why does the constitution specify a bicamersl legislation?what does this mean?How is it beneficial?

Question

Describe th make-up of both houses of our national legislature, including size, representation, and terms of office.

Answer 1

Pretend Virginia had more folks at the time than Georgia. It's bicameral (two houses, "camera" being derived from Latin "box") because old fellers couldn't agree on whether states should be represented at the state level (two each, Senators) or at the people level (by population, House of Representatives) because some folks felt that the House way would give unfair advantage to, say, Virginia over Georgia whereas the State level would give unfair advantage to, say, Georgia over Virginia.

Answer 2

Bicameral means two legislative houses. In our government they are The Senate and The House of Representatives.

The Articles of Confederation, which was the document that predated the Constitution, called for a unicameral legislature wherein each state had one vote.

When the Constitution was drafted to replace the AoC, the founders felt a bi-cameral legislature would better represent the people by allowing for representation based on state population. More power could be put in the hands of the people instead of resting in one vote representing an entire state.

Also, a bicameral legislature helps to divide the power and helps to keep any one group from controlling the outcome of issues. Legislature has to pass both houses, and thus, there is more opportunity for the interests of democracy to be served.

Answer 3

A bicameral legislature means that we have two houses of Congress -- the House of Representatives and the Senate.

When the constitution was being drafted, there was a significant political division between large states and small states (and there still is today). Large states wanted the legislature to be based on population, and the small states wanted each state to have equal weight.

This led to what has been called the Great Compromise.

The House of Representatives is based on population -- the more people in a state, the more Representatives it gets. The Senate gets two seats per state, no matter the population. That means that the smallest state (Wyoming) has the same political power in the Senate as the largest state (California).

In order for a law to go to the president for his signature, it has to be passed by both the House and the Senate. The idea is that this would ensure that the bill represents the needs of both the people and the states.

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. This number is fixed by law. Each Representative is elected to a two-year term.

There are 100 members of the Senate (fifty states x 2 senators per state). Senators are elected to a six-year term.

Edit: Another answer said that there were two senators from the District of Columbia. This is untrue, as DC is not a state. The District (and other areas, like Puerto Rico) have "shadow representatives" in the House of Representatives. They can speak, but they get no vote.

Answer 4

Bicameral means that there are two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. A bill has to originate and pass in each house before it can become law. Then the president either signs it or does nothing, and it becomes law. If the president vetoes it, it takes a two-thirds majority in both houses to override his veto.
This is part of the system of Checks and Balances that the Founders created to help prevent the passage of emotional legislation. Unfortunately, today they have chosen to utilize what they call Fast Track, to push through legislation without deliberation and study of the consequences. That's why we get the Terrorism Bill and the Patriot act. These ill conceived bills were waiting in the wings for something to happen.

Answer 5

bicameral literally means "two houses". The idea was to solve a dispute between the larger states vs. the smaller states...where the smaller ones felt they would be misrepresented because of their comparative population. In order to solve this, they decided to make two house...one with representation based on population (the H of R), and one based on equal representaion for ALL states (the Senate). This forces BOTH factors to be taken into account.
A Senate term is 6 years...a H of R term is 2 years. There are currently 102 senators--2 from each state plus the District of Columbia. There's a total of 435 seats in the house.