Intelligence Squared - Away with the Lords - Britain needs an elected second chamber

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Away with the Lords - Britain needs an elected second chamber

Bicameralism - the practice of having two legislative chambers - is considered a defining feature of the classical notion of mixed government. Most western democracies have second chambers and most are directly or indirectly elected. Britain's House of Lords developed as a body representing the aristocracy and the church and has never been elected. Calls for reform have been made ever since the expansion of the franchise in the nineteenth century produced a Commons able to claim legitimacy through popular election.

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