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Control body, representative of regions, or elitist chamber of wisdom? The perceived roles of upper chambers and the case of the Czech Senate.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Control body, representative of regions, or elitist chamber of wisdom? The perceived roles of upper chambers and the case of the Czech Senate.
Authors: Hruška, Jan1 (AUTHOR) jan.hruska@mail.muni.cz, Balík, Stanislav1 (AUTHOR)
Source: Journal of Legislative Studies. Dec2025, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p989-1008. 20p.
Subject Terms: *ELITISM, *LEGISLATIVE bodies, *REPRESENTATIVE government, *CITIZEN attitudes, *LEGITIMACY of governments, *INSTITUTIONAL theory (Sociology)
Abstract: Existing research on bicameralism has paid rather limited attention to examining the legitimacy of upper chambers. This paper addresses this research gap and examines the unintended roles of upper chambers using the case of the Czech Senate. It explains how citizens perceive the role of the upper chamber and how their perceptions can differ from the chamber's actual role. The research employs content analysis of semi-structured interviews with two groups of citizens (30 in total). The results show that the Senate is perceived as an elitist, apolitical institution that is or should be composed of wise, experienced, and moral people. A minority of citizens perceive the Senate as a body representative of local interests. However, these perceptions do not correspond to reality. The difference between the Senate's perceived and real role can have both negative and positive effects on the institution's legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Database: Academic Search Index
Description
Abstract:Existing research on bicameralism has paid rather limited attention to examining the legitimacy of upper chambers. This paper addresses this research gap and examines the unintended roles of upper chambers using the case of the Czech Senate. It explains how citizens perceive the role of the upper chamber and how their perceptions can differ from the chamber's actual role. The research employs content analysis of semi-structured interviews with two groups of citizens (30 in total). The results show that the Senate is perceived as an elitist, apolitical institution that is or should be composed of wise, experienced, and moral people. A minority of citizens perceive the Senate as a body representative of local interests. However, these perceptions do not correspond to reality. The difference between the Senate's perceived and real role can have both negative and positive effects on the institution's legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:13572334
DOI:10.1080/13572334.2024.2355729