O Senado no permanente punto de mira e a súa posible reforma

Abstract

The questioning of the Senate has been constant since the approval of the Constitution of 1978. It soon became clear the enormous distance between the constitutional desideratum of the Upper Chamber was a chamber of territorial representation and its final configuration in the Constitution. That distance became even more evident as it progressed and consolidated the autonomous state. The ultimate cause of this incongruity will have to be sought in the absence of an authentic constituent decision on the territorial model of the State. For this reason, the need to undertake a constitutional reform with the aim of converting the Senate into an authentic chamber of territorial representation has frequently been raised. Apart from the theoretical difficulties that the introduction of the second chambers in the liberal theory of political representation entails, the work also points to the practical problems that the functioning of modern party states throws to achieve that goal.