View all documents related to this topic by clicking on the
document library tab at the top of this page. Legislative
Organization: An Overview There is no "off the shelf" formula
for creating a state legislature, and legislative assemblies in
the United States illustrate the wide variety of organizational
patterns—varying in size, structure and partisan composition.
State legislatures vary in size, and they currently range from
49 to 424 total members. Legislative size has not remained
static, however; numerous legislatures have changed size in the
past four decades. Bicameral or unicameral. A legislature may be
divided into a Senate and House or Assembly (that is, be
bicameral), or it may have only one chamber (that is, be
unicameral). Today, 49 states have bicameral legislatures, and
one—Nebraska—is unicameral. This was not always the case,
however. Most of the American colonies were governed by one-
house legislatures, but this gradually shifted. By 1763, only
two colonies (Delaware and Pennsylvania) conti