African countries are adopting two houses of parliament to boost democracy – but that’s not always what happens

By Thalia Gerzso, Assistant Professor, University of York

At independence, most African states had two legislative chambers – a lower and upper chamber – in their parliament. African leaders saw that as a colonial legacy and as inefficient, so most states removed the upper chambers. Before 1990, only two states kept these bicameral parliaments: Liberia and Nigeria.

Since then, however, 40% of the 44 sub-Saharan African states that hold regular elections have added a legislative chamber to their parliament. These countries include Gabon,…

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