Political parties often arise to represent social cleavages that exist in society – what are some social

divisions that often lead to the creation of competing political parties?

Bicameralism
What is bicameralism, why did it come to be, and how does it vary across the world?

A bicameral legislature is one in which legislative deliberation occurs in two distinct assemblies. whether a
country has a unicameral or bicameral
legislature does not affect the relationship between the legislature and the executive.
governments depend on a legislative majority to exist in
parliamentary and semi-presidential (though not presidential) democracies.
Article 94 of the Italian
constitution requires that the government must retain the support of both Houses of
Parliament—the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate—to stay in power.

Article 81 of the
German constitution allows a government that has lost a vote of confidence in the lower
house (Bundestag) to retain power for six months if it continues to enjoy the support of a
majority in the upper house (Bundesrat).

Vote of confidence - a vote showing that a majority continues to support the policy of a leader
or governing body.

having a second assembly can have a significant effect on a country’s

legislative process. Legislative process means the steps required for a proposed bill to
become a law.  the whole process includes much more than what happens in Congress. ...
The standing committees consider all bills and oversee government actions on specialized
issue areas.
This is fairly obvious when the upper chamber is powerful.which mean the upper
chamber can do as they please. The equal power of the two chambers in the United States
opens up a range of
strategic possibilities that are not always available to legislators in unicameral systems
For example, US legislators in one chamber can often get away
with voting for a politically popular but ideologically unpalatable bill if they know that
the
other chamber is going to reject it. It is much harder for legislators in a unicameral
legislature to engage in this type of position taking or credit claiming.

Second advantage
have a significant impact on the legislative process even when
the upper chamber is relatively weak. the lower house in the United Kingdom, the House
of Commons,
has had the power to make legislative decisions. The only real power that the upper
house,
the House of Lords, has in the legislative process is the ability to delay the passage of
nonfinancial legislation for two parliamentary sessions or one calendar year. very
important in the year leading
up to an election when delaying a bill may mean killing it.According to the Parliament
Acts of 1911 and 1949. As Tsebelis and Money (1997,
2) point out, the ability to delay legislation in the year prior to an election has enabled the
House of Lords to kill several pieces of significant legislation proposed by both
Conservative and Labour governments.

Legislative—Makes laws (Congress, comprised of the House of Representatives and

Senate) Executive—Carries out laws (president, vice president, Cabinet, most federal
agencies) Judicial—Evaluates laws (Supreme Court and other courts).

Members of Congress in both houses are elected by direct popular vote. Senators are
elected via a statewide vote and representatives by voters in each congressional district.