Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Legislatures

Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Legislatures

What is Unicameral Legislature?

It is a form of legislature where only one house (one central unit) exists to make and implement laws for the state/country. To understand it clearly, let’s categorize it into two parts:

Unicameral National Legislature

In the case of Unicameral Union Parliament, the first example can be given of the country China where the National People’s Congress is the national legislature and is the highest organ of the nation. There is no other organ in China which administers laws for the country. A few other examples of the nations that have Unicameral National Legislatures are:

1. Iran
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Hungary

Unicameral State Legislature

In the case of the unicameral state legislature, Indian states are best examples to understand. Aspirants might know that in India, a few states’ parliaments are unicameral in nature i.e. they have only one house to make a law. In states, these are called as Legislative Assemblies.

Out of 28 Indian States, there are 24 states which have a unicameral structure. The list of these states are given below:

1. Arunachal Pradesh
2. Assam
3. Chhattisgarh
4. Delhi
5. Goa
6. Gujarat
7. Haryana
8. Himachal Pradesh
9. Jharkhand
10. Kerala
11. Madhya Pradesh
12. Manipur
13. Meghalaya
14. Mizoram
15. Nagaland
16. Odisha
17. Puducherry
18. Punjab
19. Rajasthan
20. Sikkim
21. Tamil Nadu
22. Tripura
23. Uttarakhand
24. West Bengal

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What is Bicameral Legislature?

It is a legislative body with two houses. India is one such example where there are two houses both at union and also at 6 of its 28 states. In a bicameral legislature, the function to administer and implement the laws are shared between the two houses.

At the central level, the Indian Parliament has two houses:

1. Lok Sabha (Lower House)
2. Rajya Sabha (Upper House)

At the state level, six of the 28 state legislatures have two houses:

1. Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha)
2. Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad)

The names of the six states having bicameral legislature are:

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Bihar
3. Karnataka
4. Maharashtra
5. Telangana
6. Uttar Pradesh

Basic Differences between Unicameral and Bicameral

Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral	Unicameral	Bicameral
Number of House	One	Two
Sharing of Power	Concentrated in one house	Shared between two houses
System of Government	Unitary	Federal
Decision-Making	Flexible and efficient as bills are introduced and passed in only a single house	Time-Consuming as both the houses have to pass the bill hence, their approval is a tedious task
Deadlock	Rare to None	Common as the two houses can disagree on a bill hence, a deadlock appears which is sorted with the help of joint sitting
Members	Elected/Nominated	Elected/Nominated