ABSTRACT
The former bicameral systems in the Scandinavian countries had separate historical roots and were largely different. The Norwegian system became part of the new state apparatus created by the 1814 Constitution. The Danish bicameral Parliament was established by the Constitution that brought the absolute monarchy to its end (1849). Sweden moved from its inherited system of four estates to a third kind of bicameralism in 1866. Pure unicameral systems are now in place in Denmark (1953), Sweden (1971) and Norway (2009). In Norway, the idea of a second chamber almost failed to survive the Constituent Assembly in 1814. In the version that was adopted, however, the members of the upper chamber were selected by and from the entirety of the members of Parliament, who were elected simultaneously and according to the same rules. The system thus became a modified unicameral system rather than a genuinely bicameral one. The way the members of the upper chamber were chosen ineluctably paved the way for its gradual fading away as an independent political actor. With no crisis in sight, the final elimination by constitutional amendment was adopted with no political opposition. It appears as a formalisation of a status quo already created by the increasing role of political parties.
