Representative Assembly, Parliament, and Legislature

Terms

• Representative Assembly, Parliament, and Legislature are three terms used for lawmaking bodies
• Representative assembly serves as the generic term for all types of bodies
• Legislature is a body of persons with the power to legislate

Properties of American Legislatures Compared with Other Official Bodies

• Legislatures are the lawmaking bodies that function in Washington DC
• American legislatures can be distinguished from appellate courts, bureaucracies, executives, etc.
• Legislatures are multimember bodies, unlike elected executives
• Legislatures deliberate before acting and make formal decisions by voting

Legislatures and Representation

• Legislatures arise from the population they govern and are elected representative assemblies
• Legislators are accountable to voters because voters can deny them reelection
• Only legislatures are multimember, deliberative, make decisions by voting, arise from the populations subject to their rules, and are subsequently accountable to those populations

Types of Legislative Forms

• Legislative forms, meaning mechanisms for lawmaking, differ based on specialization and openness
• In closed government systems, lawmaking is done by a junta or small clique
• In open but unspecialized systems, lawmaking is done by direct democracy
• Rubber-stamp legislatures formally exist in closed systems
• "Rubber stamps” legislatures may exist to provide legitimacy, convert public opinion, or identify political talent

Open Governments and Specialized Legislatures

• In open government systems with a specialized legislative, lawmaking happens in either a parliamentary arena or transformative legislature
• Parliamentary systems are distinguished by the head of government being dependent on parliament's support
• Parliamentary systems do not separate powers between legislative and executive branches but differentiate between the head of government and the head of state
• Legislation is developed by the government and debated in parliament where lawmakers rarely transform legislation
• Presidential systems are governments of a republic where the executive branch is elected separately
• Presidential governments are defined by the election process of the executive, who is both head of state and head of government and has a fixed term
• Representative assemblies in presidential systems are “transformative legislatures”
• Transformative legislatures generate, amend, or change legislative proposals
• The ability to propose and transform legislative proposals distinguishes legislatures from parliaments

Number of Chambers

• Institutional distinction to introduce is the number of chambers/houses that constitute the representative assembly
• Unicameral means one chamber
• Bicameral means two chambers
• Tricameral means three chambers

Unicameral vs Bicameral National Assemblies

• Advocates of unicameral legislation argue for greater efficiency and accountability to constituents
• Advocates of bicameral legislatures argue for more careful deliberation
• Almost every American legislature, Congress and 49 state legislatures, is bicameral, making the USA unique
• Most national assemblies today are unicameral

American Exceptionalism and Tricameralism

• Tricameral legislatures have rarely been established in world history
• South Africa had a tricameral legislature with different houses for white individuals, mixed races, and African/Asian races
• South Africa now has a bicameral Parliament where the national assembly is directly elected by voters and the National Council of Provinces is elected by the provinces

Colonial Assemblies

• In Virginia, a representative assembly met in 1619 to promote economic stability
• Assemblies in Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts were rooted in colonial charters
• Other colonies established assemblies at the request of external proprietary boards

Changes In Assemblies

• In Virginia, the governor and councilors met with two elected representatives
• New England's governmental form in consisted of a governor, a council, and a general assembly of all the colony's freemen
• The general assemblies became representative bodies as it became impractical for all freemen to participate
• Maryland was a hybrid case where freemen could attend/elect a representative
• Later colonies established representative bodies from the outset

Rise of Bicameralism

• Bicameral legislatures emerged in the colonies because councilors were agents of the Crown or proprietors and representatives were elected agents of the colonies' freemen
• The council and general assembly first became irrevocably separate chambers in Massachusetts in the early 1630s
• In Massachusetts the most prominent dispute involved a legal case involving a wandering pig.
• Bicameralism became established as a norm in colonies like Georgia, Nova Scotia, and Price Edward Island
• Pennsylvania started bicameral and became unicameral in 1701
• Delaware, which split from Penn in 1703

Bicameralism Differences And Little Parliaments

• Bicameralism in the American colonies and British version differed
• The House of Lords and House of Commons split due to representation of different classes
• In the colonies, upper houses consisted of appointees of the Crown or proprietor
• The assemblies were not clones of the British parliamentary system
• The assemblies were fully legislative bodies.

Colonial Lawmaker

• Colonial Lawmakers were Lawyers, Burgess, or Delegates

Who Could Serve

• In Pennsylvania, men of most "virtue, wisdom, and ability"
• In Virginia, persons of "knowne integrity" over "one & twenty years"
• In New Hampshire, freeholders with a 40 Shilling Per Annum income

Assemblies to State Legislatures

• By 1774, only assemblies in Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island enjoyed enough powers
• Provincial Congresses, looked and acted like the unicameral continental congress because governors loathed them meeting

Arguments for Bicameralism

• John Adams argued unicameral legislatures result in hasty and absurd judgments
• Ben Franklin asserted a bicameral legislature was like putting one horse before a cart and one behind it
• Pennsylvania's constitution influenced Georgia and Vermont, which created a unicameral legislature
• Legislative supremacy placed the legislature as the dominant branch of government.

Legislative Supremacy

• Early state constitutions legislatures elected both the governors
• In 1786, Rhode Island Supreme court refused to enforce a legal tender law Congress under the Articles
• Congress under the Articles was unicameral with all members appointed by their state legislature
• Members could be recalled
• There were between 2 and 7 members per state with one vote per state

Congress Under The Articles

• Term was one year, term limit for legislative office, and congressional pay by state Problems with the Articles
• The amendment process required agreement by all states.
• The power to coin money came from both US and states
• The financing of the national government: taxes were apportioned by congress, but collected by states

Legislative Experience of Signers

• 39 men Constitution in 1787
• 18 had served in colonial assemblies
• 32 served in state legislatures
• John Dickinson had been a member of both the Delaware and Pennsylvania Assemblies

Legislative Features of the US Constitution

• Article I
• Section I: All of section 1 - State Representative: 25 years old, 7 year citizen, inhabitant of that state
• Section 2.3 Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states
• Section 2.4 Must be elected cannot be appointed
• Section 2.5: Speaker and other officers
• Senators from each state, for six years
• Section 3.2 shall be equally divided into three classes
• Senator: 30 years old, 9 years a citizen in that state election time

Requirements for Senators And The President

• Senate, shall have no vote, unless they are equally divided
• A President pro tempore, absence of the VP or when they choose Pro tempore and other officer.
• The senate shall trials requires ½ members
• 4.1 Congress can make such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.
• The 4.2 Congress shall assemble at least once in every year.
• 5.1: Each house as the judge of the member, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business.

House Rules

• 5.2: Each House its proceedings, and with punish members member.
• 5.3: Each House a jounral desires %.
• 5.4: Neither house, consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to their. during the session of congress, shall
• 6. 1: (modified by the 27th Amendment),Can't from attending
• 6. 2: No senator or representative civil office under the

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• 7. 1: All bills may propose
• 7. 2: Every bill which with objections house shall agree

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• XVII compose vacancies a state shall issue
• XX meet such be elections representatives, Treaties

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