User talk:Istabraq
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In your last change on Germany, you wrote "1:1 translations of «Bundestag» and «Bundesrat» don't work. «Federal Assembly» is the body that elects the head of state in Germany.", and changed the (working) links to Federal Assembly of Germany and Federal Council of Germany to the (broken) "Upper Chamber of Parliament" and "Lower Chamber of Parliament", respectively. I have reverted that edit, and let me explain why.
- The older links worked, the new ones don't.
- Upper house and Lower house are incorrect names for the two. "Upper" and "lower" only makes sense, if at all, in systems like Britain, where you have a House of Lords and a House of Commons. What makes the Bundesrat more "upper" than the Bundestag?
- It is even very dubious if Germany has a bicameral system at all. The majority of literature on German state theory (of which I had to read plenty in University) says it doesn't; I have listed the major points on the Federal Council of Germany page.
Now, I agree that the translations aren't perfect. I'd rather use the German terms of Bundestag and Bundesrat for the articles, but that is in conflict with Wiki policy that states English names should be used wherever possible. But your change makes this worse, really. djmutex 18:08 7 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- Sorry, it wasn't my intention to create broken links. However, maintaining the links should only be a minor problem.
- "Upper" and "Lower" is often used as a distinction when a country has more than one chamber of parliament. This certainly doesn't apply only to Westminster. It's the usual wording for the system in Japan, Italy, Switzerland and many more.
- In this context "Upper" and "Lower" are not used to create any form of superiority or precedence of one to the other.
- I don't want to discuss whether or not Germany has a bicameral system, although a number of points can be raised in favour of this notion given the powers of the «Bundesrat» to influence legislation.
- The Swiss federal government is also called «Bundesrat». Do you have a "hard" translation for that too?
Copied this over to Talk:Politics of Germany; discussion continued there. djmutex 07:48 8 Jul 2003 (UTC)