Parliament is the highest legislative body of the country, whose functions include adopting new laws and bringing existing ones in line with today's conditions. At the same time, in Russia, as in many other countries, there are two chambers of parliament - the lower and the upper.
Parliament is the legislative branch of government, which, along with the executive and the judiciary, serves as the basis of the state's legal system. At the same time, there are two main versions of parliaments in the world: unicameral and bicameral.
Unicameral parliament
From the point of view of organizing the legislative process, a unicameral parliament is a simpler model: in this case, it consists of one subdivision, called a chamber, whose functions include the development and adoption of bills. Thus, the entire amount of legislative power is concentrated in the hands of one body. This version of the parliamentary system is usually typical for small states. For example, currently unicameral parliaments operate in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Finland, Estonia and other countries.
Bicameral Parliament
A bicameral parliament is a more complex political organization, the meaning of which lies in the interaction of chambers. In this case, it is customary to call one of them the lower, and the other upper. From a substantive point of view, we can say that the most difficult and responsible task is usually assigned to the lower house: its members must initiate and develop bills, which they then submit for approval and approval by the upper house.
In the Russian Federation, there is a bicameral parliamentary formation system. So, the lower chamber, which is entrusted with the bulk of legislative activity, is called the State Duma, and the upper one, which exercises a kind of control over the activities of the Duma, is called the Federation Council. At the same time, it is these names that appear in the designation of these structures in the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, while the concepts of "upper house" and "lower house" reflect the relationship of these structures with the global practice of forming parliaments.
The difference between the lower and upper houses of parliament in Russia lies not only in their functions, but also in other parameters, in particular, the methods of formation. Thus, the State Duma is called upon to implement in its legislative activity the will of the entire Russian people, therefore it is formed in the process of national elections. In turn, the Federation Council must represent the interests of the regions of Russia, that is, its constituent entities of the Federation, therefore it is formed from the number of approved candidates for representatives of each of them.
