Upper house

The House of Lords is sometimes seen as having a special role of safeguarding the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom and important civil liberties against ill-considered change.

For example, the consent of the upper house to legislation may be necessary (though, as noted above, this seldom extends to budgetary measures).

In recent times, parliamentary systems have tended to weaken the powers of upper houses relative to their lower counterparts.

Some upper houses have been fully abolished; others have had their powers reduced by constitutional or legislative amendments.

Also, conventions often exist that the upper house ought not to obstruct the business of government for frivolous or merely partisan reasons.

It is also common that the upper house consists of delegates chosen by state governments or local officials.

Similarly, at the state level, one-third of the members of the State Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) are nominated by local governments, one-third by sitting legislators, and the rest are elected by select members of the electorate.

Many jurisdictions once possessed upper houses but abolished them to adopt unicameral systems, including Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Mauritania, New Zealand, Peru, Sweden, Turkey, Venezuela, many Indian states, Brazilian states, Canadian provinces, subnational entities such as Queensland, and some other jurisdictions.

All other Australian states continue to have bicameral systems, though all members are now directly elected (the two self-governing territories, along with Norfolk Island until 2016, have always been unicameral).