The U.S. state of Oregon is one of the many states in the United States that has

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...

in the form of initiatives and referendums. Oregon residents introduced this system in 1902 with a ballot measure. Nationwide, referendums and initiatives became known as the "Oregon System" of direct government. Recall elections are also allowed in Oregon's system.

History

The process of direct democracy in Oregon came out of several reforms proposed by members from the Progressive Movement. Important reforms before were the implementation of the

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

in 1891, and a system of voter registration in 1899. These were the first successful reforms in the state to combat electoral fraud and vote buying. The Oregon System of direct democracy is largely credit to William U'Ren, one time a member of the Populist Party and the founder of the Oregon Direct Legislation League in 1898. U'Ren committed to direct legislation as a way combat corrupt practices in government, using it as a tool to break through the political gridlock in the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

. The initiative and referendum was eventually pushed through the legislature of 1897, where there was a split between the

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, Silver Republican, Republican, and Democratic parties over who would be elected to the US Senate. The Republican party split over the reelection of republican Senator John Mitchell, which was opposed by a faction led by republican

Jonathan Bourne Jonathan Bourne Jr. (1811—1889) was a whaling agent and merchant who lived and worked in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Biography He was the tenth of eleven children and was raised on a farm in Sandwich, Massachusetts. When he was seventeen, h ...

. U'Ren's People's Party struck a deal with Bourne's faction preventing reelection of Mitchell due to lack of

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

in the State's House of Representatives, preventing any legislation being passed that year in the state. Called the "Holdup of '97", Bourne denied Mitchell's reelection and committed to passing U'Ren's direct legislation constitutional amendment. It later passed in the state as a ballot question in 1902. Usage of the initiative led Oregon to enact innovative policies that would spread across the country as elements of the Oregon System. It was the first state to enact a

direct primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

, a Corrupt Practices Act to regulate election campaign spending, and

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...

elections. One of the key reforms U'ren hoped to enact by direct legislation, a system of single tax inspired by Henry George, was never enacted by the state.

References

{{Oregon legislation Politics of Oregon Direct democracy Oregon ballot measures

History

See also

References