Foreword : bicameralism in an age of populism / Meg Russell -- The challenge of reforming bicameralism / Richard Albert, Antonia Baraggia and Cristina Fasone -- I. Theories and challenges to bicameralism : multi-tiered government systems and the EU -- Bicameralism, multiple theoretical roots in diverging practices / Maria Romaniello -- 'Visible' and 'invisible' second chambers in unitary states : 'territorialising' national legislatures in Italy and the United Kingdom / Barbara Guastaferro -- How does the European Union challenge bicameralism? : lessons from the Italian case / Pietro Faraguna -- The scrutiny of EU documents in bicameral systems : opportunity or weakness? / Wouter Wolfs and Caterina Cigala -- The House of Lords faces up to Brexit / Peter Leyland -- Bicameralism in multi-tiered systems / Patricia Popelier -- II. Challenging unicameralism -- The shadow of bicameralism in a unicameral state : dispersed functional bicameralism in Bulgaria? / Mihail Vatsov and Polina Vakleva -- Defending bicameralism and equalising powers : the case of Peru / Diego Serra -- The failed referendum to abolish the Ireland's senate : rejecting unicameralism in a small and relatively homogenous country / David Kenny -- Unicameralism and "masked" bicameralism / Cristina Fasone -- III. Reforming or abolishing the upper house? -- The Sénat Français of the Fifth Republic : the permanent paradox / Priscilla Jensel Monge -- The future of Poland's second chamber : is the senate still needed? / Katarzyna Granat -- Reshaping the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia / Dušan Štrus -- Bicameralism(s) in the age of ethnicity : prospects for reform of legislatures in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Nedim Kulenović -- Bicameralism as a normative choice in the tension between its reform and its passing / Giovanni Piccirilli -- Conclusion : what are we to make of bicameralism in the twentieth-first century? : the reform trap / Cristina Fasone.

"Despite the importance of second chambers to the success of constitutional democracies around the world, today many fundamental questions about bicameralism remain understudied and undertheorized. What makes bicameral reform so difficult? Why choose bicameralism over unicameralism? What are the constitutional values of bicameralism? This innovative book addresses these questions and many more from comparative, doctrinal, empirical, historical and theoretical perspectives. The book provides a timely account of the tensions between bicameralism and its reform, demonstrating for the first time how this relates to the protection of liberal democracy and the rule of law. Contributors analyse the pressures that contemporary constitutional politics exert on bicameralism in an array of countries and legal systems, including the complex relationships between the EU and national second chambers. Scholars and students of comparative and constitutional law, legislative studies and political science will find this book an invaluable resource. Policymakers at national and EU levels, parliamentarians and others working closely with parliamentary institutions will also find it insightful." -- Taken from back cover.