The Stalin birthplace museum is recommended by many including Young Fogey. We didn’t quite manage that, as it’s a two-hour drive from Tbilisi, but we did manage the old capital of Georgia at Mtskheta.
Last night we were all tired, so much so that one of my colleagues visibly fell asleep over dinner. On top of that we all had to get up at 0500 to catch the 0730 flight from Tbilisi to Baku, so even worse today.
Azerbaijan is my 41st country in my life (my boss mutters that he is roughly a hundred countries ahead of me; I shall have to scramble to catch up). Baku is very windy. The old city is really rather attractive. We walked around quoting bits of Ali and Nino at each other. I bought a carpet from the Quba region. Getting it home is going to be interesting…
Tomorrow evening fly back to Tbilisi for a night and then home the next morning. The trip is great fun but I can’t wait to be back with wife and children again.
I vaguely recall a few studies I read on unicameralism vs bicameralism when I was doing my degree.
But I didn’t specialise, and I graduated nearly 9 years ago, so this is from dodgy memory.
Essentially, small countries (measured by population, but sometimes geography), tend to do better without the expense/need of a 2nd chamber, whereas larger countries tend to benefit as long as the second chamber is different to the first in some way.
So NZ, being small populations and fairly compact, doesn’t need a 2nd chamber. Whereas Australia benefits, as the 2nd chamber has a distinctly different composition and represents different things.
Britain could benefit from a number of options, but none of them appear politically viable currently.