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power....
, and an upper house
Upper house

An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house....
 or Senate
Senate

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or Parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, the first of which was the Roman Senate....
 which may be appointed or elected by a different mechanism from the lower house. This style of two houses is called bicameral
Bicameralism

In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
. Legislatures with only one house are known as unicameral
Unicameralism

Unicameralism is the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Many countries with unicameral legislatures are often small and homogeneous unitary states and consider an upper house or second chamber unnecessary....
.

The lower house is almost always the originator of legislation
Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgation by a legislature or other governing body. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law....
, and the upper house is the body that offers the "second look" and decides whether to veto
Veto

A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute or limited ...
 or approve the bill
Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a legislature that has not been ratification, adopted, or received royal assent. Once a bill has become law, it is thereafter an Statute; but in popular usage the two terms are often treated interchangeably....
s.






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Many parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
s or other legislature
Legislature

Legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to create and change laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law....
s consist of two chambers (or houses): an elected
Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
 lower house
Lower house

A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power....
, and an upper house
Upper house

An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house....
 or Senate
Senate

A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or Parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, the first of which was the Roman Senate....
 which may be appointed or elected by a different mechanism from the lower house. This style of two houses is called bicameral
Bicameralism

In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
. Legislatures with only one house are known as unicameral
Unicameralism

Unicameralism is the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Many countries with unicameral legislatures are often small and homogeneous unitary states and consider an upper house or second chamber unnecessary....
.

The lower house is almost always the originator of legislation
Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgation by a legislature or other governing body. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law....
, and the upper house is the body that offers the "second look" and decides whether to veto
Veto

A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute or limited ...
 or approve the bill
Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a legislature that has not been ratification, adopted, or received royal assent. Once a bill has become law, it is thereafter an Statute; but in popular usage the two terms are often treated interchangeably....
s. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 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
Finance

The field of finance refers to the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated. Banks are the main facilitators of funding through the provision of credit, although private equity, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other organizations have become important....
 and taxation.

A parliament's lower house is usually composed of at least 100 members
Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
, 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
British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the British monarchy and the House of Lords ....
) 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
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
) currently has slightly more members than the lower house, and at one time (before the exclusion of most of the hereditary peer
Hereditary peer

Hereditary peers form part of the Peerage in the United Kingdom. There are over seven hundred peers who hold titles that may be inheritance. Formerly, most of them were entitled to a seat in House of Lords, but since the House of Lords Act 1999 only ninety-two are permitted to sit, although this reduction has been challenged in the European C...
s) had considerably more.

Merging of chambers

Until 1971, the Riksdag
Riksdag

The Riksdag is the national parliament of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 List of members of the Riksdag, 2006-2010 , who are elected on a proportional representation basis to serve fixed terms of four years....
 in Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 was similarly divided into the Första kammaren and Andra kammaren, but has since been a unicameral legislature. The Norwegian parliament
Storting

The Storting is the Norway Parliament, and is located in the capital city Oslo. It sits in the Storting building which was completed in 1866 and was designed by the Sweden architect Emil Victor Langlet....
 (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
Floor

A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal, or other material that can hold a person's weight....
 is the name for the full Assembly, and a Committee
Committee

A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"....
 is a small deliberative Assembly that is usually subordinate to the floor.

See also

  • List of national parliaments.
  • Delegated legislation
    Delegated legislation

    Delegated legislation is law made by an executive authority under powers given to them by primary legislation in order to implement and administer the requirements of that primary legislation....
  • Inter-Parliamentary Union
    Inter-Parliamentary Union

    The Inter-Parliamentary Union is an international organization established in 1889 by William Randal Cremer and Fr?d?ric Passy . It was the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations....
  • Legislation
    Legislation

    Legislation is law which has been promulgation by a legislature or other governing body. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law....
  • Witan

Parliaments

  • European Parliament
    European Parliament

    The European Parliament is the only direct election parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union , it forms the bicameral Institutions of the European Union#Legislature of the Institutions of the European Union and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world....
    .
  • Parliament of the United Kingdom
    Parliament of the United Kingdom

    The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislature in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories....
  • UN General Assembly