Debate chamber
A debate chamber is a room for conducting the business of a deliberative assembly or otherwise for debating. When used as the meeting place of a legislature, a debate chamber may also be known as a council chamber, legislative chamber, assembly chamber, or similar term depending on the relevant body. Some countries, such as New Zealand, use the term debating chamber as a name for the room where the legislature meets.
Debating
Debating can happen more or less anywhere that is not immediately hazardous. Whether informal or structured, debates often have an audience. The debate does not involve the audience as such; they may even be watching remotely. Therefore, a debate can occur basically anywhere, even in the street, in a hallway, on board a moving vehicle, or any number of other unusual locations.However, in common parlance, a debating chamber is a room set aside for the purposes of holding debates, usually permanently. It usually contains furniture set up to organize the debate, so as to clearly separate the people participating in the debate and the audience, and usually to clearly separate the sides of the debate. If the format of the debate includes a moderator they must sit in a clear position of authority.
In general, a debate chamber has seats and tables for the moderator and the debate participants, and a separate seating area for the audience. Other facilities may include one or more podiums for delivering speeches, possibly located on a stage to facilitate presentation of the debate to an audience. Recording and broadcasting equipment may be installed in a debating chamber so that proceedings there can be shown to the public at large. In the case of a legislative chamber or the like, there may be separate galleries for the public, while members of the legislature are the only ones permitted in the chamber proper.
Psychology and geometry
The configuration of seating affects interpersonal communication on conscious and subconscious levels. For example, disagreements over the shape of a negotiation table delayed the Vietnam War peace talks for almost a year.The geometry of seating position can support or determine a sense of opposition/confrontation, hierarchy/dominance, or collaboration/equality. Factors such as angle/rotation, proximity/distance, median/termini, and height/incline are all relevant considerations. The more directly two parties are positioned across from one another, the more likely their relationship will be one of opposition to each other; the less direct, or more "side-by-side" these positions are, the less likely such an opposing relationship becomes, but also the less effective it will be at fostering collaboration.
These effects can be observed in debate chambers, meeting rooms, and at dining or restaurant tables. For instance, with a long rectangular table, those seated at the "head" or "end" of the table are in a position of dominance; they can see everybody, and normally everybody can see them, but the others are restricted to seeing only those across from them. Circular, square, or elliptical tables facilitate more equal status between those seated, as well as less obstructed lines of sight. A circular gathering with three participants provides the only non-oppositional configuration of more than two persons that allows equal line of sight.
The smaller the group and setting, the greater the equity of participants and sight lines. Conversely, the more participants that are present, the greater is the disparity of sight lines between those sitting immediately adjacent and those more directly across, whose position in turn becomes more oppositional. Winston Churchill recognized this when he insisted the British House of Commons be rebuilt in a similar size and configuration as the prior chamber, to maintain the intimate and adversarial style of debate which he believed was responsible for creating the British form of government.
History
Whether outdoors or in an enclosed space or chamber, such as a cave, it is likely that the earliest designated places for group discourse or debate occurred around a fire, for light, heat, or protection from predators. Throughout recorded history there have been a variety of places and spaces designated for similar purposes. An early gathering for assembly purposes was the Ecclesia of ancient Athens, a popular assembly open to all male citizens with two years of military service. This was held in an Ekklesiasterion, which varied from small amphitheaters to a variety of buildings, including ones that could accommodate over 5,000 people. These assemblies were also held in amphitheater-like, open air theaters. Bouleuterions, also translated as council house, assembly house, and senate house, was a building in ancient Greece which housed the council of citizens of a democratic city state. In Ancient Rome, the earliest recorded debating chamber was for the deliberative body of the Roman Senate.The first official debating model that emerged after the fall of the Roman Empire was the Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. These were convened at certain times of the year when church leaders and wealthy landowners were invited to discuss the affairs of the country with the king. In the 13th century this developed into the Parliament of England. Similar models emerged at roughly the same time with the Parliament of Scotland and Parliament of Ireland. These were later consolidated into the Parliament of Britain and the current Parliament of the United Kingdom. The system of government that emerged in this model is known as the Westminster system. In Europe, similar models to parliament emerged, termed Diet and Thing, or Ting, thing derived from old Norse for "appointed time" or "assembly". The parliament that claims to have the longest continuous existence is the Tynwald of the Isle of Man. In 19th century Russia, the Duma emerged to perform similar advisory functions to the monarch.
In the 14th century, the king of France established the Estates General, a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. In the 18th Century French Revolution, this was transformed into the National Assembly, the National Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, the National Convention, the Council of Five Hundred, and eventually the tricameral French Consulate during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. These bodies met in a variety of palaces, a riding academy, a large theater, and a tennis court.
In the late 18th century the United States of America established the U.S. Congress, a bicameral legislative model that would form the template of many newly emergent republics around the world. The form adopted involved two legislative bodies, each with its own chamber. The lower house, the U.S. House of Representatives, was intended to provide representation based on population. The upper house, the U.S. Senate, was intended to provide more deliberative oversight on legislation and was to represent the States. Each was created and its chambers designed before political parties were well established.
Names
The names given to debating places or spaces may refer to an activity, such as assembly or debating; it may refer to the persons performing that activity, such as noblemen, lords, or estates; or it may refer to both, such as Senate. Some examples of the more common names for debating spaces:- Assembly, also Dáil in Irish, as in National Assembly.
- Chamber or House, as in House of Representatives or Chamber of Deputies.
- Council, as in Magnum Concilium, or Federal Council.
- Diet derived from Medieval Latin dieta, meaning assembly. Used in reference to many historical European assemblies, such as the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, the Diet of Worms, or the Hungarian Diet. The term is also used in reference to the modern-day Japanese parliament. Cognate terms include the German Tag and Dag in various Scandinavian languages.
- Duma: Russian, meaning "consider".
- Parliament: derived from Anglo-Norman parler, meaning speak.
- Rada: Derived from Old East Slavic Рада, meaning council.
- Sejm: Proto-Lechitic, meaning "gathering" or "meeting".
- Senate: used in many countries since the time of Ancient Rome, where the Senate was an assembly of elders.
- Thing: Derived from Proto-Germanic *þingą meaning "appointed time", later "meeting" or "assembly". A thing was historically the governing assembly of a Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by lawspeakers. Modern day cognates include Icelandic: þing, German or Dutch ding, and ting in modern Scandinavian languages. In English, the word "thing" has not kept its original meaning of "assembly", although it retains that sense in derived terms such as "husting", and the name of the Manx parliament, the Tynwald.
Seating configuration
Auditorium
The auditorium form of seating is a large audience facing a stage, often with a proscenium. The model is similar to direct instruction whereby the communication is unidirectional without active interaction or debate. Response is limited to applause or speakers coming onto the stage, from the audience or backstage, to provide a subsequent presentation to the audience. Given the scale and format, there is little opportunity for any direct discourse.Examples and images: USSR Supreme Soviet