Government and society

Constitutional framework

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Idaho operates under its original constitution of 1889, and, typical of states admitted to the union after the American Civil War (1861–65), it has a constitution that establishes the usual separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers but limits the governor’s strength. The constitution is detailed and includes many provisions that are ordinarily found in statutory law; it has been amended more than 100 times. Women achieved the right to vote in 1896, making Idaho one of the first states in the country to extend suffrage to female citizens.

The only change in the government between 1890 and 1914 was the creation of numerous service and regulatory commissions and boards largely independent of the governor. Administrative reorganization after World War I consolidated these agencies in an effort to make them democratically responsive. The Great Depression of the 1930s brought about the creation of dozens of new commissions and boards, however, and the growth continued thereafter.

In 1974 the state government was again reorganized. The executive branch consists of the governor and six other elected officers (lieutenant governor, attorney general, controller, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, and treasurer) as well as a number of departments, boards, commissions and other agencies. The governor and other executive officials are elected to unlimited four-year terms. The bicameral legislature, which meets annually, comprises a Senate and a House of Representatives; both senators and representatives serve two-year terms. Justice is administered by the Supreme Court, a court of appeals, and seven district courts and by county magistrate’s courts. The district courts may originate cases and hear appeals.

The various geographic regions have tended to display distinct voting patterns. The rural south-central and southeastern sections are politically conservative; the southwestern section, with the university towns of Boise and Moscow and the wealthy towns of Hailey and Sun Valley, is broadly centrist. The two major political parties generally have dominated Idaho’s political life since World War I. The voters have chosen Republican congressional candidates much of the time; the election of conservative Democrat Walt Minnick in 2008 gave Idaho its first Democratic U.S. representative since 1992. Voting in presidential elections has trended heavily in favour of Republicans. Since 1944 a majority of voters has only once voted for a Democratic presidential candidate—in 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson won Idaho over Republican challenger Barry M. Goldwater by a margin of less than 1 percent. In the 2008 presidential election John McCain, the Republican candidate, earned 61 percent of the vote. The Republicans have also tended to control the state legislature. The governorship, except between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s, has more often been won by Republicans than Democrats. The preprimary party convention has been replaced by open primaries.

Idaho has more than 1,000 units of local government, including counties, municipalities, school districts, and special-purpose districts, the last having limited taxing power. Most activities of local government are carried on by counties and cities. County commissioners, with a combination of legislative and executive functions, are very powerful. The state legislature for many years refused to pass home rule legislation, but in the late 1990s it granted charter authority to Idaho’s counties.

Health and welfare

Although the electorate of Idaho is generally conservative on economic matters, allocations for social and educational programs are liberal and are endorsed by both political parties. Nearly one-fifth of the state tax revenues goes into public health and public assistance programs. In addition, notable achievements have been based on a sense of social ethics, including a superior civil rights law. Living standards are relatively high because labour contracts follow national patterns, and living costs are below those of many states.

Idaho has several health districts that provide public health care throughout the state. Although Idaho has a low ratio of physicians to population and many rural hospitals find it difficult to remain open, the range of health services is comparable to that found in most U.S. states. All of the major cities have high-quality hospitals and private medical services.

Education

Indian mission schools were supplemented by classes for white students when settlement began during the 1860s, and by the time of statehood Idaho’s land-grant university, the University of Idaho (founded in 1889, in Moscow), had been chartered. The state Board of Education, dating from 1912, supervises appropriated funds, teacher certification, and related functions. The junior college system began on a district basis in 1939 and became a state function in 1965. In addition to the University of Idaho, the publicly supported Idaho State University (1901, in Pocatello) and Boise State University (1932), as well as the private College of Idaho (1891, in Caldwell) and Northwest Nazarene College (1913, in Nampa), all offer advanced degrees. The University of Idaho is both a college of agriculture and the state’s major educational institution. It offers bachelor’s and advanced degrees in areas that are related to the state’s economy—engineering, mining, forestry, and wildlife and range science—and in other areas of business, education, and arts and letters.

The arts

The opera houses in the mining camps, with various types of musical shows and serious drama, were Idaho’s first “culture.” The missionaries and the churches set the patterns of cultural development for a long period. The University of Idaho has taken a leading role in developing programs in music, art, architecture, creative writing, and theatre. Other institutions of higher learning have also developed strong fine arts programs.

Idaho has contributed artists with wide reputations, including Vardis Fisher, a novelist whose writing decried dogma and tyranny; poet Ezra Pound, born in Hailey, who wrote about Idaho’s 19th-century Free Silver movement in his Cantos; and Carol Ryrie Brink, who wrote books for adults and children. Ernest Hemingway wrote many of his books while living in Idaho, which he enjoyed for its wilderness aspects.

Cultural institutions

All the colleges and universities have symphony orchestras, choral groups, and theatre programs, and a number of cities—including Boise, Pocatello, and Moscow—have orchestras. The Idaho Shakespeare Festival performs classic and popular works in an outdoor amphitheatre along the river in Boise each summer, and the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and the cities of Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston also have summer theatres. The Idaho Commission on the Arts sponsors and promotes the development of art exhibits, lectures, literature, films, theatres, and music throughout the state.