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A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral 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....
, the other chamber being the upper house
Upper house

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

Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power. The supremacy of the lower house usually arises from special restrictions placed (either explicitly by legislation or implicitly by convention) on the powers of the upper house, which often can only delay rather than veto legislation or has less control over money bill
Money bill

In the Westminster system , a money bill or supply bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending , as opposed to changes in public law....
s.






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Encyclopedia


A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral 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....
, the other chamber being the upper house
Upper house

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

Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power. The supremacy of the lower house usually arises from special restrictions placed (either explicitly by legislation or implicitly by convention) on the powers of the upper house, which often can only delay rather than veto legislation or has less control over money bill
Money bill

In the Westminster system , a money bill or supply bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending , as opposed to changes in public law....
s. Under parliamentary system
Parliamentary system

Parliamentary systems are characterized by no clear-cut separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, leading to a different set of checks and balances compared to those found in presidential systems....
s it is usually the lower house alone that designates the head of government
Head of government

The head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet . In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled Prime Minister, President of the Government, Premier, etc....
 or prime minister
Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
, and may remove them through a vote of no confidence. There are exceptions to this however, such as the Prime Minister of Japan
Prime Minister of Japan

The is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Prime Minister of the Cabinet....
, who is formally selected with the approval of both houses of the Diet
Diet of Japan

The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives of Japan, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors....
. A legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral.

Common attributes

In comparison with the upper house, lower houses frequently display certain characteristics:

  • Given greater power, usually based on restrictions against the upper house.
  • Directly elected (apportionment
    Apportionment (politics)

    Apportionment is the process of allocating political power among a set of principles . In most representative governments, political power has most recently been apportioned among constituencies based on population, but there is a long history of different approaches....
     is usually based on population).
  • Given more members.
  • Elected more frequently, and all at once.
  • Given total or original control over budget and monetary laws.
  • Able to override the upper house in some ways.
  • In a presidential system
    Presidential system

    A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not wikt:accountable and which cannot, in normal circumstances, wikt:dismiss it....
    , given the sole power to impeach the executive (the upper house then has to try the impeachment).


Titles of lower houses


Common names


Many lower houses are named in the following manner: House/Chamber of Representatives/the People/Commons/Deputies.

  • Chamber of Deputies
    Chamber of Deputies

    Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature....
  • Chamber of Representatives
    Chamber of Representatives

    There are at least four political assemblies known as the Chamber of Representatives. Each one forms the lower house of a bicameralism legislature....
  • House of Assembly
    House of Assembly

    House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral legislature, in some countries, often at subnational level....
  • House of Commons
    House of Commons

    The House of Commons is the name of the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada.In the UK and Canada, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the upper house of parliament ....
  • House of Representatives
    House of Representatives

    House of Representatives is the name of any of many legislature in many countries and sub-national states. In some countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameralism legislature, with the corresponding upper house often called a "senate"....
  • Legislative Assembly
    Legislative Assembly

    Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its chambers of parliament. The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as in a number of Latin American countries....
  • National Assembly
    National Assembly

    The National Assembly is either a legislature, or the lower house of a bicameral legislature in some countries. The best known National Assembly, and the first legislature to be known by this title, was that established during the French Revolution in 1789, known as the National Assembly ....
     (hence also Bundestag
    Bundestag

    The 'Bundestag' is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag ....
    , German for federal assembly, although the German Bundestag is not considered the lower house of the parliament, but the parliament itself)


Less common titles


  • Congress of Deputies - Spain
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
  • Dáil Éireann
    Dáil Éireann

    is the principal chamber of the Oireachtas . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote ....
     - Republic of Ireland
    Republic of Ireland

    Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
  • House of Keys
    House of Keys

    The House of Keys is the directly elected lower branch of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man, the other branch being the Legislative Council of the Isle of Man....
     - Isle of Man
    Isle of Man

    The Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical centre of the British Isles....
  • Lok Sabha
    Lok Sabha

    The Lok Sabha is the direct election lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2008 there have been fourteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India....
     (House of the People) - India
    India

    India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
  • National Council - Switzerland
    Switzerland

    Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
    , Austria
    Austria

    Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
  • Sejm
    Sejm

    The Sejm is the lower house of the Poland parliament.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-Chambers of parliament Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the monarch....
     - Poland
    Poland

    Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
     and Seimas
    Seimas

    The Seimas is the Lithuanian parliament. It has 141 members that are elected for a four-year term. About half of the members of this legislative body are elected in individual constituencies , and the other half are elected by nationwide vote according to proportional representation....
     - Lithuania
    Lithuania

    Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
  • State Duma
    State Duma

    The State Duma in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia....
     (??????????????? ???? - Gosudarstvennaya Duma) - Russia
    Russia

    Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
  • Tweede Kamer
    Tweede Kamer

    The Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal , short Tweede Kamer, is the lower house of the Netherlands' parliament, the States-General_of_the_Netherlands....
     (Second Chamber) - Netherlands
    Netherlands

    The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
  • Odelsting (Lower house in name only) Norway
    Norway

    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....


See also

List of national legislatures Upper house
Upper house

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