Reforming Senates This new study of senates in small powers across the North Atlantic shows that the establishment and the reform of these upper legislative houses have followed remarkably parallel trajectories. Senate reforms emerged in the wake of deep political crises within the North Atlantic world and were influenced by the comparatively weak positions of small powers. Reformers responded to crises and constantly looked beyond borders and oceans for inspiration to keep their senates relevant. Nikolaj Bijleveld, historian, is a staff member at the University of Groningen. Colin Grittner teaches Canadian history in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of New Brunswick. David E. Smith is a former president of the Canadian Political Science Association and the author of a number of books on the Canadian Parliament and Canadian federalism. Wybren Verstegen is Associate Professor in Economic and Social History at Vrije University, Amsterdam. Routledge Studies in Modern History Castro and Franco The Backstage of Cold War Diplomacy Haruko Hosoda Model Workers in China, 1949–1965 Constructing A New Citizen James Farley Making Sense of Mining History Themes and Agendas Edited by Stefan Berger and Peter Alexander Transatlantic Trade and Global Cultural Transfers Since 1492 More Than Commodities Edited by Martina Kaller and Frank Jacob Contesting the Origins of the First World War An Historiographical Argument Troy R E Paddock India at 70 Multidisciplinary Approaches Edited by Ruth Maxey and Paul McGarr 1917 and the Consequences Edited by Gerhard Besier and Katarzyna Stoklosa Reforming Senates Upper Legislative Houses in North Atlantic Small Powers 1800–present Edited by Nikolaj Bijleveld, Colin Grittner, David E. Smith and Wybren Verstegen For a full list of titles, please visit: www.routledge.com/history/series/MODHIST Reforming Senates Upper Legislative Houses in North Atlantic Small Powers 1800–present Edited by Nikolaj Bijleveld, Colin Grittner, David E. Smith and Wybren Verstegen First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Nikolaj Bijleveld, Colin Grittner, David E. Smith and Wybren Verstegen; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editors to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-33968-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-32311-9 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of figures viii List of contributors ix Preface xi KAREL DAVIDS Reforming senates in the post-revolutionary North Atlantic world: an introduction 1 NIKOLAJ BIJLEVELD AND WYBREN VERSTEGEN PART I The need for a senate (c. 1790–1870) 13 1 Senates and bicameralism in revolutionary Europe (c. 1795–1800) 15 JORIS ODDENS 2 The rise and fall of the quasi-bicameral system of Norway (1814–2007) 29 EIVIND SMITH 3 Members of the Senate in the Southern Netherlands (Belgium) between restoration and revolution (1815–1831) 43 ELS WITTE 4 A liberal senate: the Danish Landsting of 1849 60 FLEMMING JUUL CHRISTIANSEN 5 The Senate of Canada: renewed life to an original intent 75 DAVID E. SMITH vi Contents PART II Democracy, the people and the Senate (c. 1848–1935) 89 6 Constitutional conservatism, anti-democratic ideology, and the elective principle in British North America’s upper legislative houses, 1848–1867 91 COLIN GRITTNER 7 Aristocratic populism: the Belgian Senate and the language of democracy, 1848–1893 106 MARNIX BEYEN 8 Rejecting the upper chamber: national unity, democratisation and imperial rule in the Grand Duchy of Finland, 1860–1906 116 ONNI PEKONEN 9 The Swedish Senate, 1867–1970: from elitist moderniser to democratic subordinate 133 TORBJÖRN NILSSON 10 The Senate and the ‘Social Majority’: Joannes Theodorus Buys (1826–1893) and a ‘Meritocracy’ in the Netherlands (1848–1887) 146 WYBREN VERSTEGEN 11 The Irish Senate, 1920–1936 154 JOHN DORNEY PART III Does a state still need a senate? (c. 1920–present) 171 12 The vitality of the Dutch Senate: two centuries of reforms and staying in power 173 BERT VAN DEN BRAAK 13 Marginalising the upper house: the Liberal Party, the Senate and democratic reform in 1920s Canada 188 ADAM COOMBS Contents vii 14 Vocational voices or puppets of the lower house? Irish senators, 1938–1948 202 MARTIN O’DONOGHUE 15 The rise and fall of bicameralism in Sweden, 1866–1970 216 JOAKIM NERGELIUS 16 Unicameralism in Denmark: abolition of the Senate, current functioning and debate 225 ASBJØRN SKJÆVELAND 17 Precarious bicameralism? Senates in Ireland from the late Middle Ages to the present 239 MUIRIS MACCARTHAIGH AND SHANE MARTIN 18 Founding principles, constitutional conventions and the representation of Francophones living outside Quebec – the Canadian Senate since 1867 255 LINDA CARDINAL Appendix 268 Index 269 Figures 17.1 Reasons given for not voting in the Seanad referendum in Ireland 248 17.2 Reasons given for not voting in the Seanad referendum in Ireland. 