Hey everyone,
Most democracies are based on a two-house parliamentary system :
- the upper house supposed to represent the territories (generally the country's subdivisions)
- the lower house supposed to directly represent the people.
Such a system would imply that, in order to avoid conflicts of interest between the two mandates, a lawmaker of the lower house shouldn't be able to also manage a city, a province or a state. Of course he can be elected as a representative of an electoral constituency or district, but with no direct local leadership over that territory. This is just a basic to make him vote the law according to national interests rather than the local interests of his other mandate.
In France, we can be both a mayor and a member of the National assembly at the same time. And as a matter of fact, 95% of our deputees in the lower house are also mayors or presidents of regional or departemental assemblies. I believe this is the very reason why our organisation of the territory sucks so much: we can't rationalize anything because everyone defends their local interests.
So here's my question. Is this specific to France? Can members of the Bundestag in Germany, the House of Commons in the UK, the House of Representatives in the US share their national responsibilities with local ones? Or is this prohibited in your constitutions?
I'm interested to know about as many countries as possible ! :)
Most democracies are based on a two-house parliamentary system :
- the upper house supposed to represent the territories (generally the country's subdivisions)
- the lower house supposed to directly represent the people.
Such a system would imply that, in order to avoid conflicts of interest between the two mandates, a lawmaker of the lower house shouldn't be able to also manage a city, a province or a state. Of course he can be elected as a representative of an electoral constituency or district, but with no direct local leadership over that territory. This is just a basic to make him vote the law according to national interests rather than the local interests of his other mandate.
In France, we can be both a mayor and a member of the National assembly at the same time. And as a matter of fact, 95% of our deputees in the lower house are also mayors or presidents of regional or departemental assemblies. I believe this is the very reason why our organisation of the territory sucks so much: we can't rationalize anything because everyone defends their local interests.
So here's my question. Is this specific to France? Can members of the Bundestag in Germany, the House of Commons in the UK, the House of Representatives in the US share their national responsibilities with local ones? Or is this prohibited in your constitutions?
I'm interested to know about as many countries as possible ! :)