Chamber of Deputies

Chamber of Deputies is the name given to a legislative body, be it the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or the name of a unicameral legislature.

Historically, the "Chamber of Deputies" was the lower house of parliament in the French Third Republic; the name is still informally used for the National Assembly under the nation's current Fifth Republic.

The term "Chamber of Deputies" is not widely used by English-speaking countries, the more popular equivalent being House of Representatives, although it was used as the name of the lower house of parliament in Burma, a former British colony. It was also the official description of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish parliament) during the Irish Free State.

In Malta, the House of Representatives is known in Maltese as Kamra tad-Deputati[1], although Kamra tar-Rappreżentanti has also been used.[2] In Lebanon, the Arabic name of the country's parliament translates as 'Chamber of Deputies', although in French and English, the name 'National Assembly' is used.

Members of these bodies are generally called "deputies", similar to "congressperson", "member of parliament". The term "deputy" may be extended to refer to any member of a legislative body; this usage is particularly common among those parliaments or legislative chambers in French and Spanish-speaking countries that style themselves National Assemblies, as well as in Portugal's Assembly of the Republic. The term is often used in Ireland to refer to a member of the Dáil, instead of the official title TD.

Lower house in bicameral legislature

In the following countries, the Chamber of Deputies is the name of the lower house of the bicameral legislature.

Country	Article	Local Name(s)
Argentina	Chamber of Deputies of Argentina	Cámara de Diputados
Bahrain	Chamber of Deputies of Bahrain	Majlis an Nuwab
Bolivia	Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia	Cámara de Diputados
Brazil	Chamber of Deputies of Brazil	Câmara dos Deputados
Chile	Chamber of Deputies of Chile	Cámara de Diputados
Czech Republic	Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic	Poslanecká sněmovna
Dominican Republic	Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic	Cámara de Diputados
Haiti	Chamber of Deputies of Haiti	Chambre des Députés
Italy	Chamber of Deputies of Italy	Camera dei Deputati
Jordan	Chamber of Deputies of Jordan
Mexico	Chamber of Deputies of Mexico	Cámara de Diputados
Paraguay	Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay	Cámara de Diputados
Romania	Chamber of Deputies of Romania	Camera Deputaţilor
Rwanda	Chamber of Deputies of Rwanda	Umutwe w'Abadepite Chambre des Députés Chamber of Deputies
Spain	Spanish Congress of Deputies	Congreso de los Diputados

Unicameral legislatures

In the following countries, 'Chamber of Deputies' is the name given to the unicameral parliaments :

Country	Article	Local Name
Lebanon	Parliament of Lebanon	Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) / مجلس نواب (Majles Nuweb)
Luxembourg	Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg	Chambre des députés
Tunisia	Chamber of Deputies of Tunisia	Majlis al-Nuwaab

Defunct Chambers of Deputies

*Burma¹
*Czechoslovakia¹
*Egypt²
*Ethiopia¹
*France¹
*Iraq¹
*Libya¹
*Nicaragua²
*Peru²
*Venezuela²
*Yugoslavia¹

1. Legislature disbanded
2. New constitution, unicameral system adopted

Trivia

The governing body of Republica de los Bananas in the board game Junta is also called the Chamber of Deputies.

See also

*List of national legislatures