CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Peters, Anna Helena Maria |
|---|---|
| Title | Bicameralism in unitary constitutional monarchies: abolishment or reinvention? Examining the (former) Upper Houses of the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden |
| Summary | This thesis deals with the concept of bicameralism in unitary constitutional monarchies. It comprises a first in-depth comparative study of the (former) upper houses of the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. All these (former) upper houses were aristocratic institutions that needed to reinvent following increasing calls for democratization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nevertheless, it were only the UK House of Lords and the Dutch Eerste Kamer that at least to some extent managed to do so. This thesis investigates why these houses were not abolished, when their Danish and Swedish counterparts were. It argues that in this case study upper house survival depended on an interplay between formal upper house powers, institutional complementariness and perceived legitimacy. The constitutional embeddedness of bicameralism and party-political considerations pertaining to upper house abolishment were found to be intricately linked to these three factors. All in all, this thesis suggests that the survival of originally aristocratic upper houses hinges on a challenging but not impossible balancing act, suggesting there is a future for bicameralism in the modern unitary state. |
| Supervisor | Böckenförde, Markus |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/peters_anna.pdf |
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