Government and society

Constitutional framework

The state constitution was adopted in 1857. Oregon has been in the vanguard of several innovative movements in U.S. government collectively known as the Oregon System. In 1902 the concepts of initiative and referendum were introduced, by which voters are able to initiate and vote upon statutes or constitutional revisions; these were supplemented in 1908 by the system of recall, under which the removal of elected officials can be initiated by the voters. The state was also one of the earliest to impose a state income tax, which it did in 1923.

The state’s executive branch is headed by a governor, who is limited to two four-year terms within any 12-year period. The governor supervises the state budget, coordinates the activities of state agencies, boards, and commissions, initiates future planning, and is the focus of federal-state interaction. The governor may veto individual items in appropriation bills. In 1991 Oregon inaugurated its first female governor, Barbara Roberts.

Other state-level elected officials are the secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, commissioner of labour and industries, and superintendent of public instruction, all of whom serve four-year terms. The bicameral legislature, called the Legislative Assembly, comprises the Senate, with 30 members serving four-year terms, and the House of Representatives, with 60 members serving two-year terms.

The court system is headed by the seven-justice Supreme Court, which has general administrative authority over all other courts. The justices, elected for six-year terms, elect one of their members as chief justice. The Court of Appeals, which is composed of 10 judges elected for six-year terms, has jurisdiction over all civil and criminal appeals, except capital (death-penalty) cases and appeals from the Tax Court; it is also responsible for the review of most state agency administrative acts. District courts became circuit courts in 1998 and act as state trial courts of general jurisdiction. County courts are generally limited to juvenile and probate matters, while justice courts have jurisdiction over traffic, wildlife, and other violations occurring in their counties, as well as some small-claims jurisdiction.

Oregon gives its towns and cities home rule—that is, the right to choose their own form of government. Most cities with populations of more than 5,000 have the council-manager form of government, whereas smaller cities usually are governed by a city council and a mayor. Portland is the only Oregon city with a commission form of government, in which elected commissioners function as the city council and administer city departments.

In 1958 a constitutional amendment authorized Oregon’s 36 counties to adopt home-rule charters, and in 1973 a state law granted all counties the power to exercise broad home-rule authority. Only about one-fourth of counties have opted for home rule, but all Oregon counties have significantly more local discretionary authority than those of any other state. In most counties a county judge and two commissioners or a board of commissioners exercise the powers of government. These officials usually are elected for terms of three years.

In 1971 the legislature passed a far-reaching program to deal with the problem of air and water pollution, and in 1973 a mandatory program of land and resource development and conservation was established. In part because of the state’s strong emphasis on conservation—a comprehensive recycling plan was established by law in 1983, and the state was the first in the country to pass a bottle-deposit law, in 1971—and because of the passing of liberal laws such as those decriminalizing medical marijuana (1998) and allowing terminally ill patients to end their own lives (1997), Oregon has a reputation of being culturally, if not always politically, progressive. The western cities of Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis tend to be especially liberal, but there is a strong conservative presence in Oregon too, particularly in the eastern and southern parts of the state. Communities whose livelihood depended on logging have opposed some environmental legislation, such as that which protects threatened species (the spotted owl and sucker fish among them) at the expense of the timber industry.

Oregon elections are conducted exclusively by mail, as established by a 1998 referendum. Voters receive their ballots by mail at least two weeks before the election and return them to the elections office anytime, election day being the final deadline. Republicans dominated Oregon’s politics through much of the state’s history. With post-World War II industrial and population growth, however, Democrats came to outnumber Republicans in registration. Since the late 20th century the governorship has been won consistently by Democrats. During the same period, elections for the state legislature often resulted in a Republican majority, but there have also been Democratic majorities in either or both houses. An unusual number of Oregonians have made their mark in the U.S. Congress by their independent stances. Wayne Morse represented Oregon in the Senate from 1945 to 1969; elected as a Republican, he declared his independence from that party in 1953 (even moving his chair to the centre aisle of the Senate Chamber for a day as a symbolic gesture) and served as an independent for two years before switching his affiliation to the Democratic Party. He is perhaps best remembered as an early and adamant opponent of the Vietnam War. For most of the 20th century, Oregon was in the Republican column in presidential elections (except for those in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the White House), but it swung toward the Democratic Party beginning with the 1988 election and into the early 21st century.

Health and welfare

The Department of Human Resources coordinates the activities of the state’s principal social service agencies. Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland, includes schools of medicine, dentistry, and nursing, hospitals and outpatient clinics, and other facilities. The university’s Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research was one of the world’s first centres to focus on study of the molecular biology of the brain.