Matthew Yglesias has an article where he argues that a unicameral British legislature is better than a democratic bicameral one where the House of Lords is elected in the Australian or American manner that the Senate's are:
Now the U.K. has a de facto unicameral regime and I think it's working just fine. Bicameralism arises for some understandable historical reasons--the legacy of aristocracy in the U.K., an 18th century political compromise in the U.S. -- but in this case it looks a lot like a solution in search of a problem. Maybe Brown should ask Barack Obama about some of the hassles involved in an upper house with actual power.
The American Senate is more powerful than the Australian Senate as it creates money bills, something the Australian Senate cannot do (I should check that to make certain). However the US Senate started off as an appointed Federal body where State Governors would appoint the two Senators to represent their state in the national bicameral body. It has since moved to a democratic system where the Senators are elected.
In Australia, despite the innovation of the Labor Party's 'pledge' and the absolute party discipline that comes with it, the weakest bodies have been the unicameral ones. The Queensland parliament has been less able to fight off corruption than the bicameral parliaments have. Joh Bjelke-Peterson is probably the shining example of this.
The absolute party discipline that the Australian parties have has meant that the Senate at the national level has been an important check and balance on the House of Representatives.
I would argue that a bicameral body is more efficient than a unicameral one simply because it can act as a check on absolute executive power that comes more easily in the parliamentary system than a Washington one.
If the British do adopt a democratic bicameral parliament then the parties will inevitably get their hooks into the upper house and extend party discipline, if not the executive into the House of Lords, like they have done in Australia with the Senate.
While Americans decry the messiness of their system and its imperfect party discipline, I consider it a feature. It is actually one of the few things
I agree with Alfred Deakin on.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
