The Substantive Representation of Future Generations in Bicameral Parliaments: A Comparison of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the Senate (2010–2014).

This article examines whether members of upper parliamentary houses represent the interests of future generations more frequently than those in lower houses, focusing on the Belgian bicameral system between 2010 and 2014. Despite theoretical expectations that the Belgian Senate—mandated to reflect on long-term policy impacts, less publicly visible, and partly composed of non-elected members—would advocate more for future generations than the directly elected Chamber of Representatives, empirical analysis found no significant difference in claims made on behalf of posterity between the two chambers. The study suggests that Senators' primary focus on linguistic group representation and their embeddedness in electoral cycles may limit their future-oriented advocacy. These findings highlight the complexity of institutional design in addressing democratic short-termism and call for comparative research on upper houses with different compositions and mandates.