The Unicameral Legislature
The Unicameral Legislature

Author: Alvin Walter Johnson

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Published: 1938

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13:

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The Unicameral Legislature was first published in 1938. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.Here is a concise discussion of the movement for one-house legislatures, which began in Ohio and Oregon in 1912, took new impetus when Nebraska adopted the reform in 1934, and grew to striking proportions in 1937 when forty amendments proposing single chambers were considered in twenty-one states.Professor Johnson describes the historical process by which the two-house form was established in America following early experience with a single house, and he discusses the problems that have given rise to current dissatisfaction with the established system.There is a review of unicameralism in England, Canada, and other countries. This volume offers suggestive information on more phases of the subject than can be found in any other book.

One House
One House

Author: Charlyne Berens

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0803235194

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When Nebraskans voted to trade in their bicameral, partisan legislature for a one-house, nonpartisan body in 1934, it was a revolutionary decision. George Norris, a U.S. senator from Nebraska, argued that the new institution would be more open, efficient, responsible, and responsive to the people it was meant to serve. An ardent progressive, Norris convinced his fellow Nebraskans that a nonpartisan, unicameral legislature would take power from the elites and return it to the people. One House examines the forces at work behind the unicameral’s creation and chronicles the lawmakers’ struggles to remain true to the populist, progressive vision of its founders and the people of Nebraska. Using historical research, surveys of Nebraskans, and in-depth interviews with senators and legislative observers, Charlyne Berens examines whether the promises that Norris and his fellow unicameral promoters made have held up over the years. The one-house legislature remains a unique experiment in American democracy as well as a powerful symbol of Nebraskans’ identity. In a new introduction for this second edition, Berens discusses the recent addition of term limits.