1.
The American senate
The
American federal legislature, Congress is bicameral. It consists of the House
of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate, which is the upper or second
chamber, was created to protect the interests of small states and to check the
radical tendencies of the lower chamber, the House of
Representatives.
2. Basis of Representation
The
American Senate is the upper chamber of the congress. It is the House of States
and as such represents the federal idea in the American Constitution. It is
specially provided that whatever the size fo a State, every state has the right
to send two representatives to the senate. No State can be deprived of its
right of sending two representatives without its own consent and such consent
is not likely to be given by any state.
At
present, federation comprises fifty states and its total membership is one
hundred. Navada, having a small population of 1,10,000 has the same ratio of
representation as New York with a huge population. No state, according to the
constitution, can be deprived of its equal representation without its consent.
a.
Criticism
The
fears of the founding fathers that the larger states would dominate the small
ones have been proved to be unfounded. Still the principle of equal
representation is regarded as undemocratic for it bases representation on
territorial units rather than human beings. More ever, it gives the states with
only one-fifth of the overall population more than half the senators. This
enables these states with lesser population to gang up against those with
greater population. If so, the principle of majority rule is reduced to a hoax.
3. Qualification for Membership
The constitution
prescribes the following qualifications of the Senators;
i. The minimum age requirement
is thirty years higher age requirement has the advantage that its members are
generally more seasoned and experienced persons.
ii. A candidate should be
resident of America for at least nine years.
iii. He must be the inhabitant
of the state from where he intends to contest the election.
iv. During his membership of the
Senate, no person is allowed to hold any office of profit in the government.
The
oft-quoted qualifications for the membership of the senate signify supremacy of
its membership over the lower chamber. This also accounts for the predominance
of the Senate over the lower chamber.
4.
Direct election
The
17th Amendment of 1913 provided for direct election of the Senators
by the people of the States. Every Senator is elected for six years but
one-third of the Senate is never dissolved and it becomes a perpetual House.
Every Senator gets a salary of 75,000 dollars a year. He has the freedom of
speech and also the right to freedom from arrest.
5.
Actual practice regarding election
In
actual practice, however, the Senators came to be elected in a quite different and
even corrupt fashion. Soon after, as the political parties grew up, the choice
of a Senator in a state was really made by the party convention or the
legislative caucus or, worse still, by the party bosses. Often there were
deadlocks over their choice in the state legislature, which sometimes remained
unresolved. The result was that many a time a state was represented in the congress
by one senator, and sometimes by none. From 1890 to 1912, some eleven states at
one time or another wee represented by one member only, while in 1901 Delaware
had no senator at all in Washington.
6. Duration
Senators
are elected for a period of six years but one-thirds of them retire after every
two years. Hence after every two years, new element steps in the lines of its
membership.
7.
Salary and other Privileges
Senators
enjoy some special privileges in addition to the routine one.
i. Members of the Senate cannot
be removed by impeachment.
ii. They cannot be arrested
during the sessions, save on the charge of gross misconduct, treason or
threatening public peach.
iii. Senators enjoy full freedom
of expression on the floor of the Chamber and cannot be questioned in any court
of law for expressing any views in the House.
8.
Presiding officer
American
Vice President is legally the President of the Senate as well, but due to his
pre-occupation in administrative matters, a President Protemporo, who is a member
of the majority party, performs this duty. He implements rules and regulations
and maintains discipline in the House.
9.
Working of the Senate Committees
Most
of the work of the Senate is done by its committees consisting of its members. All
parties are given representation in these committees in proportion to their
numerical strength in the House. In the very first session of the newly elected
chamber, party leaders nominate their members to different committees, while
the House formally elects them, later on.
10.
Important committees in the Senate
The
important committees are on Finance, Foreign Affairs appropriations,
Inter-State Commerce and the Judiciary. Every Senator is entitled to speak as
long as he pleases. There is no time-limit on the debates. The result is that
the right has been even misused. It is stated that Senator Smooth of Utah spoke
the whole of the night at one occasion. Again, Senator Shepherd of Taxes spoke
continuously for six hours and fifteen minutes and it is stated that in that
time he did not sit down, rest himself, nor even take a drink of water.
11.
Printing of Speeches
A
curious system of the United States of America enables the Senator to get their
speeches printed in the congressional record even if not a word of them has
been delivered in the Senate. Although these speeches are never delivered, even
then such words as applause and loud and prolonged applause occur in the record
of the Senate. A senator is also allowed to speak out a few words and they
propose that the rest of his written speech may be considered to have been
read. There is no such system in Pakistan or in England.
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