Parliament of the Istalian Republic Parlamento della Repubblica Istaliana | |
---|---|
Seal of the Istalian Parliament | |
Type | |
Type | |
Houses |
Senate of the Republic Chamber of Deputies |
Term limits | 4 years |
History | |
Founded | 5, 3364 |
Preceded by |
Chamber of Deputies (as unicameral legislature) |
Succeeded by | National Congress of the Istalian Republic |
Structure | |
Seats |
100 (Senate) 635 (Chamber) |
Length of term | 4 years |
Elections | |
Corrected proportional system | |
Proportional system | |
Senate of the Republic first election | May 4134 |
Chamber of Deputies first election | May 3364 |
Senate of the Republic last election | April 4542 |
Chamber of Deputies last election | April 4542 |
Meeting place | |
Palace of the Republic | |
Senate Room | |
Chamber of Deputies Room | |
Website | |
www.assembleanazionaledistalia.gov.ist |
The Parliament of the Istalian Republic (Istalian: Parlamento della Repubblica Istaliana) was the national legislative body of the Fourth Istalian Republic since 3364 until 4542. It was a bicameral legislature with 605 elected members. It was composed of the Chamber of Deputies (Istalian language: Camera dei Deputati) and the Senate of the Republic (Istalian: Senato della Repubblica), respectively, under the most recent reform, of 505 and 100 members, called in italian the former Deputati and the latter Senatori. The two houses were independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution.
History[]
The first legislative body in the Istalian land was the Chamber of Representatives of the Kingdom of Istalia, established in 1848 granted by the king Vittorio Alessandro II after a long period of struggle between the absolut monarchy and the democratic bourgeois forces. Even though the elections were open only to a few people, chosen according to the census, it was in Istalia the first Parliament with the effective power to determinate the fate of the Governments.
After the Quanzari conquest of the island the Istalian Parliament on the Island, as it is called to distinguish it by the future Parliaments of the Istalian Republics, was dissolved and in Quanzar for more then a century the only admitted elective body was the House of Councillors (Majatran: مجلس المستشارين, translitteration: Majlis al-Moustacharine) a merely consultative body formed by Councillors appointed by the Emir, by the ahmadi clergy and by the professional and social world and finally by Councillors elected by a very narrow electorate based on census and ethnicity.
The House of Councillors in 1947 was transformed in the Parliament of Quanzar ((Majatran: البرلمان قانزاري, translitteration: al-barlaman qanzari) and to contain the democratic forces of the country its powers were expanded as well as the electorate even if the Emir continued to appoint a large part of the 100 members. Finally in 2095, forced by a popular uprising, the Emir granted to the Parliament the power to appoint and to deceive the Government and in 2097 took place the first election in which all the members were directly elected. However the electorate were still limited and in fact only few thousand of citizens voted at the time. But it wasn't too long before the universal suffrage was granted by the NeoSocialist Government and in 2109 all the Quanzar's citizens were admited to vote. Since 2097 the leftist forces controlled constantly the Parliament until that they led a revolution which overthrone the Emir in 2110 and that, after few years of turmoil, established the Union of the Quanzari Soviets in which theparliament was called People's Assembly.
When the Quanzari Union was about to fall, finally the istalian ethnicity arise and when was founded the first istalian republic, for the first 30 years called as Quanzarian Republic, the Parliament finally changed its name and in 2263 was officially called Parliament of Istalia and, as unicameral parliament, maintained this name until the end of the third millennium when was renamed National Assembly, maintaining this name until the Restoration of the Quanzari rule by part of majatran forces in the 32nd century.
After the restoration of the democracy and the foundation of the Fourth Republic, the Parliament assumed again the name with which has been called until today. The fourth Republic, however, to avoid in the future another fall of the istalian democratic institutions (the Fourth Republic was founded after the end of the third Quanzarian restoration), decided to establiah a Parliament based on a bicameral system, an imperfect bicameral system with a strong Low Chamber but an Upper Chamber whose positive consent is necessary to change the Constitution, Upper Chamber elected on regional basis so to strengthen the demographic weight in each individual region of the various ethnicities and so of the preponderant istalian ethnic component.
