The Bundestag is the German federal parliament and the lower of two federal chambers, opposed to the upper chamber, the Bundesrat. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people, comparable to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom or the United States House of Representatives. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 as one of the legislative bodies of Germany and thus it is the historical successor to the earlier Reichstag.
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members often have a different title. The terms congressman/congresswoman or deputy are equivalent terms used in other jurisdictions. The term parliamentarian is also sometimes used for members of parliament, but this may also be used to refer to unelected government officials with specific roles in a parliament and other expert advisers on parliamentary procedure such as the Senate parliamentarian in the United States. The term is also used to the characteristic of performing the duties of a member of a legislature, for example: "The two party leaders often disagreed on issues, but both were excellent parliamentarians and cooperated to get many good things done."
Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single group. As of 2022, roughly 40% of the world's national legislatures are bicameral, while unicameralism represents 60% nationally and much more at the subnational level.
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology or the will of their donors or constituents. Whips are the party's "enforcers". They work to ensure that their fellow political party legislators attend voting sessions and vote according to their party's official policy. Members who vote against party policy may "lose the whip", being effectively expelled from the party.
The Cortes Generales are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.
The Congress of the Republic of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru. Due to broadly interpreted impeachment wording in the Constitution of Peru, the President of Peru can be removed by Congress without cause, effectively making the legislature more powerful than the executive branch. Following a ruling in February 2023 by the Constitutional Court of Peru, the body tasked with interpreting the Constitution of Peru and whose members are directly chosen by Congress, judicial oversight of the legislative body was also removed by the court, essentially giving Congress absolute control of Peru's government. Since the 2021 Peruvian general election, right wing parties held a majority in the legislature. The largest represented leftist party in Congress, Free Peru, has subsequently aligned itself with conservative and Fujimorists parties within Congress due to their institutional power.
The Legislative Assembly forms the unicameral legislative branch of the Costa Rican government. The national congress building is located in the capital city, San José, specifically in Carmen district of the San José canton.
The State Great Khural is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia. It is located in the Government Palace.
The Parliament of the Hellenes, commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme democratic institution that represents the citizens through an elected body of Members of Parliament (MPs).
The People's National Assembly is the lower house of the Algerian Parliament. It is composed of 407 members directly elected by the population. Of the 407 seats, 8 are reserved for Algerians living abroad. Members of the People's National Assembly are directly elected through proportional representation in multiple-member districts and serve terms lasting five years at a time. The last election for this body was held on 12 June 2021. The minimum age for election to the Assembly is 28.
The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as deputies, who are elected for four-year terms or after extraordinary dissolution, chosen by universal suffrage in lists of four constituencies, corresponding to the Catalan provinces. The Parliament building is located in Ciutadella Park, Barcelona.
The Parliament of Cantabria is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Cantabria. It consists of 35 members called "deputies" which are freely elected by the citizens of the region. The Parliament convenes at the Saint Raphael Hospital, an 18th-century building in the city of Santander rehabilitated in the 1980s to house the Regional Assembly.
The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly is the unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983.
Electoral districts go by different names depending on the country and the office being elected.
The president of the Congress of Deputies is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales. The president is elected among the members of the Congress and is, after the king and the prime minister, the highest authority in the Kingdom of Spain.
María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos is a Spanish lawyer and politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament for Ciudadanos since 2019. She previously was a Deputy of the PSOE in the Congress of Deputies.
The Bureaus of the Cortes Generales are the governing bodies of each House of the Cortes Generales, the legislative branch of Spain. The Bureaus are made up of the President or Speaker of the House, the Vice Presidents or Deputy Speakers and the Secretaries. Each Bureau is regulated by the standing orders of its house.
The Board of Spokespersons (Spanish: Junta de Portavoces, is a parliamentary body of each house of the Cortes Generales and is a council of party representatives mainly entrusted with the task of advising the Bureau on the agenda of the Parliament. The Board also decides on the composition of parliamentary committees.
Parliamentary groups in Spain are the institutionalisation or parliamentarisation, of political parties.
The Permanent Deputation, in Spain, is a parliamentary body consisting of a reduced number of members of parliament which assume the legislative powers of the Parliament when it is not in session. The members of this body are chosen proportionally to the number of deputies that each political group has. The chair of a permanent deputation is normally the speaker of the Parliament.
