# The Bicameral Blueprint
**Introduction**

Throughout history, the advent of bicameral legislatures parliamentary systems comprising two chamber has marked pivotal moments in the evolution of governance. And currently, it seems like such a moment may be occuring again within DAOs.

This essay was made possible with the support of [Nouncil DAO](https://www.nouncil.wtf).

**The Example of the Roman Empire**

In Ancient Rome, citizens were divided into two categories: patricians and plebeians. Patricians held the majority of land and slaves and engaged in esteemed pursuits such as politics and military leadership. The plebeians comprised the inferior social class, who worked as manual laborers or tradespeople, or lived marginal lives of delinquency and poverty.

They did not participate in political life. The Senate, Rome’s consultative body, was selected solely by the patricians, with legislative and executive powers held by two officials, known as “magistrates” or consuls, who were also chosen from among the patrician class. This arrangement persisted until the early 5th century BCE, at which point the general populace staged a revolt, an event historically referred to as the Secessio Plebis. The account by Roman historian Livy, narrates how the plebeians united to challenge the patricians. The outcome of this conflict was an historic political compromise, through which the equal rights of plebeians were slowly recognized. A direct consequence of this event was the establishment of the Tribune of the Plebs, granting plebeians the right to appoint two magistrates. These magistrates were given what was known as “negative sovereignty”, meaning that while they exercised no active power, they had both preventive (prohibitio) and a posteriori (intercessio) veto rights. From that point onwards, the governance of Rome by its two consuls was contingent upon the consent of the plebeian magistrates, who had the authority to veto the consuls' decisions. While the consuls retained unique legislative and executive authority, their "negative sovereignty" empowered the Tribunes with auxilium plebis, providing them with a mechanism to oppose and prevent consular actions deemed detrimental to the interests of the plebeians.


The episode Livy describes bears testament to how old this political duality really is.

Whatever the utility of the concept of class “conflict,” may be, it masks a simpler and more fundamental aspect of political structures and their evolution. Leaving the notion of conflict aside, society is always composed of at least two encompassing interest groups. It is their recognition of one another, whatever the differences in their status, that makes social cooperation possible. This recognition may occur through conflict, but conflict is not necessary for it to occur. The organicist analogy used by Menenius Agrippa in Livy’s account demonstrates the social solidarity that can emerge from recognizing this cleavage. Ancient Roman society’s intuition that its two constituent parts were interdependent both necessitated and justified the compromise they ultimately reached: each group fulfilled a different role; each one was necessary to the other.
At last, tracing the bicameral impulse back to the Secessio Plebis is relevant because of the tremendous impact it had on Roman society: the fruits of the conflict between plebians and patricians, because together they found a way to transform structural exploitation into productive cooperation, made social cooperation possible again. Soldiers returned to their camps and merchants to their stalls; Rome breathed anew. The dawn of the fifth century marked the beginning of an era of unprecedented prosperity.


**The British Compromise**

Although the roots of bicameralism stretch back to ancient Rome, it was not until the thirteenth century CE that the ancestor of the modern-day bicameral legislature was developed in Britain. As British historians remind us in their account of the origins of political bicameralism in England, this innovation came about when the King of England decided it would be prudent to consult the land-owning aristocracy and the heads of the Church when making major decisions; eventually, these consultations came to include representatives of towns and counties. Rather than risk losing power, the king chose to share it.
In its early years, the parliament's power was extremely limited and subordinate to the king's, but the Magna Carta, signed in 1215, established the rule of taxation by consent, a prerogative that parliament would later use as leverage to strengthen its position with regard to the king. When the Stuarts attempted to raise taxes without parliament's consent in the seventeenth century, revolution broke out and Cromwell took power.

Although the monarchy was restored with James II, the political crisis was not fully resolved until William of Orange acceded to the throne in 1689, following the Glorious Revolution. The bicameral legislature only became established in the eighteenth century, after years of unrest, civil war, regicide, and the temporary abolition of both the monarchy and the House of Lords. The case of England reminds us that, as in the Rome of antiquity, the establishment of a bicameral legislature represents a compromise struck to ensure and maintain social cohesion. In one way or another, such a compromise is always reached from a context of civil unrest, deep social tensions, violence, and even war, for it helps transition societies toward more democratized forms of government.


The theory of the separation and balance of power drew America's founding fathers towards bicameral politics, though their initial rationale for adopting such a system wasn't explicitly stated in those terms; it was primarily intended as a means of federating the states. The adoption of bicameralism in the early United States served a different purpose than in Britain; however: the former colony used it as a path to compromise between state and federal interests. In this structure, the Senate was tasked with representing the states within the union, allowing each state to elect two senators, thereby ensuring equal state representation irrespective of population. On the other hand, the House of Representatives was established on the basis of proportional representation, with the number of representatives from each state reflecting its population. Together, these two bodies constitute Congress, a bicameral representative body with a Senate that recognizes states as individual entities with equal rights and powers, and a House of Representatives that federates the population as a whole, across those states.

**An open invitation to reflect**

Just as the Roman Senate, British Parliament, and American Congress adapted to meet the shifting needs and values of their societies, DAOs must also evolve to endure and thrive.