A Parliament in USA doesn’t allow political parties
MBABANE –There is a federal State in the United States (US) whose legislative branch operates like Tinkhundla political system.
It has been established that there are no official political parties within the Nebraska Parliament. There is no indication of a candidate’s political party on the election ballot.
USA’s Nebraska celebrates George Norris, the man many consider as US’ greatest senator, who said parties in the legislature just got in the way of government by the people.
“Why would we want to return to a system like that?” rhetorically asked Norris. He died in 1944 aged 83. He was labelled the democrat of democrats and often collaborated with former USA President Franklin Roosevelt.
Since then, legislators in that State don’t represent their political parties in Parliament.
Charlyne Berens said in her article published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “We Nebraskans should hang on to our one-of-a-kind non-partisan, one-house Legislature, not because George Norris had all the answers or simply because we want to be unique or just because we want to honor history.”
She is the professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications and author of two books about Nebraska’s unicameral legislature – One House and Power to the People.
She added: “Far better than the traditional partisan, two-house structure, our system lets us the people, be the government – the ultimate goal in a democracy. We should hang onto the non-partisan unicameral because it works – for all of us.”
In short, Nebraska is a unicameral non-partisan legislature. Unicameral is having a single legislative chamber.
The USA is a country of 50 States. Nebraska is one of those States.
It is located in the Midwestern region of the US, bordered by South Dakota to the North, Iowa to the East and Missouri to the South-east.
It has a population of 1. 964 million people and was one of the top 10 agriculture-producing States in the US in 2021. In 2021, the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nebraska was E2.267 trillion, the equivalent of US$123.9 billion.
The largest industries by revenue in Nebraska are corn, wheat and soybean wholesaling, meat, beef, poultry processing, health and medical insurances.
Todd Watson, the Political Director of the Nebraska Republican Party, said the non-partisan label masked an underlying reality. This was Nebraska Public Media.
“Non-partisan makes people all feel warm and fuzzy inside. It makes for a nice story. But if you look at the votes, how they’ve gone down, in the last, oh, probably a good five, 10 years, it’s been pretty partisan votes on a lot of issues,” Watson said as quoted by the public media.
The Nebraska Republican Party has endorsed returning to a partisan legislative system, which Nebraska had until 1937.
Jane Kleeb, Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said democrats were against making such a change.
“We deeply believe in the non-partisan nature of the Unicameral and think that the votes and legislation that come out of the Unicameral are representative of the bipartisan nature of the Unicameral,” Kleeb said.
For almost 90 years, it is said that Nebraska’s one-house, non-partisan legislature has served this State and its people well. Those who believe in nonpartisanship said the current proposal, Legislative Resolution 2CA, to return to a two-house, partisan body would expand the size and complexity of the legislature with little or no benefit to the people.
They said although far from perfect, their current system has done well, living up to its original and commendable goals.
Published by Nebraska Examiner, George Norris and the other promoters of the small, one-house legislature promised it would facilitate good government.
They said the new system would be more open and accessible, more efficient and accountable.
To begin with, Nebraska’s Unicameral Legislature is reportedly smaller and more streamlined than a large, twohouse body would be. So it’s easier for the public to keep track of each representative’s positions and votes and to let them know what they think, according to the Nebraska Examiner.
It keeps senators more accountable to voters – in their own districts and across the State, the promoters told the publication. Secondly, in a bicameral body, senators in one house can easily pass the buck to the other house.
It is said that they can take what they might see as a more ‘popular’ position on a Bill they dislike, knowing the other house is likely to trash it for them, allowing them to escape accountability.