Gerald L. Curtis :: The lower house is
more powerful than the upper house, particularly because treaties, the
budget, and the selection of the prime minister are determined by the
lower house.
That is, if the upper house makes a decision that is different from
the decision made by the lower house on a treaty, on passing the budget,
and on the selection of the prime minister, the decision of the lower
house rules.
So, the upper house cannot influence those decisions as long as the
lower house has a majority — as long as a majority of the lower
house members are determined that their position will hold.
Also, if, on other legislation, the upper house votes differently from
the lower house, the lower house decision will become law if the lower
house once again passes the bill by a two-thirds vote. So that in the
end, if two-thirds of the members of the lower house want to see a particular
bill come into law, there is no way that the upper house can prevent
that from happening.
But two-thirds is very difficult for any one party or a coalition of
parties to achieve under most circumstances. So in fact the upper house
has a lot of ability to stop legislation from being passed, because legislation
that might get a simple majority of support in the lower house, if the
upper house votes against it, cannot be passed, since most legislation
cannot get a two-thirds vote from the members of the lower house.
This creates a system in which upper house members are not as powerful
and do not have as much prestige in the Japanese system, and do not play
as important a role as members of the lower house, but where nonetheless
the existence of the second house, that is the upper house, affects the
legislative process in many important ways. |