Senate

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Senate" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Part of the Politics series
Politics
Outline Index Category
Primary topics Outline of political science Index of politics articles Politics by country Politics by subdivision Political economy Political history Political history of the world Political philosophy
Political systems Anarchy City-state Democracy Dictatorship Directorial Federacy Feudalism Hybrid regime Meritocracy Monarchy Parliamentary Presidential Republic Semi-parliamentary Semi-presidential Theocracy
Academic disciplines Political science (political scientists) International relations (theory) Comparative politics Election science Political analysis Political theory Policy studies Political psychology Political sociology
Public administration Bureaucracy (street-level) Technocracy Adhocracy Service (Public / Civil)
Policy Public policy (doctrine) Domestic policy Foreign policy Civil society Public interest
Government branches Separation of powers Legislature Executive Judiciary Election commission
Related topics Sovereignty Polity / State (Politeia / Nation / Civilization / Territorial / Rump / Quasi / Warlord) Theories of political behavior Biology and political orientation Political organisations Critique of political economy
Subseries Electoral systems Elections voting Unitarism Federalism Government (forms / Governance) Ideology Culture Political campaigning Political parties
Politics portal
v t e

A senate is a

Many countries have an assembly named a senate, composed of senators who may be elected, appointed, have inherited the title, or gained membership by other methods, depending on the country. Modern senates typically serve to provide a chamber of "sober second thought" to consider legislation passed by a lower house, whose members are usually elected. Most senates have asymmetrical duties and powers compared with their respective lower house meaning they have special duties, for example to fill important political positions or to pass special laws. Conversely many senates have limited powers in changing or stopping bills under consideration and efforts to stall or veto a bill may be bypassed by the lower house or another branch of government.^[2]

Overview

The modern word senate is derived from the

In Australia and Canada, only the upper house of the federal parliament is known as the Senate. All Australian states other than Queensland have an upper house known as a Legislative council. Several Canadian provinces also once had a Legislative Council, but these have all been abolished, the last being Quebec's Legislative council in 1968.

In Germany, the last Senate of a State parliament, the Senate of Bavaria, was abolished in 1999.

Senate membership can be determined either through elections or appointments. For example, elections are held every three years for half the membership of the Senate of the Philippines, the term of a senator being six years. In contrast, members of the Canadian Senate are appointed by the Governor General upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, holding the office until they resign, are removed, or retire at the mandatory age of 75.

Alternative meanings

The terms senate and senator, however, do not necessarily refer to a second chamber of a legislature:

• The Senate of Finland was, until 1918, the executive branch and the supreme court.
• The
  Senate of Latvia (lv
  ) fulfilled a similar judicial function during the interbellum (1918–1940).
• In German politics:
  • In the
    Senate of Hamburg), the senates (Senat in German) are the executive branch, with senators (Senator) being the holders of ministerial portfolios.^[5]
  • In a number of cities which were former members of the
    Hanse (a medieval confederacy of port cities mainly at the shores of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea), such as Greifswald, Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, or Wismar, the city government is also called a Senate. However, in Bavaria
    , the Senate was a second legislative chamber until its abolition in 1999.
• In German jurisprudence:
  • The term Senat (senate) in higher
    Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
    consists of two senates of eight judges each. In its case the division is mostly of an organizational nature, as a matter of dividing the work load; both senates handle the same kind of constitutional cases. At some points in the past, one senate was considered more conservative and the other more liberal, but that is not the case as of 2011.
• In
  Senators of the College of Justice
  .
• In some, mostly federal countries with a unicameral legislature, some of the legislators are elected differently from the others and are called senators. In federal countries, such senators represent the territories, while the other members represent the people at large (this device is used to allow a federal representation without having to establish a bicameral legislature); this is the case with
  States of Jersey.^[6]
• In
  National Assembly for Wales", which in May 2020 adopted the name "Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament" with the term "Senedd" becoming the common short name for the institution in both languages of Welsh and English
  . There is no direct translation of the word "Parliament" in Welsh, with Senedd (being a cognate of Senate) meaning both "Senate" and "Parliament".
• An academic senate is the governing body of some universities.
• In Greece during the early stages of the Greek War of Independence, various local legislative and executive bodies were established by the Greek rebels. Two of them were styled "senate": the Peloponnesian Senate and the Senate of Western Continental Greece.

List of national senates

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Austria
• Australia
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Belgium
• Belize
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Chile
• Colombia
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of Congo
• Czech Republic
• Dominican Republic
• Egypt
• Eswatini
• France
• Gabon
• Germany
• Grenada
• Haiti
• India
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Ivory Coast
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Kazakhstan
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Nepal
• Netherlands
• Nigeria
• Palau
• Pakistan
• Paraguay
• Philippines
• Poland
• Romania
• Russia
• Rwanda
• Saint Lucia
• Somalia
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• Trinidad and Tobago
• United States
• Uzbekistan
• Uruguay
• Wales
• Zimbabwe