The Senate of the Republic was created and it worked, since the fourth Istalian Republic lasts for almost a thousand years.
The Lower Chamber was so officially called with the unformal name with which was always also known, Chamber of Deputies.
Powers[]
The Parliament of Istalian was a bicameral body formed by an upper chamber, the Senate of the Republic, and a Low Chamber, the Chamber of Deputies.
The power of the two Chambers however differed a lot so as to constitute an imperfect bicameralism system in which most part of the powers rely to the Lower Chamber.
Colloquially and by the press the two Houses were called the Chamber and The Senate.
The Chamber[]
The Chamber of Deputies, since 4354 elections, had 505 seats and was elected with a pure proportional system based on five costituencies which, as well as for the Senate, corresponding to the five istalian regions. The Chamber of Deputies was the only government body which could approve the laws, the budget laws, the treaties and which can declared war.
The Chamber of Deputies, as one of its main and major power, was also the only Chamber which could give the confidence to the Government as well as express a vote of no-confidence for the Prime Minister of the Republic, and so for all the Cabinet or for single ministers.
The electoral system forecasted a correction given by an electoral law Electoral Law called "Honoris" which allowed and promoted the formation of pre-electoral coalition for the parties, especially those which supported a common candidate to the Presidency, a system which introduced majoritarian tendencies and a strong coalition responsibility which forced to a greater stability.
The Senate[]
The Upper Chamber, the Senate of the Republic, had 100 members and it acted as a consultative body and as chamber of the regions, it could propose bills, send recommendation to the other Chamber and to the Government and it had part into the legislative process about the regional, local and constitutional matters. However, the Chamber of Deputies could always overcome any decision taken by the Senate if more than half of all the members of the Chamber of Deputies voted to reject it exept for the Constitutional changement: in this case the Chamber could not work alone due that a constitutional law to pass indeed requires a qualified majority of 2/3 also by the Senate. Since 4196, the Senators were elected with a corrected proportional system based on a national and five regional costituencies: each region elected 16 senators of which 10 were expressed by the party with the relative majority, 5 by the second one and 1 by the third one. Then the last 20 Senators were elected into a national constituency which seats were allocated using the d'Hondt method.
Electoral results[]
See: Electoral history of the Istalian Parliament
For the electoral results between 4150 and the end of the Fourth Republic see also the electoral results history of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic.
Location[]
Since 4238 both the Chamber and the Senate were seated in the Palace of the Republic but for almost two century the two branches of the Istalian Parliament was seated in two different places. The Senate was seated in the Palace of the Congregation, ancient seat of a Church's council-like institution of the Romula's Clergy.
The Chamber of Deputies instead met in the Palace of Quanzari Soviets built to host special sessions of modern Parliament in Romula, alternatively with the one in the Capital Nicomopolis, and meeting of the Representatives of the Councils of Workers, at the time of the socialist Union of Quanzari Soviets. However, at the begining of 43rd century the palace resulted in critic condition and in need of serious restructuring. For this reason the Republic take the decision to buil a totally newly building to bring back together the two Houses.
In fact, previously, the Parliament was seated into Palace of Parliament (Istalia) until its destruction in 4042 by part of the leftist terrorist which targetted the Republic just before the Civil War of 4044-4045.
This first palace was built between 2241 and 2246 in Revival style to host the Parliament of the Quanzarian Republic, first democratic state of Quanzar and first state which saw the Istalians rule effectively their nation. The Palace had an important role among the landmarks of the nation, because in this building Carlo Aurelio Gianti declared founded the first Istalian Republic. The destruction of the Palace was a great lose for the history of the Republic and of the architecture, and was the pretext for Antonio Battisti to demand special powers with which in the next two years established his personal regime.
Seal of the Istalian Parliament[]
The Parliament had its own seal or, properly, an emblem, based on the same scheme adopted for the seals of the President of the Republic and of the Prime Minister of the Republic, thus consisting of a blue oval whose main axis is horizontal and in which is shown a stylized image of the facade of the Palace of the Republic under which there are the Emblem of the Republic and the inscription in Istalian "Parliament of the Istalian Republic".