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BATTLING PARTISANSHIP
Progressive Democracy and the Drive for a Non-Partisan Unicameral Legislature in Nebraska, 1934
by John M. Burney
 
Play this game recently? | Citizens assert their initiative to make law and debate the nature and value of representation, partisanship, and checks and balances in American democracy and Nebraska's state government. Politicians, lawyers, academics, union members, farmers, ranchers, and journalists (men and women, people of diverse ethnicity; descendants of post-Civil War settlers and more recent immigrants) gather to debate the constitutional amendment placed on the state ballot in 1934 by a citizen initiative led by the progressive Senator George W. Norris. The amendment would replace the Nebraska House and Senate with a non-partisan, one house legislature. This microgame recreates a debate in Omaha in which students will play Progressives, Conservatives, and Indeterminates (with members of both major parties on all sides) to debate the value of tradition and the necessity of political parties for the organization of the legislature. Could American democracy evolve or was it locked into traditions formed 150 years earlier? Could a smaller one house legislature provide more responsible representation for citizens than the complex two-house system? Did the legislature have to be organized by political parties that had used legislative rules for years to block reform? Or could it function more effectively by liberating representatives from party labels, national agendas, and party discipline so that they could concentrate on voicing the concerns of their constituents and negotiate across party lines? The debate transitions into a final vote on the amendment and a chance to discuss its consequences. More broadly, in the postmortem students could be asked to apply the arguments of the 1934 Progressives in Nebraska to the current U.S. Congress in order to consider how partisanship affects the legislative branch. Is it valuable to have the House and Senate serve as a check on each other’s actions? Do strong party caucuses help or hinder legislation? A second avenue would be to turn discussion to recent efforts by some states to stymie or slow walk laws passed by voters through the Initiative process. Does the United States really want to maintain the direct input of citizens in the democracy? |
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John M. Burney
John M. Burney, earned a Ph.D. in Modern European History at the University of Kansas and taught as a Professor of History at Loras College, Drake University, and Doane University while also serving in administrative roles including as Vice President for Academic Affairs. He has published on the history of the French Revolution and French Educational history and with Andrew J. Auge is co-author of the Reacting game Ending the Troubles: Religion, Nationalism, and the Search for Peace in Northern Ireland, 1997-1998 (UNC Press, 2024). Burney has provided numerous sessions and workshops on curriculum revision, active learning, first year seminars, and assessment as well as teaching using Reacting at meetings of such groups as the Association for American Colleges and Universities, the Higher Learning Commission, Council of Independent Colleges, the International Conference on Teaching and Learning, and the Conference on the First Year Experience. He has been involved with Reacting since 2001, including serving as Chair of the Reacting Consortium Board until 2016. He then served as director of the Reacting Endeavor Challenge Grant program from 2017-2020, working with 20 institutions to expand the use of role-playing pedagogies in their programs.
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