Oregon Law Review : Vol. 87 No. 3, p.717-730 : What Is a Constitution, What Is Not, and Why Does It Matter?
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Date
2008
Authors
Linde, Hans A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon School of Law
Abstract
Some 150 years ago, Oregon adopted a conventional
constitution of its time. Forty years later, in reaction to domination by
entrenched political parties and interests, the “Oregon System”—in
effect, Oregon’s second constitution—was designed to make
government more responsive to the popular demands of the
Progressive era. It succeeded as long as its original designers initiated
laws to enact specific policies and initiated amendments to the
constitution only to reform the institutions and electoral politics of
government. The system went astray when later generations of
activists began collecting extra signatures on petitions in order to
erect constitutional monuments to some cause of the moment and
place them beyond the reach of lawmakers elected to represent all the
state’s people, both voters and nonvoters, and to take responsibility
for balancing the state’s books.
Oregon’s current text can fairly be described as a constitutional
mess. But if those responsible for the state’s institutions find it
dysfunctional, the original conceptions of “laws” and “amendments”
leaves restoration of the distinction in their hands. The harder
question is whether this also is within the capacity of the political
constitution.
Description
14 p.
Keywords
Oregon. Constitution, Referendum, Initiative, Constitutions -- Oregon