An Informational Rationale for Congruent Bicameralism

Abstract

`Congruent' bicameralism exists when two chambers are similarly constituted and are expected generally to share the same house preferences. Many commentators have wondered whether there is any purpose for having a second chamber if it has the same house preferences as the first chamber, and hold that divergent house preferences are a necessary condition to justify bicameralism. Other commentators have argued that even if the chambers and their respective house preferences are congruent, the informational interaction between the chambers is sufficient for bicameralism to improve the quality of legislation relative to unicameralism. Developing a game theoretic model with informational uncertainty and with identically congruent bicameral chambers, the analysis demonstrates that the informational interaction of acoustically separated chambers can nonetheless improve the objective quality of legislation relative to legislation enacted by a unicameral legislature.