Should the second legislative chamber in a bicameral legislature be abolished?

Answer 1

If the second chamber of a bicameral legislative body were to be abolished then it would no longer be a bicameral legislative body but instead would become a singular legislative body. Should governments that use a bicameral legislative process reconsider this decision and abolish bicameralism in the legislative process? Is unicameralism a better legislative process? In modern academia there is a debate, amongst political scientist on the effectiveness of bicameral legislative systems. Those who disfavor the idea argue that bicameralism impedes the process of meaningful reform and increases the risk of deadlocked or gridlocked governments. Those who favor bicameralism do so exactly because it slows the progress of "meaningful" legislation even at the risk of deadlocked or gridlocked governments.

The problem with "meaningful" legislation or political reform is that such progressive ideals usually come at the expense of individual rights. Legislatures are political beasts and many of those legislatures are elected to office by the people. This makes them attracted to popular opinion and they will use their legislative powers to appeal to this popular opinion selling it as conventional wisdom and urging his fellow law makers to take this conventional wisdom and create a statutory scheme that declares it wisdom and pass it on to the upper house as a bill waiting to be passed and enacted. Without an upper house, the bill is passed immediately and now we have some made up statutory scheme masquerading as law. The progress towards "meaningful" reform should be painstakingly slow and all due diligence done to honor the rights of the individual. To ensure our elected officials are doing their due diligence in protecting the rights of the individual, the bicameral process, particularly that legislative process that shares power equally, is created to impede the abuse of power almost assuredly lurking in any politician we agree to elect.

There are many bicameral legislative bodies that exist in today's governments, particularly those that are democratic to some degree or another such as a parliamentary system or a presidential system. The more checks one places on the process of making and enacting and ultimately enforcing law, the less likely the people are burdened with cumbersome and intrusive legislation. Of course, for anybody who's really paying attention, even these kind of checks and balances put in place, won't stop the ambition of government in it's never ending quest to reign in the rights of the people. The people elect these legislatures to represent them and all that should be represented by these legislatures is the simple notion that people are better off when they are left alone to govern themselves. Let bicameralism stand in its glory, and let the painful process of legislation be as painful and difficult to pass so that it may protect the liberty of all.