Nine upper houses are analyzed in this book: the United States Senate, the German Bundesrat, the Australian Senate, the Canadian Senate, the French Senat, the British House of Lords, the Italian Senato, the Spanish Senado, and the Polish Senat. Although about a third of the world parliaments are bicameral, bicameralism has only recently come under scrutiny by political leaders in both stable and emerging democracies. In the United Kingdom and Canada, long-established upper houses are under intense pressure to reform; in Germany and Italy, upper houses have evolved to play a major role in...