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>> Uh, while it's very safe, and it moves very deliberately, the problem, the down side with
bicameralism is that it's very difficult to get things done.
[music playing]
>> Today the concept is bicameralism,
uh... Professor Obazuaye, define the term bicameral for our students.
>> bicameral legislature
is a legislature or a lawmaking body with two houses. In the United
States, we have the House of Representatives and the Senate, that
makes up our Congress.
>> All right now, Professor Reece, we've had uh, a
pretty uh... extensive discussion about this going in; I mean, what's the
basic idea or purpose behind dividing a legislature into two different bodies
or houses? >> Yeah, well, there's kind of two theories uh... around
this uh... one is that the founding fathers when they were
trying to figure out what the new United States government was going to look like,
they couldn't agree on... they had the Virginia plan, the New Jersey plan, and so they
just put them together as a compromise and called it the Connecticut compromise, or the
great compromise. So some people say that's just pragmatism that
put us in this direction of bicameralism. Others say the founding fathers
were more intentional than that, they wanted to set up two houses, the House and Senate, so
that
it'd would be actually difficult for legislatures to make law.
>> All right now, that makes sense; I mean, we can tie in some other concepts, Professor
Obazuaye,
how about, uh, the checks and balances, I mean, that's a, a key
component of the American system of democracy. Uh... how does bicameralism
relate, uh, relate to the system of checks and balances? >> That uh...
that is true, uh... it helps us understand the, the concept of separation of powers
with checks and balances,
uh... so that when, when, when, one house passes a law, if the other house doesn't
pick it up, the law does not actually proceed, uh, mature to go
to the president for it's uh... his action or signature.
So, in that sense, it helps to
uh, create uh...
more debates and more ideas so to, to, to, provide for a solid uh...
law. >> Okay, so, Professor Reece, I guess both of you can, uh, chime in here. So, what
are the current
or contemporary examples that we have of bicameralism at work and why it's
important? >> You know, there're several... I think two biggies that we have are the
ongoing debate over health care; you know, uh... we passed, uh, a sweeping health care reform
during the Obama Administration, and then the House of Representatives
tried to repeal it, and the Senate said they wouldn't do it. So, it's a good example of
how bicameralism is working to slow the process down.
Uh... another example is with the uh... the federal budget. So, we've been, uh,
trying to pass a federal budget, a lot of uh... you know, fighting
going back and forth between the House and the Senate, and they really had to compromise before they get
something passed. >> Okay, so what's the potential connection, I guess, between bicameralism
and gridlock?
>> I think there's a direct connection. Uh... that's part of... that's the down side of
bicameralism, while it's very safe, and it moves very deliberately, the problem... the
down side bicameralism is that it's very difficult to get things.
>> I guess that's the last word! Thank you very much! Great discussion you guys! See you
the next time!