249 17.3 Reasons given for having voted to retain the Seanad in Ireland 250 18.1 Senatorial nominations of Francophones living outside Quebec under successive Prime Ministers since 1867 261 Contributors Marnix Beyen is Professor of History and a member of Power in History – Centre for Political History at the University of Antwerp. Nikolaj Bijleveld, historian, is a staff member at the University of Groningen Business School. Bert van den Braak is Professor of Parliamentary History and Parliamentary System at Maastricht University and a researcher at the Montesquieu Institute, The Hague. Linda Cardinal holds a Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie and Public Policies at the University of Ottowa. Flemming Juul Christiansen is Associate Professor in Politics and Public Administration at Roskilde University. Adam Coombs is a PhD candidate in Canadian history at the University of Brit- ish Columbia. Karel Davids is Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History of the facul- ties of Humanities and the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Univer- siteit Amsterdam. John Dorney is a historian of the Irish revolutionary period, 1919–1924. Colin Grittner teaches Canadian history at McGill University. Muiris MacCarthaigh is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration at Queen’s University Belfast. Shane Martin is Anthony King Professor in Comparative Government at the University of Essex. Joakim Nergelius is Professor of Legal Theory at Örebro University. Torbjörn Nilsson is Professor of History at Södertörns Högskola. Martin O’Donoghue lectures in modern Irish history and public history at the University of Limerick. x Contributors Joris Oddens is a postdoctoral researcher on political culture and parliamentary history at the University of Padova and a guest researcher at the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands. Onni Pekonen has specialised in parliamentary history and politics and works as a specialist on EU affairs at the Finnish prime minister’s office, Helsinki. Asbjørn Skjæveland is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Sci- ence, Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University. David E. Smith is Adjunct Professor, Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University. Eivind Smith is Professor of Public Law at the University of Oslo. Wybren Verstegen is Associate Professor in Economic and Social History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Els Witte is Emeritus Professor in History and Honorary Rector of Vrije Univer- siteit Brussel. Preface In the Netherlands, the most important statesman of the nineteenth century was Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798–1872). Thorbecke was the chief framer of the Dutch Constitution of 1848, which still forms the basis of the country’s politi- cal system. Among the various reforms which the Constitution introduced was a change in how members of the Senate were selected (in Dutch Eerste Kamer, First Chamber). Henceforth, the senators would no longer be appointed by the king (as laid down in the Constitution of 1815) but be chosen by the representative assemblies of the separate provinces. Although the upper chamber, in contrast to the lower chamber, would therefore be elected indirectly and by a more restricted, less popular electorate, this reform nevertheless marked a significant shift in the balance of political power that saw the upper chamber become more independent from the king. This was one of the ways in which the Constitution of 1848 con- tributed to the transformation of the Netherlands into a constitutional monarchy. In Thorbecke’s view, the post-1848 Senate was not an ideal institution, but even so, he saw it as part and parcel of a new, more sophisticated, more democratic institutional framework, including a constitutional monarch, which he envisaged in the political philosophy he had elaborated over the previous ten years. One of the building blocks of this philosophy was the conviction that constitutions were to be moulded in flexible ways, adapting to historical situations, challenges and changes. Another key element was its international orientation, especially with an eye to the position of small powers.