House of Lords (Themiclesia)
The Themiclesian House of Lords (門下省, men-gra′-srêng′) or more formally the House of Princes, Peers, and High Counsellors is the upper house of the Themiclesian parliament. It was created in 1845 from several existing organizations involved in the legislative process on the model of the Tyrannian House of Lords, as a compromise with the parliamentary Liberals, demanding franchise reform, to secure Conservative influence. Its powers originally extended over legislative, executive, and judicial affairs, though its has been considerably restricted in many subsequent reforms. Currently, it consists of around 170 members and primarily exercise an advisory and cautionary role.
History
Formation
Since the Great Settlement of 1801, which established the power of the elected Council of Protonotaries to control legislation and taxation, the Conservatives as a political party dominated the house, with the primary agenda of supervising executive misconduct and preventing immoderate taxation and expenditure. As Themiclesia's merchant class recovered and were saturated with the ideals of Enlightenment, the traditional form of election to the Council was considered arcane and undemocratic.[1] Previously, merchants sought to gain influence in the legislative process through bribery of gentle electors, but due to their financial security and unaccountability once elected, it was rarely effective. By 1840, frustrated at the effective monopoly of representation of established gentle houses, the merchant leagues began several disruptive "trade actions", whereby industrialists refused to process the agricultural products from farms owned by rural gentry as a form of protest. This so greatly injured the commercial interests of the upper class that reconciliation was immediate.
The Liberals proposed to grant the franchise, on the Tyrannian model, to all educated and propertied males. The land-owning, aristocratic Conservatives were concerned that the reform would produce a gross Liberal leaning in the Council. The Conservatives sought to consolidate influence by formalizing a second chamber that retained veto power over bills from the elected house. This second chamber drew on the existing Council of Royal Attendants (侍中省) and Council of Ordinary Attendants (常侍省), which provided advice to the Emperor on how his powers should be exercised. The function of these two bodies, as non-partisan advisors, became already more pronounced when the executive and legislative had become partisan and consistently troubled the throne with conflicting requests. Technically, legislation could not receive royal approbation until one Royal Attendant and Ordinary Attendant had advised the Emperor of the bill; however, as there was no limit to the number of either of them, passing a bill was extremely easy, provided the emperor was inclined to assent. The new house would require the assent of at least half their number in the legislative process, rather than merely any two of them.
To create the widest Conservative bloc possible, the princes and peers were granted the house's membership; formerly lacking an effective way to enter politics, they assented enthusiastically. The Liberals, while not entirely satisfied with the situation, found the compromise acceptable. According to the first Liberal prime minister, the Conservatives lost nothing, and the Liberals gained something (the Conservatives had a veto before and after the reforms, but the Liberals gained representation). The emperor was given considerable control over the membership of the house, still allowed to appoint Royal and Ordinary Attendants and create peers at will. Ironically, the emperor was made more politically important by this change in affairs. Additionally, since the institution of rural election was not abolished, Conservatives still expected to dominate the higher rungs of the civil service, from which most new members of the upper house were expected to be appointed. The bill was passed in 1844 and came into effect after the election of 1845, which, as the Conservatives had feared, produced a massive Liberal majority.
Reforms
As the upper house was conceived as a Conservative body, conflict with the elected house was a constant (and some argue, dominant) theme in its history.
- ↑ Traditionally, the gentry of each prefecture met every third year to rate candidates for public service. One candidate per prefecture would receive the rate of Second Class, whose customary appointment was to the Council of Protonotaries, where their duties were to draft legislation. Though not legislators in the modern sense, these individuals were historically expected to represent the opinions of the rural gentry, who constitutionally formed the enfranchised class. It is through this power that, in 1801, the Council began to block government business, establishing the principle of legislative oversight in Themiclesia.