№ 2 - 2001
Fedosov P.A.
Two-Chamber Parliaments: Some Aspects of European and Our Country’s Experience (II)

In this 2nd part (for the first one see: Polis, 2001, No.1) of his article dealing with the topical questions of the origins and role of bicameralism, the author focuses his attention on the development of representative principles in Russia’s state system since the Moscow Tzarist state (Zemstvos, or elective district councils). With especial scrupulousness, furthermore, he retraces the discussions that were being unfolded in the country in early 1990s, on the then forthcoming post-Soviet Russia’s parliament, on its structure, on the scope of the commissions and powers of its Chambers. In the contemporary epoch, as the author concludes, it is only under the conditions of mobilization-seeking dictatorship that renunciation of bi-cameralism in favour of a single-chamber parliamentary system would be possible.