Parliamentary administrations in the bicameral systems of Europe: joint or divided?

Parliamentary administrations play a fundamental role in support to their institutions. However, a clear comparative picture of whether, and if so how, the internal organisation of parliamentary administrations adapts to the parliamentary architecture is still lacking. The purpose of this article is to address this gap, focusing on the macro and micro features of parliamentary administrations in bicameral systems in Europe in order to assess how different symmetrical or asymmetrical bicameral arrangements influence the administrative organisation of parliament. The comparative analysis reveals that, from the macro-organisational perspective, the main distinction between divided and joint parliamentary administrative formats is independent of the symmetrical or asymmetrical nature of the bicameral architecture. By contrast, from the viewpoint of the micro-organisation, different forms of administrative synergies between the two Houses can be detected, which show some significant correlation with the bicameral structure. On the whole, however, these influences act in multiple and often uneven ways.