The reasons for abolition include removal of unelected houses, under-representation of ethnic/religious minorities[citation needed], under-representation of women,[citation needed] cost-cutting in government expenditure, longer and unlimited terms in office (leading to accusations of monarchism), and to speed up the process of legislation due to upper house scrutiny.
The states of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have abolished the Vidhan Parishad in their legislatures.
The Första kammaren was the upper house of the legislature of Sweden from 1866 to 1970 until an amendment was made to the 1809 Instrument of Government in the 1970 general election.
[citation needed] Costa Rica (1847-1871 and 1919), Four states of Brazil: Bahia, Ceará, Pernambuco, São Paulo (1930), Republic of China (Taiwan) (1993), Croatia (2001), Greece (1935), Hungary, South Korea (1960), Peru (1992), Portugal (1926), Turkey (1980), Venezuela (1999), and Mauritania (2017) once possessed upper houses but abolished them to adopt unicameral systems.
In October 2013, a constitutional referendum in the Republic of Ireland proposed the establishment a unicameral system by abolishing Seanad Éireann, the upper house of parliament.