Pluralistic Representation under Bicameralism

The Paradox of Federal Bicameralism

Although still regarded by many as an essential feature of a truly federal government, the institution of the federal chamber appears to be experiencing a deep crisis. In all but two cases, in fact, federal chambers have shown over the decades an uncontrollable tendency towards centralization, to the limit that they now seem indistinguishable from regular, national chambers. The article assesse...

The Constitutional Choice of Bicameralism

Studies of political economy in recent years have placed emphasis on the operating characteristics of political and economic institutions. The premise of this work is that constitutional features of the political economy provide a structure of institutional incentives inducing equilibrium behavior and practices by optimizing agents. At both the theoretical and empirical levels there are compari...

A Theory of Bicameralism

We model the role of a parliament’s structure in shaping the accountability of elected representatives. In a setting in which lawmakers interact with a lobby through a bargaining process and with voters by means of elections, we show that only a single legislative body who can make take it or leave it offers to the lobby can be held unambiguously accountable to voters. Whenever the pressure gro...

Informational Pathologies of Bicameralism

A common rationale for bicameralism is that a second look at proposed legislation results in the enactment of informationally better legislation than that enacted by unicameral legislatures. This argument neglects that choices by bicameral chambers to acquire information arise within the strategic environment formed by the interplay of the chambers. Because information is costly, bicameral cham...

Does Bicameralism Matter?