Nebraska Documents and Sources

Abstract

If the American states are political laboratories, then Nebraska has performed its share of experiments, the most impressive, as the following bibliography indicates, being the unicameral, nonpartisan legislature. There are other notable features, also worthy of comparative study. For example, the state is just now ending a sixteen-year trial of setting state sales and income tax rates by members of the executive branch rather than by the legislature. The ways in which Nebraskans resolve their grievances with state administrators, manage their water resources, impeach their public officials, and provide their electrical power are also out of the ordinary.Nebraskans can be unpredictable and the political life of the state continues to bewilder the careful observer. Superficially, it might appear that the turmoil of the early years, from the battles over statehood through the Populist movement, has reached a condition of placidity approaching dullness.