Parliaments can be organized in a number of ways, although two forms dominate modern democratic designs. Parliaments are unicameral or bicameral. In a unicameral parliament all members of parliament sit in the same chamber and vote on major policy decisions. In a bicameral parliament members meet and vote in two separate chambers, usually called the lower house and upper house. The lower house is usually based proportionally on population, with each member representing the same number of citizens in each district or region. The upper house varies more broadly in the way in which members are selected, including inheritance, appointment by various bodies, and direct and indirect elections. Moreover, the upper house can serve to represent ethnic, religious, or regional groupings. A majority of the world's parliaments are unicameral. However, in 2000, 37 percent of the world's 178 parliaments had two chambers. This proportion has decreased since...