When it comes to American democracy, we must talk about the relationship between the Senate and the House of Representatives.
As far as the historical origin is concerned, the bicameral system in the United States has the influence of the bicameral system in the British Parliament and the continuation of the bicameral system in the colonial period. However, compared with the first two, the bicameral system in the United States has undergone great changes in organizational composition and power division. Judging from the way in which the two houses of parliament are formed, although the two houses of parliament can also adopt the total term of office of the House of Lords and the House of Commons respectively, their members are all elected, unlike the British Parliament. Members of the House of Lords are hereditary aristocrats or were appointed as counselors in colonial times. After the founding of the United States, senators began to be elected by state legislatures. 19 13 years, the seventeenth amendment to the constitution came into effect, and senators were directly elected by voters. The election of members of the House of Representatives is similar to that of Britain, which adopts a small constituency system, and each constituency produces one member. From the perspective of representative system, in both houses of the US Congress, senators represent the voters of each state and representatives represent the voters of each constituency.
Judging from the power relationship between the two houses of parliament, the main power of the British parliament belongs to the lower house, and the upper house only has the right to postpone the legislation and budget passed by the lower house. At the same time, the upper house is the highest judicial organ. The American colonial parliament not only serves as the governor's counselor's meeting, but also has the right to veto the legislation passed by the lower house and exercise judicial power with the governor. The Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States Congress have the same status and power: legislative power is exercised by both houses. Any bill passed by one house must be sent to another house for approval, and any house has absolute veto power over the bill passed by another house. If there are differences between the two houses, they can only negotiate: the equal number of members of the two houses form a consultation Committee and propose a compromise plan, which will be passed by the two houses. However, the two houses have a division of labor in some aspects: the House of Representatives has the priority to introduce financial bills, and the Senate has the right to approve treaties concluded by the President with foreign countries and agree with senior officials nominated by the President; When the impeachment case occurs, it is proposed by the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate. If no candidate wins the majority of the electoral college seats in the presidential election, the House of Representatives elects the president and the Senate elects the vice president.
Judging from the size of the two houses and the qualifications and terms of office of members, the House of Representatives is larger and the Senate is smaller. Members of both houses of Congress must be residents of the elected state. Representatives are required to be at least 25 years old, while senators must be at least 30 years old. Representatives must have been naturalized in the United States of America for seven years, while senators must have been naturalized for nine years. In this way, senators tend to be conservative and cautious in their views on various issues, and they are also more sophisticated in politics. Moreover, since all members of the House of Representatives are re-elected every two years, only one-third of senators are re-elected for a longer term. Therefore, the composition of the two houses is small, stable and continuous, while the House of Representatives has more new faces. In this regard, Hamilton and others have also pointed out that designing a "stable" Senate is conducive to preventing the House of Representatives from making "excessive and harmful" resolutions. [5] In this way, in American history, the Senate is often more conservative than the House of Representatives. After the reform bill was passed in the House of Representatives, it often ran aground or dragged on for a long time in the Senate, and the reform process was also postponed.
Judging from the representativeness of the two houses, the bicameral arrangement of the US Congress embodies the characteristics of federalism. In today's federal countries in the world, a bicameral system is implemented, with one representing the proportion of population and the other representing federal units. This arrangement is the most typical in the United States, that is, the number of members of the Senate is equal regardless of the size of the state. In the Federalist Papers, this arrangement is considered as "recognition of some sovereignty that the states still retain". It is also a means to safeguard this part of sovereignty, and points out that because the two principles of population proportion and equal representation are mixed, any law and resolution must be agreed by most people and most States, which constitutes a constraint on the legislative process and a guarantee to prevent improper legislative behavior.