Short Summary Of One House By Chabrlyne Berens

In the book One House by Charlyne Berens discuss the foundation of the Nebraska Unicameral. This book begins with the history of how the unicameral came about and what the idea was behind it. I think that this book is interesting and provided a great background to why the legislature functions the way it does. I learned that the support for the unicameral came from those people who supported the populist movement. According to Berens Nebraskans in 1914 were less partisan and more likely to split their ticket (p.7.) Which I found interesting because of how polarized we are today as a society. I think that Berens made it a point to emphasize how much Norris hated conference committees because the bills that were drafted in those committees oftentimes

What I found after reading this book is that it gave me a better understanding of why we have a unicameral. Overall, I think that Berens has a very positive view of the unicameral and believes that it is working the way it was intended to. However, I do disagree with Berens on that point because I think that what we have today in the unicameral isn’t what Norris pictured. I think that although we do not officially have labels, senators do still vote along party lines which is something that Norris thought would be solved in a non-partisan legislature. I think that although we do still see many senators form coalitions regardless of their ideology there is party influence in the way they vote. Although I do agree that we have a pretty good system in place and that Nebraskans for the most part like the unicameral legislature system. Engines of Democracy by Alan Rosenthal was an informative book because it discusses state legislatures that have a bicameral system. I could see the differences and the similarities that our state legislature has with the

I think that before reading this book, I did not see lobbyists in a very positive light just because it’s always something that I have associated with deceit. Yet, the way that they are portrayed in the book was the opposite of what I thought they were. Rosenthal discusses how lobbyists have to be honest because senators do utilize them as a source of information and the lobbyists do want to have a positive relationship with the senators. I think that the relationship between the lobbyists and the senators is what stuck out the most to me. I also thought it was interesting that the book went in depth not only about the basic function of a bicameral legislature, but also about what senators need to think about and how they make decisions. I think it was refreshing to read a book about legislatures that used personal anecdotes from people that were former senators and stories about certain legislation and how it was dealt with. I thought that those anecdotes and stories really put things into perspective and it helped with seeing how the concept of a chapter gets applied in a real legislature. Overall, I really liked this book and it was a great way to see how our legislature compares to