The Bavarian Senate (German ''Bayerischer Senat'') was the corporative

upper chamber An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted power than the lower house. A legis ...

of Bavaria's parliamentary system from 1946 to 1999, when it was abolished by a

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(referendum) changing the

Constitution of Bavaria The Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria was enacted on 8 December 1946. It is the fourth constitutional document in Bavarian history after the Constitution of 1808, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1818 and the Bamberg Const ...

Composition

The 60 members of the Senate had to be at least 40 years of age and could not be a member of the

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

(the other and more important chamber of the Bavarian parliament). Every other year, a third of the Senate's members would be elected by corporations representing social, economic, municipal or cultural groups or appointed by religious denominations for a term of six years. The number of seats representing each group was fixed by the constitution of Bavaria: * 11 representatives of

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

* 5 representatives of

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

and

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* 5 representatives of craftsmen * 11 representatives of unions * 4 representatives of

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s * 5 representatives of

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

* 5 representatives of

religious denomination A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition, among other activities. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Oriental Orthodox Churches, non-Chalcedonian, E ...

s * 5 representatives of

social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...

organisations * 3 representatives of

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and

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s * 6 representatives of

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

ities and municipal associations Internationally, the Senate's composition was similar to the

Vocational panel A vocational panel () is any of five lists of candidates from which are elected a total of 43 of the 60 senators in Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of Ireland. Each panel corresponds to a grouping of "interests and ...

s in the Irish senate. It also bore remnants of council-democratic ideas.

Role

The Senate's main role was consulting other state institutions and delivering legal opinion. It also had the power to delay state

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

passed by the Landtag within a month (one week for urgent acts). However, the Landtag could overturn the veto by a simple majority, the same majority required to pass a law in the first place.

Criticism and dissolution

In the 1990s, public opinion in

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turned towards leaner government. The Senate, because it was essentially powerless, was regarded by many as an unnecessary expenditure. In June 1997, a

popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put directly to a plebiscite o ...

petition sponsored by the Ecological Democratic Party gained 927,047 signatures (10.5% of those entitled to vote). In the following

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on 8 February 1998, which yielded a turnout of 39.9%, a majority of 69.2% voted for the law amending the State Constitution to abolish the Senate. A counter-proposal by the ruling Christian Social Union, which would have changed the composition of the Senate, only received 23.6%. On 1 January 2000, the law abolishing the Senate came into effect.

Presidents of the Senate of Bavaria

References

External links

Gegenentwurf des Landtags zum Volksentscheid am 8. Februar 1998 (Senatsreformgesetz) (pdf)
(34 kB) The counter-proposal by the ''Christian Social Union''

Official voting results

Court ruling on the abolishment of the Senate {{Authority control Political history of Bavaria 1946 establishments in Germany 1999 disestablishments in Germany Defunct upper houses 20th century in Bavaria Corporatism