In mid-February 2012, Mario Monti of the E.U. state of Italy
addressed the European Parliament. In his speech, he advocated increasing the legislative body's power. The Parliament's 754
representatives represent E.U. citizens just as the members of House of Representatives
represent U.S. citizens. The representatives in both of the legislative chambers
are democratically elected to represent the people in local or regional
districts rather than states more generally. The chambers are “national” in
that they bypass the state governments. The latter are represented in the
European Council of Ministers and in the U.S. Senate, both of which are
legislative in nature and thus can be stylized as the “upper chamber” in
federal lawmaking.
The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.
