Parliamentary Systems and Types of Legislatures: Unicameral Vs Bicameral

A parliamentary system is a form of democratic governance where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from, and is held accountable to, the legislature. The executive and legislative branches are closely intertwined. Depending on historical needs, federal structures, and constitutional design, legislatures operate either as single-chamber bodies known as unicameral systems or as two-chamber bodies known as bicameral systems.

Core Features of Parliamentary Systems

Executive-Legislative Fusion

• The executive branch consists of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, who are drawn directly from the members of the legislature.
• A minister must be or become a member of parliament within a legally mandated period, such as six months in India and the United Kingdom.
• The principle of collective responsibility mandates that the Council of Ministers stands or falls together before the lower house of parliament.

Dual Executive Structure

• Parliamentary systems maintain a clear distinction between the Head of State and the Head of Government.
• The Head of State holds de jure (titular or nominal) authority, represented by a constitutional monarch as in Britain or Japan, or by an elected President as in India and Germany.
• The Head of Government holds de facto (real) executive authority, leading the cabinet and running the administration.

Tenure and Dissolution

• The executive remains in office only as long as it enjoys the confidence of the majority in the directly elected lower chamber.
• The lower house can remove the government by passing a Motion of No-Confidence or by defeating a money bill.
• The Prime Minister retains the prerogative to advise the Head of State to dissolve the lower house before its term expires to seek a fresh electoral mandate.

Unicameral Legislatures

Structural Concept and Scope

A unicameral legislature consists of a single legislative assembly or house. It is common in smaller, unitary nations with homogeneous populations where a second reviewing chamber is deemed redundant or expensive.

Primary Advantages

• Enables swift lawmaking and quick policy responses during emergencies.
• Eliminates legislative deadlocks and administrative gridlock between two competing chambers.
• Reduces public expenditure on maintaining legislative infrastructure, staff, and representative salaries.
• Fixes clear democratic accountability on a single elected house without scope for inter-chamber blame-shifting.

Key Limitations

• Lacks a mechanism for second review, increasing the risk of hasty, ill-conceived, or majoritarian legislation.
• Offers no institutional representation for regional, minority, or federating units within the legislative process.
• Concentrates excessive lawmaking authority in a single house, weakening legislative checks on the executive.

Bicameral Legislatures

Structural Concept and Scope

A bicameral legislature consists of two distinct assemblies: a directly elected lower house representing the general population, and an upper house representing sub-national regions, states, elders, or specialized expertise.

Primary Advantages

• Acts as a revising chamber to delay, review, and refine hasty legislation passed by the lower house.
• Protects the federal structure by granting representation to states and regional territories regardless of population size.
• Accommodates eminent professionals, scholars, and technical experts through presidential nomination or indirect election.
• Prevents absolute executive dominance by dividing legislative authority across two distinct entities.

Key Limitations

• Can slow down urgent legislation through inter-house friction and prolonged debates.
• Often criticized as an expensive institution that duplicates parliamentary functions.
• Can be used as a political back-alley to accommodate candidates defeated in direct popular elections.

Bicameralism at the Sub-National Level in India

Constitutional Provisions (Articles 168 to 171)

• Article 168 permits states in India to maintain either a unicameral or a bicameral legislature.
• Article 169 outlines the procedure for the abolition or creation of Legislative Councils (Vidhan Parishad).
• The State Legislative Assembly must pass a resolution by a special majority (majority of total membership plus two-thirds of members present and voting).
• Parliament then approves this resolution by a simple majority under Article 169(3), which is not treated as a constitutional amendment under Article 368.

Composition of Legislative Councils (Article 171)

• Total strength cannot exceed one-third of the total membership of the Legislative Assembly and cannot be less than 40 members.
• Five-sixths of the members are elected indirectly through proportional representation with the single transferable vote.
• One-sixth of the members are nominated by the Governor from fields of literature, science, art, cooperative movement, and social service.

States with Bicameral Legislatures in India

Six Indian states possess bicameral legislatures:

• Uttar Pradesh
• Bihar
• Maharashtra
• Karnataka
• Andhra Pradesh
• Telangana

Comparison Between Unicameral and Bicameral Systems

Key Facts and Data

• The Government of India Act, 1919 introduced bicameralism at the central level in India for the first time, creating the Council of State and the Central Legislative Assembly.
• The Government of India Act, 1935 extended bicameralism to six out of eleven British Indian provinces: Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Bihar, Assam, and the United Provinces.
• Rajya Sabha was first constituted on April 3, 1952, and held its inaugural sitting on May 13, 1952.
• Unlike the Rajya Sabha, the State Legislative Council is a weak secondary chamber; it can only delay an ordinary bill passed by the Assembly for a maximum period of four months (three months in the first instance and one month in the second instance).
• The State Legislative Council has no constitutional power to defeat or reject a money bill; it can only detain it for a maximum of 14 days.
• Joint sittings under Article 108 are provided only for resolving deadlocks in Parliament; there is no constitutional provision for a joint sitting of state legislative chambers.
• New Zealand abolished its upper chamber, the Legislative Council, in 1950 to become a unicameral legislature.
• Denmark abolished its upper house, the Landsting, through a constitutional referendum in 1953.
• The House of Lords in the United Kingdom is an unelected upper chamber comprising life peers, hereditary peers, and Lords Spiritual.
• In the United States Senate, every state receives equal representation of two senators, irrespective of population size, ensuring equal federal status.
• The Chinese parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), is the largest unicameral legislative body in the world with nearly 3,000 members.
• The Knesset in Israel and the Riksdag in Sweden are examples of unicameral national parliaments.
• Andhra Pradesh abolished its Legislative Council in 1985 and revived it in 2007.
• Tamil Nadu abolished its Legislative Council in 1986 through an act passed by Parliament.
• West Bengal and Punjab abolished their respective Legislative Councils in 1969.