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Constitutional framework
Connecticut has experienced more than 350 years of constitutional government, from the Fundamental Orders of 1638 to the present constitution of 1965. A strong governor, who is elected for a four-year term, heads Connecticut’s state government. The governor initiates legislation, prepares the state budget, appoints department heads, and can veto individual items of an appropriation bill. The Office of Policy and Management develops the governor’s proposed budget and oversees executive agencies. Major oversight is also provided by an independent, bipartisan auditors’ office.
Connecticut’s legislative branch, the General Assembly, is composed of a 151-member House and a 36-member Senate. It met biennially until a constitutional amendment adopted in 1970 provided for annual legislative sessions. The senatorial districts are approximately equal in population. The House of Representatives was originally based on towns, with each town, regardless of size, having at least one representative. The 1965 constitution reapportioned the lower branch so that its districts, like the Senate, are based on equivalent population. Connecticut’s General Assembly is different from most state legislatures in that all business is conducted through joint House-Senate standing committees. Although the legislature is in session for only three to five months each year, there is interim committee activity. For many years the legislative branch had considerably less power than the executive, but since the late 1960s the legislature has achieved equal status through a combination of strong leadership, increased staffing, and improved facilities. Connecticut has adopted some of the most far-reaching governmental ethics laws in the country and has had an office of state ethics since 1978.
The Supreme Court heads the state’s judiciary. The Appellate Court was established by a constitutional amendment in 1982. Superior courts were formed in 1978 by a merger of the courts of common pleas and the juvenile courts. The justices of the Supreme Court and of the appellate and superior courts are nominated by the governor and appointed by the General Assembly for eight-year terms. Probate judges are elected on partisan ballots for four-year terms.
Below the state government are some 170 local units called towns. They are creations of the state, with their rights and responsibilities set out in state statutes. There is nonetheless a long-standing, intense tradition of local autonomy. These local governments maintain roads and provide elementary and secondary education and police and fire protection. Larger municipalities also provide water and sewage facilities and other services. Originally, government was based on the town meeting, at which the citizens elected selectmen to run the town between the annual meetings. As populations increased and problems of administration became more complex, other systems were substituted. Most larger communities have opted for a city form with an elected mayor and council. Some smaller communities have elected mayors; others have town or city managers. Many towns have retained the town meeting or have substituted the representative town meeting. County government was abolished in 1960. County lines exist today only for statistical purposes.
Health and welfare
The community and the state have become increasingly involved in health and medical care. Most people live within 10 miles (16 km) of hospital services, and doctors and other medical personnel are numerous. There are many community health clinics in addition to the advanced medical centres of the University of Connecticut, located in Farmington, and of the Yale–New Haven Hospital. The state’s Office of Health Care Access has endeavoured to help citizens receive adequate health care.
In relation to most states, Connecticut has provided generous welfare benefits. Departments for the elderly and for children and youth services have been established to meet the special needs of communities. Nonetheless, the state joined the national effort to reduce welfare costs, establishing workfare (mandated employment) programs for those on public assistance rolls and deinstitutionalizing many who had been in mental health facilities. This has been done amid sometimes heated debate and—as elsewhere in the country—has put added pressure on law enforcement and health care services.
Urban redevelopment programs in Connecticut’s larger cities have made progress, although areas of inner-city blight and abandoned housing have remained. Renewal programs in New Haven during the 1950s and ’60s became a prototype for the rest of the country. Much work in rehabilitating urban areas remains to be done, however, especially in residential neighbourhoods. There is also a shortage of lower- and middle-income housing.
Connecticut, a pioneer of the American free-enterprise system, has also been a leader in enacting social legislation. The first child-labour law was passed in 1842, but it was ineffectual, and hundreds of children continued to work long hours in the textile mills. A labour department was set up by the state in 1873, and since then hundreds of laws and regulations have been enacted to control working conditions and compensation, addressing matters such as the length of the workday, minimum wage rates, equal pay for equal work, and similar concerns. State departments supervise banks, insurance companies, and the public utilities, and in 1959 the Department of Consumer Protection was organized to consolidate several existing agencies.
Education
From the earliest days, every town has been required to maintain public elementary schools and, as the town grew in size, secondary schools as well. The state has long had a complex formula for providing local school aid, but public schools have often been underfunded. Schools, to some degree, have reflected the racial imbalance of residential patterns, a situation that has continued to engage the legislature and the courts in efforts to provide a remedy.
Connecticut is renowned for its many private schools and colleges. Yale University (1701), an Ivy League school, is regarded as one of the world’s great universities; other private institutions, such as Wesleyan University (1831) in Middletown, also have national recognition. Public higher education has expanded considerably. The University of Connecticut (1881) at Storrs is known for the high quality of its academic programs, and its men’s and women’s basketball teams are among the state’s premiere athletic attractions. The university has several branches, including a law school in Hartford and a medical school in Farmington. In addition, there are four state university campuses and more than a dozen community-technical colleges. The United States Coast Guard Academy is located at New London.