Resumen de Control body, representative of regions, or elitistchamber of wisdom? The perceived roles of upperchambers and the case of the Czech Senate

Jan Hruška, Stanislav Balík

• Existing research on bicameralism has paid rather limited attention toexamining the legitimacy of upper chambers. This paper addresses thisresearch gap and examines the unintended roles of upper chambers usingthe case of the Czech Senate. It explains how citizens perceive the role of theupper chamber and how their perceptions can differ from the chamber’sactual role. The research employs content analysis of semi-structuredinterviews with two groups of citizens (30 in total). The results show that theSenate is perceived as an elitist, apolitical institution that is or should becomposed of wise, experienced, and moral people. A minority of citizensperceive the Senate as a body representative of local interests. However,these perceptions do not correspond to reality. The difference between theSenate’s perceived and real role can have both negative and positive effectson the institution’s legitimacy.