Talk:Bicameralism

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hmmm... the U.S. has a bicameral legislature. It has a Congress: it doesn't have a Parliament, bicameral or otherwise. -- Someone else 20:06 8 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Yes, I've tried to made it clear that this page covers both legislatures and parliaments. Alex756 04:20, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Ah, but you're being frustrated in your goal by the article's title. Not that I can necessarily think of a better one. -- Someone else 04:22, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I though of breaking the redirect, but I really don't think we need four different articles for bicameral parliament, bicameral legislature, unicameral parliament and unicameral legislature — the basic political science concept is the same and after all Wikipedia is not a dictionary. — Alex756 04:30, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

It's only disk space, and four redirects is fewer than many less informative articles have. I don't think it's just a dictionary definition, but if it were, it wouldn't belong under any name. What would you call the common concept? Bicameral body or Bicameral assembly or Bicameral assemblage? bicamerality? -- Someone else 04:37, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I think the most basic term is legislature or legislative body, that come from the latin because it is a place where laws (leg) are made. Of course someone else would argue that parliament come from the French, parler and that in English common law countries where we have the Law French tradition one should use parliament, but no one calls the US Congress a parliament and that has been confused with the adoption, albeit after the fact, of the term parliamentary system as mostly applying to Commonwealth countries. The basic line here is that I don't think parliament or legislature really need to be distinguished much, as words they mean the same thing, and I do not think using an adjective (bicameral or unicameral) as a page name is a good idea. If you want to start making redirects I could think of a long list of alternates to which bicameral and unicameral could be tacked onto such as: deliberative body, deliberative assembly, legislative assembly, leglislative body, general assembly, deliberative organ of government, legislative council, legislative chamber, house of representatives, legislature, national assembly, parliament, or maybe even bicameralism etc., ... Unless I come on one of these terms being used and not redirected here, I see no reason to create orphaned redirects; actually maybe some of those articles should be merged together, there are a lot of different terms basically that mean the same thing. Alex756 05:11, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I moved this to bicameralism. Hopefully this term is sufficiently generic for our international encyclopedia. --Minesweeper 02:06, Nov 12, 2003 (UTC)

I have removed the following from the end of the paragraph about aristocratic bicameralism " and the ability of the House of Lords to block legislation has been reduced." The Lords act did not change the powers of the house of lords, it merely reduced the number of hereditary peers.

The most recent changes might not have, but the earlier Parliament Act (1911) did, didn't it? I've readded the sentence. -- Vardion 20:48, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] etymology

I would like to see a little etymology. For instance "kamer" is Dutch for "chamber". --MarSch 15:15, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

The term "bicameralism" (along with, I presume, the Dutch word) comes from the Latin "camera", meaning "chamber". (Plus "bi", meaning "two", of course). I'm unclear on the policy regarding etymologies, however — maybe it's better at Wiktionary rather than Wikipedia? I wouldn't really know. -- Vardion 20:20, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Anglican Diocesan Synods.

Surely, one can also regard the Diocesan Synods in the Anglican Church as being a bicameral system - House of Clergy & House of Laity. As one who has been to a Synod, I know this is definitely the case here in Wellington, New Zealand. - (Aidan Work 06:30, 25 November 2005 (UTC))

[edit] Merge with Senate?

The article Bicamerialism may be merged with Senate. Why? Senate is the most common term for the noble chamber in a bicameral system.82.83.104.114 20:26, 27 August 2006 (UTC)