The Nebraskan State Legislature in the United States is a unicameral house. There is no upper house such as the Senate in the Australian system or the Legislative Councils in the Australian states. The Nebraskan Senators at the federal level recently proposed that the state adopt a bicameral legislative structure.
From the article,
Senators question Unicameral set-up ;
Friend argued that a two-house system could provide more checks and balances of laws, prevent what he called legislative tyranny and infuse the lawmaking process with more information and precision.
In the
Nebraskan Constitution the Legislature must be at least thirty members but no larger than fifty. Which is a relatively small body of legislators in what is a small state. Nebraska did not adopt a unicameral legislative structure until 1937 when the motion passed by referendum.
Half the house is up for election every four years, so it kind of operates in a staggered format such as the Australian Senate does. Unlike the Australian parliamentary systems, Nebraska has a separate executive from the legislative so issues of separation of powers are not the same as in a unicameral parliamentary system. Additionally the Nebraskan House does not recognize parties with the intent of creating more independent legislators.
The Nebraskan Constitution recognizes several formal executive positions which are all elected;
- Governor
- Lieutenant-Governor
- Secretary of State
- Auditor of Public Accounts
- Treasurer
- Attorney-General
I think a bicameral system is a necessity in a Parliamentary system because there is little to no separation of powers between executive and legislative. A bicameral structure in a parliamentary system at least provides for the chance of a pure legislative check on the executive.
The Nebraskan system in contrast has strong separation of powers between executive and legislative. The number of members in the Nebraskan House is also pretty small which carries its own efficiencies. I don't believe a bicameral legislative structure is as important in a system with a separate executive.
cam
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
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
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
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.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
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.
Archives For South Sea Republic
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.
Who Is Cam Riley
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.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
-
The States of the US actually give the executive mandate from the voters, which allows for freedom of conscience from the Parliament. If the Australian Parliament voted as freely as the US Congress, there would be changes in Government every two months.
-
The separation of powers simply means that as you say, bicameralism is not needed to check the executive or legislature. Thus, a directly elected Governor with line-item veto and a House elected by Hare-Clark proportional representation (using multi member electorates) [with the two-thirds vote to overrule veto] would satisfy all necessary checks and balances whilst being highly representative and more efficient.
I would prefer we had the same elected executive and PR unicameral legislatures here.