In some bicameral
parliaments of a
Westminster System, the
House of Commons has historically been the name of the elected
lower house. The Commons generally holds much more power than the
upper house (the
senate or
House of Lords). The leader of the majority party in the House of Commons usually becomes the
prime minister.
Historically, "the commons" were an
estate in a traditional pre-
Enlightenment European government which typically divided the governance of an area between "estates" of society. Other estates included the clergy, nobles, merchants and knights. The word "commons" has at times been confused with the word "commoner", but they are very different in this context. The House of Commons was created to serve as the political outlet for this "commons" class, while the elite estates were represented in the
House of Lords. The House of Commons was thus elected by the people while members of the upper house were appointed on the basis of various forms of elite "merit", such as wealth, family, or prestige.
States with a House of Commons base their democratic systems upon this original British house of parliament (it is thus occasionally called "the mother of parliaments"). Many such places were part of the
British Empire, and are now part of the
Commonwealth of Nations. There are only two existing Houses of Commons. They are:
Three historical bodies have used this name in
Ireland, the
The name was never used for the
Australian House of Representatives or
New Zealand House of Representatives.
See also
fr:Chambre des communes
de:Unterhaus
ja:庶民院
Category:Legislatures
Category:Westminster System