Federalism and Second Chambers: Regional Representation in Parliamentary Federations : the Australian Senate and German Bundesrat ComparedThe theory of coparative federalism asserts that federations require a second chamber for the representation of regional interests in central law-making. Yet there has been little systematic analysis of the contribution of second chambers in parliamentary federations to this task. The main purpose of this book is to demonstrate to what extent the two strongest parliamentary second chambers, the Australian Senate and the German Bundesrat are linked to the federal structures in which they are embedded. The study analyzes the contribution of the members of these second chambers in advancing interests that are linked to the regional constituents whom they represent or to the collective fiscal or administrative interests of a regional government with whom they are associated. The analysis underscores the largely 'executive' character of intergovernmental relations in parliamentary federations, a feature that corresponds with the composition of the German Bundesrat, but not of the Australian Senate. In the concluding chapter some preliminary observations are made as to whether our findings also generate interesting insights for the larger group of parliamentary second chambers in federal or quasi-federal states, such as the Belgian, Spanish and Canadian Senates, the UK House of Lords and the Indian Raiya Sabha. |
Contents
Preface | 17 |
The Role of the Second Chamber | 25 |
Selecting the Australian Senate and the German | 56 |
Copyright | |
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Aboriginal amendments Australian Democrats Australian Senate Baden-Württemberg bicameral bicameral party Bundestag cabinet Canadian Senate Canberra CDU-FDP COAG composition compromise concerns Concertation Committee consent constitutional December delegates directly elected electoral federal and regional federal government federal party executive fiscal equalization Furthermore German Bundesrat German federalism government bills Greens incongruent bicameralism intergovernmental issues Labor Party Länder Liberal senators lower chamber lower house Lower Saxony majority ment National Party native title negotiations North Rhine-Westphalia Parliament parliamentary party party branches party group party leaders party organizations party political party senators percent position powers Premiers Prime Minister proposed Queensland regional executives regional governments regional interests regional party regional representation result revenue Rhineland-Palatinate role Saxony-Anhalt seats second chamber Senate elections Senate Hansard Senate reform senator Harradine senators representing SPD-FDP strongly incongruent sub-variable suspensory veto Table Tasmania Telstra territorial tion upper house Western Australia