Rola i pozycja ustrojowa izb wyższych we współczesnych demokracjach. Casus brytyjskiej Izby Lordów
The Role and Political Position of Upper Chambers in Modern Democratic States: The Case of The British House of Lords

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the position and significance of upper chambers in the modern democratic parliamentary systems. Bearing in mind the fundamental principle of parliamentary democracies, which says that the constitutional position of a representative institution is dependent on a degree of its electoral legitimacy, a large part of the article is devoted to the procedures of selecting upper houses and how those procedures influence the actual powers of these houses. The article is divided into two parts. The first one compares two different models of asymmetric and symmetrical bicameralism, the former being typical for Europe and ‘Westminster-model countries’, the latter more characteristic for the U.S., Australia, and Latin America. The second part is wholly devoted to the British of bicameral parliamentary system. It discusses the most important stages of evolution and the current functioning of the modern British parliamentary institutions. Those are issues that for a couple of reasons deserve a separate detailed analysis. Firstly, because of the role the British parliamentary system played in the development of representative institutions in many former British colonies. Secondly, due to an extremely anachronistic mode of appointment and composition of the House of Lords, where hereditary peers and Anglican clerics may still sit as ex officio parliamentarians. The last part of the article discusses the recently planned reforms of the House of Lords.

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