with less than 12.5% of the votes withdraw, thereby freeing their supporters to
vote for a candidate more likely to be elected. (For the 1986 legislative
elections only a system ofproportional representation was used.) At
presidential elections in, for example, Austria, France and Poland there is, if
necessary, a run-off between the top two candidates remaining in contention
after the first ballot. The candidate gaining most votes in the second ballot,
whether or not they have achieved a majority, is duly elected. The advantage of
this system is that it does give voters who have supported unsuccessful
candidates in the first ballot the chance to express a second choice. It also
encourages alliances and less formal arrangements between parties, as those
with broadly similar ideologies will often agree that the less successful of their
candidates will withdraw from the contest in each constituency and encourage
their supporters to vote for the other. Minor parties, or parties with no obvious
alliance partners, tend to do much less well in second ballots.
Second Chamber
Second chambers are legislative bodies which are composed on a different
principle to that of the first or most important chamber of a country’s
parliament (seeassembly). In many instances the existence of a bicameral
parliamenthas its origins in the medieval period, when representation of
different social classes was thought to require separate chambers. Thus the
second chamber may be an appointive or hereditary chamber, as with the
United Kingdom’s House of Lords until the beginning of the 21st century
giving representation to political and social elders. In federal systems, for
example the US or AustralianSenates, the second chamber is especially likely
to be representative of states or regions rather than of individual votersper se.
The German second chamber, the Bundesrat, represents the La ̈nder, with each
German state sending adelegationto the chamber which casts its voteen bloc.
The powers of the second chamber will usually differ from those of the lower
and more politically representative chamber, although—as in the USA—it is
not always the case that the second chamber will see itself as politically
subordinate. Typically, lower chambers regard themselves as paramount in
financial matters; second chambers often concentrate on the revising of
legislation or the conduct of foreign policy. In some countries the boundaries
of power between the two chambers remains unclear. Second chambers have
frequently been seen as conservative bodies which could check the excesses of
the more popular chamber: while sometimes true it need not be so. The
French Senate in the early years of theFifth Republicwas a liberal force
critical of the government and the US Senate has often been more liberal than
the House of Representatives. The theoretical constitutional problems of
designing and justifying a second chamber are well illustrated by attempts to
Second Chamber