Reforming Senates: Upper Legislative Houses in North Atlantic Small Powers 1800-present

Description

This new study of senates in small powers across the North Atlantic shows that the establishment and the reform of these upper legislative houses have followed remarkably parallel trajectories. Senate reforms emerged in the wake of deep political crises within the North Atlantic world and were influenced by the comparatively weak positions of small powers. Reformers responded to crises and constantly looked beyond borders and oceans for inspiration to keep their senates relevant. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of figures List of contributors Preface Reforming senates in the post-revolutionary North Atlantic world: an introduction Part I The need for a senate (c. 1790–1870) 1 Senates and bicameralism in revolutionary Europe (c. 1795–1800) 2 The rise and fall of the quasi-bicameral system of Norway (1814–2007) 3 Members of the Senate in the Southern Netherlands (Belgium) between restoration and revolution (1815–1831) 4 A liberal senate: the Danish Landsting of 1849 5 The Senate of Canada: renewed life to an original intent Part II Democracy, the people and the Senate (c. 1848–1935) 6 Constitutional conservatism, anti-democratic ideology, and the elective principle in British North America’s upper legislative houses, 1848–1867 7 Aristocratic populism: the Belgian Senate and the language of democracy, 1848–1893 8 Rejecting the upper chamber: national unity, democratisation and imperial rule in the Grand Duchy of Finland, 1860–1906 9 The Swedish Senate, 1867–1970: from elitist moderniser to democratic subordinate 10 The Senate and the ‘Social Majority’: Joannes Theodorus Buys (1826–1893) and a ‘Meritocracy’ in the Netherlands (1848–1887) 11 The Irish Senate, 1920–1936 Part III Does a state still need a senate? (c. 1920–present) 12 The vitality of the Dutch Senate: two centuries of reforms and staying in power 13 Marginalising the upper house: the Liberal Party, the Senate and democratic reform in 1920s Canada 14 Vocational voices or puppets of the lower house? Irish senators, 1938–1948 15 The rise and fall of bicameralism in Sweden, 1866–1970 16 Unicameralism in Denmark: abolition of the Senate, current functioning and debate 17 Precarious bicameralism? Senates in Ireland from the late Middle Ages to the present 18 Founding principles, constitutional conventions and the representation of Francophones living outside Quebec – the Canadian Senate since 1867 Appendix Index