1.
Bicameralism
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A bicameral legislature is one in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. As of 2015, somewhat less than half of the national legislatures are bicameral. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods, which vary from country to country and this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members. However, in many Westminster system parliaments, the house to which the executive is responsible can overrule the other house, some legislatures lie in between these two positions, with one house only able to overrule the other under certain circumstances. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners as was the case in the Kingdom of England. Others, such as France under the Ancien Régime had a legislature known as the Estates General, which consisted of separate chambers for the clergymen, the nobility. The Founding Fathers of the United States also favoured a bicameral legislature, the idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. Benjamin Rush saw this though, and noted that, this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence, the Senate was created to be a stabilising force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the fickleness. He noted further that the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with system and with more wisdom. Madisons argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, the Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, as part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate would have states represented equally, and the House would have them represented by population. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British three-tier model, nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived. An example of controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France. The relationship between the two chambers varies, in cases, they have equal power, while in others. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments, the latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems. In the United States both houses of the U. S and this is due to their original location in the two-story building that was to house them. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister
2.
Senate of Poland
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The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years and it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the dismemberment of the Polish state in 1795. After a brief period of existence in the period the Senate was again abolished by the authorities of the Peoples Republic of Poland. It was not re-established until the collapse of communism and rebirth of democracy in Poland in 1989, the Senate is based in Warsaw and is located in a building which forms part of the Sejm Complex on Ul. Wiejska, close to Three Crosses Square and Ujazdow Castle and it consists of 100 senators elected by universal ballot and is headed by the Marshal of the Senate. The incumbent Marshal of the Senate is Senior Marshal Stanisław Karczewski, in line with Article 10, Paragraph 2, and Article 95 of the Polish Constitution of April 2,1997, the Senate and the Sejm exercises legislative power. The Senate is composed of 100 senators who are elected for a term of four years in general election in a vote by secret ballot. Alongside the Sejm, the President of the Polish Republic, the Council of Ministers and all citizens of Poland, the Senate is allowed 30 days to examine any piece of draft legislation passed by the Sejm,14 days if a bill is considered to be urgent. Any bill submitted by the Sejm to the Senate may be adopted by the latter without any amendments or amended or rejected. Any resolution of the Senate, as a result of which a bill is repealed or amended, is considered to be passed provided it has not been rejected by the Sejm, however, for the state budget, the Senate has 20 days to examine it. For amending the constitution, the Senate has 60 days for analysis, if the constitution is amended, identical wording of the amendment must be approved by both the Sejm and the Senate. The president cannot decide to stage a nationwide referendum on matters of importance unless he or she has been given explicit permission to do so by the Senate. The Senate is also empowered to examine any reports submitted by the Commissioner for the Protection of Citizens Rights, however, unlike the Sejm, the Senate has no role in providing for oversight of the executive. The Senate can be traced back approximately five hundred years to a council of royal advisors, in 1501 at Mielnik, senators attempted to force the soon to be crowned king Alexander I Jagiellon to devolve all royal powers relating to the governing of the state to them. However, whilst Alexander first agreed, after his coronation he refused to affirm this privilege, later the Nihil Novi act of 1505 affirmed the right of both the Chamber of Envoys and Senate to propagate common law for the kingdom. At this time the competences of the Senate were also laid down as pertaining to participation in legislation, foreign policy, in 1537 the Senate followed a course of action which would have seen it become the most important institution in protecting landowners’ rights and freedoms. However, this view was at odds with those of Sigismund I the Old who believed that the Senate was becoming far too powerful. Resultantly, over the period of 1562–69, the Senate lost many of its powers and influence, eventually becoming subordinate to its formerly-equal companion body, the Chamber of Envoys
3.
Sejm
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The Sejm of the Republic of Poland is the lower house of the Polish parliament. It consists of 460 deputies elected by ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. In the Kingdom of Poland, Sejm referred to the entire three-chamber parliament of Poland, comprising the house, the upper house. It was thus a three-estate parliament, since the Second Polish Republic, Sejm has referred only to the lower house of the parliament, the upper house is called the Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Sejm stems from an Old Slavic word meaning gathering and its origin was the Kings Councils, which gained power during the time of Polands fragmentation. The Sejm in Łęczyca was the most notable of these councils and it forbade arbitrary sequestration of supplies in the countryside and takeover of bishopric lands after the death of a bishop. These early Sejms were not an event, they convened at the Kings behest. After the 1493 Sejm in Piotrków, it became a regularly convening body, the bicameral system was also established there. The Sejm now comprised two chambers, the Senat of 81 bishops and other dignitaries, and the Chamber of Envoys, over time, the envoys in the lower chamber grew in number and power as they pressed the king for more privileges. The Sejm eventually became more active in supporting the goals of the privileged classes when the King ordered that the landed nobility. Its chambers reserved the final decisions in legislation, taxation, budget, and treasury matters, foreign policy, until the end of the 16th century, unanimity was not required, and the majority-voting process was the most commonly used system for voting. Later, with the rise of the Polish magnates and their increasing power, additionally, if the envoys were unable to reach a unanimous decision within six weeks, deliberations were declared void and all previous acts passed by that Sejm were annulled. From the mid-17th century onward, any objection to a Sejm resolution, by either an envoy or a senator, automatically caused the rejection of other, previously approved resolutions. This was because all resolutions passed by a session of the Sejm formed a whole resolution. It is estimated that between 1493 and 1793, a Sejm was held 240 times, the total sum of which was 44 years. The Chamber of Envoys, despite its name, consisted not only of 77 envoys from the hereditary nobility, all deputies were covered by Parliamentary immunity, with each individual serving for a term of office of six years, with half of the deputies being elected every two years. Candidates for deputy had to be able to read and write, the legal voting age was 21, except for those citizens serving in the military, the personnel of which were not allowed to vote. Parliamentary sessions were initially convened every two years, and lasted for 30 days, however, after many clashes between liberal deputies and conservative government officials, sessions were later called only four times
4.
Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland
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The Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland is a presiding officer of the Senate of Poland. Because of both order and succession order, he or she is commonly referred to as the third person in state. His deputy is the Vice-Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the role was performed by the Grand Crown Marshals. In Second Polish Republic, The office was interrupted by German invasion of Poland in 1939 and not reinstated in Peoples Republic of Poland
5.
Law and Justice
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Law and Justice, abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing national-conservative, and Christian democratic political party in Poland. With 216 seats in the Sejm and 56 in the Senate, the party was founded in 2001 by the Kaczyński twins, Lech and Jarosław. It was formed part of the Solidarity Electoral Action, with the Christian democratic Centre Agreement forming the new partys core. The party won the 2005 election, while Lech Kaczyński won the presidency, Jarosław served as Prime Minister, before calling elections in 2007, in which the party came second to Civic Platform. Several leading members, including Lech Kaczyński, died in a crash in 2010. The party programme is dominated by the Kaczyńskis conservative and law, the party is solidarist and mildly eurosceptic. PiS is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe European political party, the current sixteen PiS MEPs sit, as well as three other people elected from the PiS register, in the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. The AWS itself was created from an array of many small right-wing political parties. In the 2001 general election PiS gained 44 seats in the chamber of the Polish Parliament with 9. 5% of votes. In 2002, Lech Kaczyński was elected mayor of Warsaw and he handed the party leadership to his twin brother in 2003. In the 2005 general election, PiS took first place with 27. 0% of votes and it was almost universally expected that the two largest parties, PiS and Civic Platform, would form a coalition government. The putative coalition parties had an out, however, related to a fierce contest for the Polish presidency. In the end, Lech Kaczyński won the round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54. 0% of the vote, ahead of Donald Tusk. After the 2005 elections, Jarosław should have become Prime Minister, in July 2006 PiS formed a right-wing coalition government with the agrarian populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland and nationalist League of Polish Families, headed by Jarosław Kaczyński. Association with these parties, on the margins of Polish politics, when accusations of corruption and sexual harassment against Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Self Defense, surfaced, PiS chose to end the coalition and called for new elections. In the 2007 general election PiS managed to secure 32. 1% of votes, although an improvement over its showing from 2005, the results were nevertheless a defeat for the party, as Civic Platform gathered 41. 5%. The party won 166 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 39 seats in Polands Senate, on 10 April 2010, its former leader Lech Kaczyński died in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash. The party won the 2015 parliamentary election, this time with an outright majority—something no Polish party had done since the fall of Communism, in the normal course of events, this should have made Jarosław Kaczyński prime minister for a second time
6.
Marshal of the Sejm
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Marshal of the Sejm also known as Sejm Marshal, Chairman of the Sejm or Speaker of the Sejm is the speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th century, in modern Poland, the full title is Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also had an office of Sejmik Marshal, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, from 1861, the chairman of the Provincial Sejm of Galicia with its seat at Lwów bore the title Marszałek krajowy. The Kingdom of Poland, from 1916 to 1918, used the title Marszałek Rady Stanu, in the Second Polish Republic, the deputies elected one of their number as Marshal of the Sejm for the duration of the Sejms term. Until 1935, the Marshal or Chairman of the Sejm substituted for the President of Poland in the absence or disability. Today the Marshal of the Sejm is the chairman of the Presidium of the Sejm, the Marshal oversees the work of the Sejm, supervises procedural sessions of the Sejm, and convenes and chairs the proceedings of the Convention of Seniors and the Presidium of the Sejm. He appoints the Chief of the Chambers, and since 1989 substitutes for the President of Poland in the event of that offices vacancy, his/her deputy is the Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. Marszałek senior List of Sejm Marshals Offices in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
7.
Senate
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A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature or parliament. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate, so-called as an assembly of the senior and therefore allegedly wiser, thus, the literal meaning of the word senate is, Assembly of Elders. Many countries have a named an senate, composed of senators who may be elected, appointed, have inherited the title, or gained membership by other methods. Modern senates typically serve to provide a chamber of second thought to consider legislation passed by a lower house, whose members are usually elected. The modern word Senate is derived from the word senātus, which comes from senex, the members or legislators of a senate are called senators. The Latin word senator was adopted into English with no change in spelling and its meaning is derived from a very ancient form of social organization, in which advisory or decision-making powers are reserved for the eldest men. This form adaptation was used to show the power of those in body and for the process to be thorough. The original senate was the Roman Senate, which lasted until 580, in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Senate continued until the Fourth Crusade, circa 1202–1204. This may include minimum age required for voters and candidates, proportional or majoritarian or plurality system, typically, the senate is referred to as the upper house and has a smaller membership than the lower house. In some federal states senates also exist at the subnational level, in the United States all states with the exception of Nebraska have a state senate. There is also the US Senate at the federal level, córdoba and Tucumán changed to unicameral systems in 2001 and 2003 respectively. In Australia and Canada, only the house of the federal parliament is known as the Senate. All Australian states other than Queensland have a house known as a Legislative council. Several Canadian provinces also once had a Legislative Council, but these have all been abolished, in Germany, the last Senate of a State parliament, the Senate of Bavaria, was abolished in 1999. Senate membership can be determined either through elections or appointments, for example, elections are held every three years for half the membership of the Australian Senate, the term of a senator being six years. The terms Senate and Senator, however, do not necessarily refer to a chamber of a legislature, The Senate of Finland was, until 1919, the executive branch. The Senate of Latvia fulfilled a similar function during the interbellum. In a number of cities which were members of the Hanse, such as Greifswald, Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, or Wismar
