A second claimed disadvantage of bi-
cameralism is the rivalry sometimes en-
gendered between the two houses.
Documented examples of this at the state
level are not readily available, but a
recent episode in the United States Con-
gress illustrates the danger. In the case
at point, appropriations to the executive
departments suffered an extensive delay
because the chairmen of the House and
Senate appropriation committees could
not agree, among other points, on where
the conference committee, appointed to
compromise the differences between the
two chambers, was to sit.19
A third claimed objection to bicamer-
alism is that it obscures responsibility and
prevents accountability to the electorate.
The claim here is that a measure can be
passed in the two houses in slightly dif-
ferent form with agreement being delib-
erately not reached in conference so that
the measure is defeated, although every-
one is on record as being in favor; that
a measure may be passed in one house
under the claim that it is the best that
could be obtained from the second house,
rather than upon its merits; or that a
measure may be passed in one house on
the grounds that the choice was between
a version worked out in conference or
nothing. In all of these cases, it is impos-
sible for the average voter to know who
was responsible for the final action and
who should be held to account.
THE MERITS OF UNICAMERALISM
Although unicameralists dispute the
merits of every claim made for bicamer-
alism and advance some positive argu-
ments against bicameralism, their advo-
cacy of unicameralism rests primarily
upon positive advantages they see in the
19 See Trussell, Money Bill Impasse in Con-
gress Broken, new york times, July 19,
1962, p. l,col. 2.
112
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latter system. These claims may be sum-
marized as follows:
Claim 1. unicameralism is more efficient
THAN BICAMERALISM.
The basic claim here is that each bill
needs to be considered by only one house,
eliminating wasteful duplication. This
results in more expeditious introduction
and consideration of legislation and elim-
ination of the common end-of-session
legislative logjam. Thus in the 1949
Nebraska legislative session, only seven-
teen bills were introduced after the first
twenty legislative days, and a number of
these were recommended by the governor
or were substitute or consolidated bills
introduced by committees rather than
by individual legislators.20 In this ses-
sion, one-half of the bills acted upon by
the legislature had been handled by the
mid-point of the session. Three-fourths
of those acted upon had been handled
by the two-thirds point of the session. In
the last two weeks, only forty-four bills
were acted upon Of these forty-four,
eight were considered in the last week,
and only one of these eight on the last
day.21 In the 1961 session, twenty-five
bills remained to be disposed of in the
last two weeks and only six on the last
day.22
Claim 2. unicameralism results in legis-
lators OF HIGHER QUALITY AND PRESTIGE.
Usually this claim is made in general
terms.23 However, a study in 1944
showed that over 50 per cent of Ne-
braska's unicameral legislators had had
some college work or had attended an
20 Spencer, Nebraska Idea 15 Years Old,
39 nat'l mun. rev. 85 (1950).
21 Id. at 86.
22 Spencer, Nebraska "Unicam" Operates
Smoothly, 50 nat'l Civic rev. 425 (1961).
23 Carter, The Unicameral Legislative Sys-
tem, 21 fla. L. J. 112 (1947); national
municipal league, supra note 11.
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