Explainer: What is bicameral parliament and how does it work?

Bicameral system as recommended by reform commission:

• Parliament will consist of National Assembly (lower house) and Senate (upper house)
• National Assembly to have 400 seats, Senate 105 seats
• Lower house members will be directly elected, while upper house members will be nominated by political parties
• The parties can nominate 100 members for the Senate based on Proportional Representation (PR) system
• Minimum votes required to be eligible for PR is 1%, as they will be able to nominate one member of Senate

The Constitution Reform Commission formed by the interim government of Bangladesh has recommended the formation of a bicameral parliament, a two-house legislative system consisting of a lower house and an upper house. 

As per the recommendation, the lower House, with 400 seats, can be named the National Assembly, while the upper House, with 105 seats, can be named the Senate. 

As of now, out of the 190 national parliaments in the world, 111 are unicameral, and 78 are bicameral, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

IPU is an international organisation of national parliaments that provides monthly data about national parliaments.

What is a bicameral parliament?

A bicameral parliament is a two-house legislative system consisting of two chambers — an upper house and a lower house. 

While the concept of a two-house legislative system and a second chamber is new to Bangladesh, it's common in many other countries, including our neighbouring India. 

India's bicameral legislation consists of two houses: the 250-member Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the 552-member House of the People (Lok Sabha). 

Each House has to meet within six months of its previous sitting, while a joint sitting of two Houses can be held in certain cases. 

The United Kingdom (UK) also have bicameral legislation. The House of Lords (upper chamber) of the UK now consists of 801 members who have been appointed. 

There is no restriction on the number of members in the UK House of Lords, but it usually stays around 800. 

Meanwhile, the House of Commons (lower chamber) in the UK consists of 650 members who are directly elected through votes. 

The US also has a two-house legislature consisting of the House of Representatives (lower chamber) and Senate (upper chamber). 

How does it function

The two chambers of the legislative body in a bicameral legislature can have different organisations, rules and methods of selecting members. 

One of the primary advantages of a bicameral system over a unicameral system is that it provides an internal system of checks and balances within the legislature. 

Each chamber holds the power to check the actions of the other, which can prevent rash or poorly considered legislation from being passed too quickly.

By dividing power within the legislative branch, bicameralism helps prevent the legislative branch from having too much power. 

According to Investopedia, the birth of the bicameral system was in medieval Europe, where sharp class distinctions between the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners meant that these classes were represented by separate groups of representatives, who were charged with advising the king on matters related to and representing the interests of their respective social spheres.

These groups in England eventually developed into the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Will a bicameral parliament make Bangladesh more democratic?

In the current-day British Parliament, which has been the model for most parliamentary systems worldwide, the House of Lords is still considered a more elite body, while the House of Commons represents a larger, more common class.

Meanwhile, the US bicameral legislature system was born out of a desire to have a balanced system within the legislative branch and to address a disagreement over how states would be allocated representation.

The Parliamentary Education and Engagement initiative of Australia's Parliament of New South Wales has an article on their website that explains the concept of bicameralism. 

It says the basic rationale for two parliamentary chambers is to avoid the concentration of power in a single body and to avoid the risk of misuse of powers. 

Dividing power between two legislative chambers of broadly equal status safeguards against a single chamber taking extreme or excessive measures which may lack broad community support.

"Having two chambers also ensures that the Parliament can properly perform its role of holding the government to account and checking or restraining the use of government power," it further reads.

Two chambers instead of one allows for a more thorough review and deliberation of each legislation, as the bills need to be approved by both houses. This means that they are scrutinised twice, often in different ways, depending on the composition and rules of each chamber. 

This can lead to more comprehensive and carefully considered laws.

On the contrary, a bicameral system can also make approving new laws much slower. 

The bicameral system also allows different forms of representation in each of its chambers. This can enhance the overall democratic process. 

While a single chamber is unlikely to be able to act as an effective restraint as the majority of its members will be representatives of the government party who vote as the government dictates, a second chamber with broadly equal powers to the first provides a more effective check on government conduct.

Such a practice can contribute to political stability as well. As power is defused between two chambers, it moderates the pace of change and prevents abrupt shifts in policy that might occur under a unicameral system. 

For example, the Constitution Reform Commission, in its summarised report, said any amendments to the constitution would require at least 2/3rd votes from both lower and upper chambers. 

If it secured the 2/3rd votes from both chambers, it will then be presented to the voters. 

Doing so will make sure that no future government can amend the constitution of the country like it was done during the ousted AL regime. 

How members of the upper chamber are elected

Members of the lower chambers are often elected through a direct electoral system based on constituencies. This is similar to the elections held under a unicameral parliament system. 

The formation of the upper house, however, varies from country to country. 

In Germany, the Bundesrat (Federal Council) serves as the upper house of the parliament. Unlike what is commonly seen in other bicameral systems, the members of the Bundesrat are not elected through a public electoral process. 

Instead, they are appointed by the state governments of each of Germany's 16 federal states. The composition of the Bundesrat is determined by the political majorities in the state legislatures, reflecting the political distribution in each state government. 

New Zealand follows the MMP system even with unicameral legislation. The country has been doing it since 1996, as simple majority-based voting resulted in single-party majorities that did not accurately reflect the proportion of public support for each party.

In the US, members of the upper house (Senators) are directly elected by the eligible voters in their respective states. Senators are elected on a plurality basis, meaning that the candidate who receives the most votes in their state wins the election.

However, some US states, including Georgia and Louisiana, have implemented provisions for run-off elections if no candidate achieves a majority. While it is not a standard practice, it can occur depending on state laws.

Moreover, even though the US have a bicameral parliament system, the state of Nebraska remains the only state with a unicameral legislature, with representatives from the state called senators.

In the UK, the House of Lords is comprised of appointed members, not elected. 

Members include life peers appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister or an independent commission, bishops of the Church of England, and some hereditary peers elected by their peers. 

Bangladesh's Constitution Reform Commission, in its recent report, fixed the number of members in the Senate (higher chamber) to 105 and said 100 of these members shall be determined "in proportion to the total number of votes cast in the National Assembly elections."

It said political parties may nominate a maximum of 100 candidates for nomination in the upper house on the basis of the Proportional Representation (PR) system.

What is Proportional Representation

Proportional representation is an electoral system in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party, according to the UK Parliament website.

If a party, for example, gains 40% of the total votes, a perfectly proportional system would allow them to gain 40% of the seats.

As per the recommendations of the Constituional Reform Commission, the PR system will allow each party to nominate members for the Senate (upper chamber) based on the number of votes they received in the election. 

This means if a party does not win more than 50% of the constituencies in the elections, it will still be able to nominate members for the Senate based on the percentage of overall votes it got. 

The reform commission said a party must secure at least 1% of the votes to be able to be eligible for representation in the upper house based on the PR system. With 1% of the overall votes, it will be able to nominate one member for the Senate. 

India uses a form of PR system to ensure that the representation in the Rajya Sabha (upper chamber) is proportional to the population of each state.

While not directly appointed, they are elected by the elected members of the 28 State Legislative Assemblies (Vidhan Sabhas).