Reforming senates in the post-revolutionary North-Atlantic world : an introduction / Nikolaj Bijleveld and WybrenVerstegen -- I. The need for a senate (c.1790-1870) / Senates and bicameralism in revolutionary Europe (c.1795-1800) / Joris Oddens -- The rise and fall of the quasi-bicameral system of Norway (1814-2007) / Eivind Smith -- Members of the senate in the southern Netherlands (Belgium) between restoration and revolution (1815-1831) / Els Witte -- A liberal senate : the Danish Landsting of 1849 / Flemming Juul Christiansen -- The Senate of Canada : renewed life to an original intent / David E. Smith -- II. Democracy, the people and the senate (c.1848-1935) / Constitutional conservatism, anti-democratic ideology, and the elective principle in British North America's upper legislative houses, 1848-1867 / Colin Grittner -- Aristocratic populism : the Belgian Senate and the language of democracy, 1848-1893 / Marnix Beyen -- Rejecting the upper chamber : national unity, democratisation and imperial rule in the Grand Duchy of Finland, 1860-1906 / Onni Pekonen -- The Swedish Senate1867-1970 : from elitist moderniser to democratic subordinate / Torbjörn Nilsson -- The senate and the 'social majority' : JoannesTheodorus Buijs (1826-1893) about a "meritocracy" in the Netherlands (1848-1887) / Wybren Verstegen -- The Irish Senate, 1920-1936 / John Dorney -- III. Does a state still need a senate (c.1920-present) / The vitality of the Dutch senate : two centuries of reforms and staying in power / Bertvanden Braak -- Marginalising the upper house : Canada's Liberal Party, the Senate and democratic reform in 1920s Canada / Adam Coombs -- Vocational voices or puppets of the lower house? : Irish senators, 1938-1948 / Martin O'Donoghue -- The rise and fall of bicameralism in Sweden, 1866-1970 / Joakim Nergelius -- Unicameralism in Denmark : abolition of the senate, current functioning and debates / Asbjørn Skjaevel -- Precarious bicameralism? : senates in Ireland from the late Middle Ages to the present / Muiris MacCarthaigh and Shane Martin -- Founding principles, constitutional conventions, and the representation of Francophones living outside of Quebec in the Canadian Senate since 1867 / Linda Cardinal.