1st Edition
Reforming Senates Upper Legislative Houses in North Atlantic Small Powers 1800-present
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.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429323119, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
List of figures
List of contributors
Preface
Karel Davids
Reforming Senates in the Post-Revolutionary North-Atlantic World. An Introduction
Nikolaj Bijleveld and Wybren Verstegen
Part I: The Need for a Senate (c. 1790-c. 1870)
Senates and Bicameralism in Revolutionary Europe (c. 1795-1800)
Joris Oddens
The Rise and Fall of the Quasi-bicameral System of Norway (1814-2007)
Eivind Smith
Members of the Senate in the Southern Netherlands (Belgium) between Restoration and Revolution (1815-1831)
Els Witte
A Liberal Senate. The Danish Landsting of 1849
Flemming Juul Christiansen
The Senate of Canada: Renewed Life to an Original Intent
David E. Smith
Part II: Democracy, the people and the senate (c. 1848-c. 1935)
Constitutional Conservatism, Anti-Democratic Ideology, and the Elective Principle in British North America’s Upper Legislative Houses, 1848-1867
Colin Grittner
Aristocratic populism. The Belgian Senate and the Language of Democracy, 1848-1893
Marnix Beyen
Rejecting the Upper Chamber: National Unity, Democratisation and Imperial Rule in the Grand Duchy of Finland, 1860-1906
Onni Pekonen
The Swedish Senate 1867-1970. From Elitist Moderniser to Democratic Subordinate
Torbjörn Nilsson
The Senate and the ‘Social Majority’. Joannes Theodorus Buijs (1826-1893) about a ‘Meritocracy’ in The Netherlands (1848-1887)
Wybren Verstegen
The Irish Senate 1920-1936
John Dorney
Part III: Does a state still need a Senate? (c. 1920-present)
The Vitality of the Dutch Senate. Two Centuries of Reforms and Staying in Power
Bert van den Braak
Marginalising the Upper House. Canada's Liberal Party, the Senate and Democratic Reform in 1920s Canada
Adam Coombs
Vocational Voices or Puppets of the Lower House? Irish Senators, 1938-1948
Martin O’Donoghue
The Rise and Fall of Bicameralism in Sweden 1866-1970
Joakim Nergelius
Unicameralism in Denmark: Abolition of the Senate, Current Functioning and Debates
Asbjørn Skjæveland
Precarious bicameralism? Senates in Ireland from the late Middle Ages to the Present
Muiris MacCarthaigh and Shane Martin
Founding principles, constitutional conventions, and the representation of Francophones living outside of Quebec in the Canadian Senate since 1867
Linda Cardinal
Index
Biography
Nikolaj Bijleveld, historian, is a staff member at the University of Groningen.
Colin Grittner teaches Canadian history in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of New Brunswick.
David E. Smith is a former president of the Canadian Political Science Association and the author of a number of books on the Canadian Parliament and on Canadian federalism.
Wybren Verstegen is Associate Professor in Economic and Social History at Vrije University, Amsterdam.