The Government System of the State of Nebraska Term Paper

The Government System of the State of Nebraska - Term Paper Example Politically, the agitation for statehood was largely by Republicans who were also behind the drafting of the constitution. Early amendments were undertaken such that the most formal definition of the Nebraska Constitution is the document written and approved in 1875, which makes it the 17th oldest state constitution (Miewald, Longo and Schultz, 2010). Â  A good number of changes have been made to the constitution of the state of Nebraska such that it is nearly unrecognizable from the 1966 draft as it has been amended 228 times (Gless, 2008). Throughout its timeline and amendments, perhaps, the most notable and significant moment is the conversion of the state's legislature to unicameral one in 1934. After 68 years of traditional bicameral-senate and house of representatives-legislature, the people of Nebraska voted in the unicameral legislature with the first session being held in 1937. The change took effect after observing on-goings in Queensland Australia, which had itself adopted the unicameral legislature ten years earlier. The proponents in Nebraska observed that the bicameral legislature was based on the British system where there is the presence of the House of Lords, which was deemed as undemocratic. To date, Nebraska remains the only state in the USA with a single-house legislature (Foran, 2002). Â  This consists of six officers, a number of departments, several governmental agencies and several state bodies (Heineman, 2010). The six executive officers are the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, treasurer and the attorney-general. The supreme executive power of the state is vested in the governor, with their duty being to ensure the constitution is protected, and the state is run efficiently.