The National Assembly is the name of either a legislature, or the lower house of a bicameral 
legislature in some countries

A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. Legislatures 
are known by many names, including: parliament, congress, diet and national assembly. In 
parliamentary systems of government, the legislature is formally supreme and appoints the 
executive. In presidential systems of government, the legislature is considered a branch of 
government which is equal to, and independent of, the executive. In addition to enacting laws, 
legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise taxes and adopt the budget and other 
money bills. The consent of the legislature is also often required to ratify treaties and 
declare war.

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Overview
The primary component of a legislature is one or more chambers or houses: assemblies that 
debate and vote upon bills. Most legislatures are either bicameral or unicameral. A unicameral 
legislature is the simplest kind of law-making body and has only one house. A bicameral 
legislature possesses two separate chambers, usually described as an upper house and a lower 
house, which may differ in duties, powers, and methods for the selection of members.

In most parliamentary systems, the lower house is the most powerful house while the upper house
 is merely a chamber of advice or review. However in presidential systems the powers of the two
 houses are often similar or equal. In federations it is typical for the upper house to represent 
the component states. For this purpose the upper house may either contain the delegates of state
 governments, as is the case of Germany and was the case in the pre-19 century United States, or 
to be elected according to a formula that grants disproportionate representation to smaller 
states, as is the case today in Australia and the United States. Historically, as well as 
bicameral and unicameral bodies, there have also been rare instances of tricameral legislatures.

Many legislatures are said to include not just one or more houses but also the head of state. 
This is because in most systems it is necessary that, after being approved by the house or 
houses of the legislature, a bill receive the assent of the head of state before it can become 
law. This may be the case even if, as is the case in many parliamentary systems, the assent of 
the head of state is merely a formality and will not be withheld. It is also common, however,
 for the head of state not to be considered a formal part of the legislature, even if they have 
the power to veto laws. The British Parliament formally consists of the Crown, and two houses; 
similarly, the Irish Oireachtas consists officially of the President and two houses. 
In contrast, the United States Congress consists only of its two houses and does not officially
 include the US president, despite the fact that he wields a veto.

The power of legislatures varies widely from country to country. Rubber stamp legislature is a
 derogatory name for a legislature that has no real power but simply approves, by unanimous or 
near unanimous votes, bills put before it by other institutions. For example, the legislatures
 of many Communist states were often derided as mere 'rubber stamps' for decisions of the ruling
 party. The term is not usually used to describe legislatures of parliamentary systems. Although
 the final draft of legislation introduced by the government almost always passes, these 
legislatures are generally not labelled 'rubber stamps' because legislators are involved in 
the
 drafting and amendment of bills.

Federalism can refer to either: 

The form of government, or constitutional structure, found in a federation. 
The political philosophy of federalists. 

name of a number of past and present constituent or legislative bodies. In France, under the
 constitutions of the Fourth and Fifth republics, the lower house of parliament has been called
 the national assembly. Usually, however, the name national assembly has been applied to 
provisional bodies. Often in times of crisis, when the old order dissolves through decay, war,
 or revolution, representatives of the people meet to work out a new order. Such was the case 
in the French Revolution, when members of the States-General proclaimed themselves (1789) a 
national assembly. The Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the Frankfurt Parliament 
of 184849 were national assemblies. At the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 187071, after
 the downfall of Napoleon III, France again elected a national assembly, which drew up the 
basic constitutional laws for the Third Republic. Under the Third Republic the name national 
assembly applied to joint sessions of the senate and the chamber of deputies. National 
assemblies framed the republican Weimar constitution of Germany in 1919 and the Bonn 
constitution for West Germany in 194849. For a list of some of the chief legislative bodies of
 the world, see legislature