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1 L.J. Student B. Ass'n Ohio St. U. 121 (1935)
The Unicameral Legislature

handle is hein.journals/ohslj1 and id is 125 raw text is: Ohio Legislation THE UNICAMERAL LEGISLATURE The apparent inability of state legislatures to deal effectively with the numerous serious problems which have confronted them in the past several years has given rise to a growing belief that there is an organic defect in existing state legislative machinery. It must be conceded that the extreme difficulty of the problems faced has contributed to a large degree to the lack of success which has greeted the efforts of the legislative branch of state gov- ernment. There is, nevertheless, reason to believe that much of it has resulted from the peculiar structure of the state legislature. An increasingly large group of people has arrived at the conclusion that the indecisive and wavering policy exhibited by state legislatures in the face of emergency is to a considerable extent the result of defects inherent in the bicameral form of legislature which can be remedied by the adoption of the unicameral form. It is the purpose of this paper to consider whether the bicameral system in actual operation supports* the claims made for it, and to compare the findings with what the unicameral system has to offer. The fundamental principle upon which the bicameral system is based is the doctrine of checks and balances. The second chamber had its origin in the necessity of giving the aristocracy a separate representation as a protection from the rule of the masses. Long after the reason for having a second chamber had ceased, it continued to flourish. Many of the American colonies copied the system from England. Advocates of the bicameral system justify the second chamber on theory that it gives representation to the conservative element and have likened it to a saucer into which the hot tea could be poured to cool. On the other hand, Benjamin Franklin, who was instrumental in making Pennsylvania's first legislature a unicameral one, characterized a bicameral legislature as a legislative body divided into two branches drawn by one horse in front and one behind pulling in opposite directions. Does a bicameral legislature in actual operation operate as a check and balance? A study of the New York legislature in i9io (Colvin, The Bicameral System in the New York Legislature) revealed that the lower house rejected only six per cent of the bills passed by the upper house and that the latter house rejected only fourteen per cent of the bills passed by the former. From this study the investigator concluded that it could scarcely be claimed that the bicameral system provides an effective check on hasty, il-considered, and careless legislation. Similar conclusions were reached in a study of the Minnesota legislature in 191 I and of the California legislature in 1913. (See note p. 61o in Garner, Political Science and Government). A joint committee of the Nebraska legislature in 1914 reporting in favor of a unicameral legislature said, In practice it has been found that the so-called 'check' between the tow houses results in deadlocks and the absence of real responsibility which should be felt by the representatives of the people. Nothing is more common than for one house to pass a bill and for the mem- I 2!

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