Defunct and unestablished senates

See also: List of abolished upper houses

Abolished in favor of

unicameral

system

• 1863 Greece^{[Note 1]}
• 1904 Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina
• 1954 Maldives^[7]
• 1958 Sudan
• 1966 Kenya (restored in 2013)^{[Note 2]}
• 1971 Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
• 1979 Iran
• 1990 Tucumán Province, Argentina
• 1981 South Africa^{[Note 3]}
• 1993 Republic of China (Taiwan)^{[Note 4]}
• 2000
  Bavaria, Germany
• 2001 Córdoba Province, Argentina
• 2005 Chad (restored in 2023)^{[Note 5]}
• 2017 Mauritania

Legislature disbanded

603 Roman Republic/Empire

1204

Byzantine Empire

1865

Confederate States of America

1831–1879 Montenegro

1931–1941

Yugoslavia

1939 Czechoslovakia

1947

British Burma

1958 Cuba

1959 Iraq

1961

South Korea

1969

Libya

1972 Northern Ireland

1972 Philippines (restored in 1987)^{[Note 6]}

1974 Ethiopia

1975 South Vietnam

1979 Rhodesia

New constitution adopted

1847

Costa Rica^{[Note 7]}

1866 Sweden

1871

Costa Rica^{[Note 7]}

1886 El Salvador^{[Note 8]}

1890 Japan

1901–1903 Serbia

1917 Russia

1919

Costa Rica^{[Note 7]}

1919 Finland

1926 Portugal

1928

Albania

1930 Bahia, Brazil

1930 Ceará, Brazil

1930 Pernambuco, Brazil

1930 São Paulo, Brazil

1935 Philippines (restored in 1945)^{[Note 6]}

1937 Ireland

1949 Malta

1950 Indonesia (restored in 2001 as Regional Representative Council)

1964 British Guiana (now Guyana)

1970 Ceylon

1978 Ecuador

1978 Philippines (restored in 1987)^{[Note 6]}

1979

Iran

1979 Nicaragua

1982 Turkey^{[Note 9]}

1993

Peru

2000 Venezuela

2012

Senegal

2013 Fiji

Senate unestablished, though foreseen by the Constitution

1989 Lebanon

1994 Malawi

1995 Georgia

2004

Iraq

2015

Central African Republic

Notes

1. ^ A Greek Senate was reestablished in 1927, and abolished again in 1935.
2. ^ The Kenyan Senate and House of Representatives were combined into a single National Assembly, under the 2010 Constitution, the Senate is the upper house, with the National Assembly becoming the lower house.
3. ^ A South African Senate was reconvened between 1994 and 1997, before being replaced by the National Council of Provinces.
4. ^ The Control Yuan existed as a parliamentary body in the 1947 Chinese constitution which were elected by provincial legislators for a duration of 6 years. After the Chinese Civil War, the government was transferred to Taiwan. In the constitutional reforms of the 1990s, the Control Yuan is now a purely auditory body, and its 29 members are nominated by the president, and confirmed by the Legislative Yuan for a duration of 6 years. Since 2005, the Legislative Yuan is now the nation's sole parliamentary body.
5. ^ The Senate was recreated by the Chadian constitution of 2018 but it was ratified after the 2023 constitutional referendum.
6. ^ ^{a b c} The Philippine Senate was abolished and restored twice. A new constitution in 1935 abolished the Senate but an amendment in 1941 restored it in 1945. In 1972, Congress was prevented from convening, and a passage of a new constitution in 1973 confirmed the abolition of the Senate; an approval of a new constitution in 1987 restored it.
7. ^ ^{a b c} The 1844 Constitution of the Republic of Costa Rica Archived 2011-01-24 at the Wayback Machine provided for a Senate; the Constitution of 1847 Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine, which replaced it, established a unicameral legislature. The Senate was reestablished by the Constitution of 1859 Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine; the country reverted to unicameralism with the adoption of the 1871 Constitution Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine. Costa Rica briefly restored the Senate and bicameralism with the adoption of the 1917 Constitution Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine, but that constitution was abrogated in 1919, whereupon the 1871 Constitution was restored; it remained in effect until 1949, when Costa Rica adopted its present Constitution, which provides for a unicameral legislature.
8. ^ The 1841 Constitution of the Republic of El Salvador established a bicameral legislature with a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. The 1886 constitution replaced the bicameral legislature with a unicameral one.^[8]
9. ^ The Turkish Senate did not function after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état and was legally abolished with the adoption of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey.

See also

• Senator for life

References

1. ^ Encyclopedia Americana. Americana Corporation. 1965.
2. ^ Bicameral Legislatures: An international Comparison. Betty Drexhage. The Hague. 2015.
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary: senate
4. ISBN 978-0-415-92230-2
   .
5. Senate of Hamburg
   .
6. ^ Removal of Jersey senator roles given final approval, BBC News, 22 April 2021
7. ^ Zulfa, Mariyam. "'Developing Constitutional Culture in the Context of Constitutional Implementation': The Case of the Maldives' First Democratic Constitution" (PDF). law.unimelb.edu.au. Melbourne Forum on Constitution-Building.
8. ^ Haggerty, Richard A. (ed.), El Salvador: A Country Study (1990), p. 144

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Senate".

• Livius.org: Roman Senate
• Encyclopedia Britannica on Senate