Note (52) — Chapter II

The question of one or two Chambers in an ordinary monarchy or commonwealth is altogether different from the same question under a Federal system. In England or France the question between one or two Chambers in the Legislature is simply a question in which of the two ways the Legislature is likely to do its work best. But in a Federal constitution, like that of Switzerland or the United States, the two Chambers are absolutely necessary. The double sovereignty, that of the whole nation and that of the independent and equal States which have joined together to form it, can be rightly represented only by having two Chambers, one of them, the Nationalrath or House of Representatives, directly representing the nation as such, and the other, the Ständerath or Senate, representing the separate sovereignty of the Cantons. In the debates early in 1872 as to the revision of the Swiss Federal Constitution, a proposal made in the Nationalrath for the abolition of the Ständerath was thrown out by a large majority.