Second chamber of parliament as a veto player in federal and unitary states

Diplomsko delo raziskuje in analizira vpliv določene značilnosti političnega sistema na drugi dom parlamenta. Značilnost političnega sistema v tem primeru je federalnost oziroma unitarnost države. Večina analitikov povezuje federalizem z močno dvodomnostjo, vendar napačno bi bilo predvidevati, da v unitarnih državah drugi domovi parlamentov nimajo pomembne vloge v javnopolitičnem procesu. V prvem delu diplomske naloge so podrobneje opisani ključni pojmi: federalizem, unitarizem in dvodomnost. Kot dodaten vidik je vključena še teorija o veto igralcih, s pomočjo katere lahko bolje razumemo vlogo oziroma moč drugih domov parlamentov v različnih političnih sistemih. V drugem delu pa so predstavljeni drugi domovi parlamentov v treh federalnih in treh unitarnih državah. Raziskava je omejena zgolj na demokratične evropske države, in sicer Avstrijo, Belgijo, Nemčijo, Italijo, Češko in Francijo. Namen diplomskega dela je torej ob primerih iz izbranih držav ugotoviti, kako federalnost oziroma unitarnost države vpliva na drugi dom parlamenta kot veto igralca.The diploma thesis aims to explore and analyse the influence of a certain characteristic of a political system on the second chamber of parliament. The characteristic in this case is whether a country is based on a federal or unitary system. Most analysts associate federalism with strong bicameralism, but it would be wrong to assume that in unitary states, second chambers of parliament do not have a significant role in the policy process. The first part of the thesis describes in more detail the key concepts: federalism, unitarism and bicameralism. As an additional aspect, the theory of veto players is included, with the help of which we can better understand the role and power of second chambers of parliament in different political systems. In the second part, the second chambers of parliament in three federal and three unitary states are presented. The research is limited to democratic European countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and France. Therefore the purpose of the diploma thesis is to determine how the federal or unitary system of a country affects the second chamber of parliament as a veto player based on the cases from selected countries