The House of Commons reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

House of Commons

In a bicameral Westminster System parliament, the House of Commons has traditionally been the name of the elected lower house. The Commons generally holds much more power than the upper house (the senate or House of Lords). The leader of the majority party in the House of Commons usually becomes the prime minister.

The role of the House of Commons in GB:

• controls the government and the PM
• discusses bills

The existing Houses of Commons are:

• the British House of Commons (at the Palace of Westminster, London)
• the Canadian House of Commons (on Parliament Hill, Ottawa)

The House of Commons was also the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, before its abolition under the 1801 Act of Union, and the short-lived Parliament of Southern Ireland in 1920, which was subsequently superseded by the Dáil of the Irish Free State. Similarly, House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition in 1972.

In other bicameral systems, the lower house may be known by one of the following names:

• House of Representatives - Australia, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Malaysia, United States
• House of Assembly - South Australia, Tasmania, Barbados, Swaziland, Bahamas, Bermuda
• House of Keys - Isle of Man
• Legislative Assembly - New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia
• National Assembly - Pakistan, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Quebec
• House of the People - India Lok Sabha
• Chamber of Deputies - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Mexico

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