Bicameral Negotiation: Reconciling Two Chambers
How legislatures with two chambers resolve differences between competing versions of the same bill, from conference committees to the navette system.
Why Two Chambers?
About 40% of the world's legislatures are bicameral — with two separate chambers that must both approve legislation. The logic varies. In federal systems like the US, Germany, and Australia, the upper house represents states or regions. In historically aristocratic systems like the UK, the upper house originally represented the nobility. In some systems, the second chamber simply provides a 'cooling saucer' for deliberation, forcing legislation through a second round of scrutiny.
The practical consequence is that a bill must pass both chambers, and the two chambers almost always produce different versions. The House might set a program's funding at $50 billion while the Senate sets it at $35 billion. The Lords might add an amendment the Commons opposes. Resolving these differences is the final and often most intense legislative negotiation.