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47 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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tradition of one-partyism
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Anglos in south have become more in line with republican party, Texas has always been conservative in race this hasn't changed, the party stance just changed. It used to be conservative democratic now it is conservative republic. This is because republicans became more conservative on social issues.
Importance:? |
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party organization
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A structure in which people interact and try to coordinate.
IMPORTANCE: it is especially weak in texas because candidates are nominated in primaries not by party leaders. Texas has state conventions every year, platforms are sent out by the parties and the candidates ignore them; they are not obligated to endorse them, hence weak party organization. |
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Tom Pauken DATES
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Chairperson of the state republican party organization in 1994,2000. Had conflict with Bush because he wanted him to be more conservative on certain issues, but Bush ignored him. Importance: The party platforms sent out have nothing to do with candidates in office. The candidates don't depend on the party to finance their campaigns. Shows how weak party organization is.
There is party organization, but that has basically nothing to do with the actual candidates who run for offices, get elected, and then run the state. Those candidates raise their own money, so they don’t depend on the party to finance the campaigns, thus they are independent. Illustrates just how weak party organization is in Texas. |
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Texas Voter Turnout
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Texas voting turnout is very low, similar to US voting turnout. It has been slowly rising.
Importance:? |
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Minority Voter Turnout
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In texas this tends to be quite low. Minority citizens tend not to vote. It makes a huge difference that they don't vote. High percentage of whites are conservative. High percentage of African Americans are liberal. Statistically minorities are much more liberal, thus more democratic. Anglos tend to identify as republican. Minorities tend to identify as democrat. Minorities go to the polls at much lower percentages. Importance: republicans lead all elections because the democrats don't vote.
The conservative anglos go to the polls therefore the governor is a conservative anglo. |
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Minority Opinions
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minorites are more liberal than whites, tend not to vote as much, therefore conservatives rules in texas in terms of public policy, minority turnout then you would be able to make the whole argument, and texas turnout is turn out overall because minorities vote at such low rates, illegal immigrants in texas,
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140 days
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The legislature may serve for this long every other year. On odd number years the legislature can serve for this long and then it's over for about a year and a half. A very short time when compared to other. Importance: They do not have enough time to govern wisely and well.
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$7200
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The Texas constitution says this is how much the legislatures are paid per year.
Importance: Means they must do this part time and have another job. Legislators in TX are grossly underpaid and they must handle about 5,000 bills a year. Average among other states is about $67,000 per year. |
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power of presiding officers
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presiding officer over senate: lieutenant governor; senators have no control over who this will be he is elected by the people of texas. Presiding office of house: speaker of the house, elected from within the house, he/she is a representative. They have powers that are much greater than the leaders in the US congress have. Each officer appoints the chairperson of each committee, and half of the members. They don't follow party lines. When democrats are in control the presiding officers appoint both republicans and democrats. The same when republicans are in control. Determine the jurisdiction of committees. Importance: party is much less important in texas legislature than it is in the congress. The power is centralized in the legislature, not how it is in congress. Much more powerful in getting legislation through than are the supposed leaders in the US congress. Combine officers power with part-time legislators and you see that the texas legislator is very different in US congress and what is most important are the two presiding officers.
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David Dewhurst & Tom Craddick DATE
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DD- LG TC- SOH
In 2005 the two presiding officers; school finance reform issue, the two officers did not agree about what should be done. There was gridlock in the Texas legislature, and no school finance reform bill was passed. In 2006 Rick Perry called a special session to fix this, the governor, LG, and SOH all agreed on something and passed a bill. Importance: to know what's going on in the Texas legislature it is important to know where the presiding officers stand on issues because they are most influential in creating policy. |
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"Bo" Pilgrim DATE
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1989, wealthy business man, pilgrim's pride chicken, In 89 the workman compensation law was being debated, Bo sat in the front row of the senate if Pilgrim liked what the senator said he wrote them a check for $10,000. This embarrassed the senate, so they made a rule that non-senators cannot be on the floor, so instead he waited out side to give them their checks. Importance: the fact that legislators are underpaid and don't have a lot of influence, gives lobbyists more influence. You can make a lot of money lobbying a legislator, but you can't make any many being a legislator.
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Responsible policy-making
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This is possible in the legislature because power is centralized. This is different than the US congress, so why is the Texas legislature held in low esteem? Usually because journalists are liberals and the texas legislature usually makes conservative decisions.
Importance: Prindle argues the texas legislature is better than the US congress because they can make policy responsibly. |
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sources of state income
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General sales tax
26.6% Oil & Natural gas severance tax 2.7% (1970s was 30%; state had to raise other taxes in order to run government) Other taxes 17.8% Federal Transfers 32.9% Licenses, fees, etc. 13.2% Lottery 1.8% Other 5.0% The biennial budget(budget created every two years) controls state income. The Texas constitution says the state must always run a balanced budget. The comptroller takes in info about the texas economy and makes a projection about how much money will be available to spend over the 2 years. The legislature may not spend in the budget more than the comptroller says is available. Comptroller either approves of budget or does not and then the state has no budget, so they have to cut things out of the budget and then the Comptroller approves it. Importance: legislature has an outside force that tells them not to spend a certain amount of money. The US congress does not. |
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oil and natural gas severance tax
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30 % of total income used to in the 1970s come from this tax, now is under 3 %- texas govt. has had to raise new taxes since this has lowered so much.
Importance:? |
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patterns of state expenditure
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Education, Health and Human Services, Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Business and Economic Development. Importance: legislator is now dealing with 27 billion budget shortfall for next two years. Therefore legislator has to pass a bill thats 27 billion dollars less than the 182 billion 2 years ago. The function that is going to be cut most severely is education because that's the biggest portion of their spending.
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Functions of state chief-executives
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1. Chief administrator- the governor runs the executive branch
2. chief legislator- governor runs on a platform of whatever laws they would like legislature to pass 3. Head of the party 4. “commander-in-chief”- texas doesn't have an army of its own, but there are national guardians, and governor is theoretically commander. Importance:? |
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power of governor
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In the 1st three of these functions the governor is extremely weak, in the 4th the governor has as much power as anyone else.
Importance: power is irrelevant because control of state national guard is not an important power. Governor can't appoint people, and when they can the appointments will be staggered, because of this the government's power is quite weak, in term of the constitution. |
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governor's control of administration
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?
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Governor Ann Richards
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1st real female governor of Texas, the female before her that ran was governor because her husband was governor first- ferguson. Richards was elected in 1990. She complained about not enough appointment power. She wanted to get control of insurance administration because the members were corrupt, they came up with evidence of one man taking bribes from insurance agency, they told him they wouldn't make it public if he resigned and therefore was able to get control and appoint another member. Importance: a good politician can get more out of the governorship than you might think if you just know the formal powers.
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chief legislator
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The governor has very little power over legislature, but has the power of line-item veto. Importance: Governor has strong legislative power, but it is a negative power, he can't get anyone to do anything he can just stop things. Compared to other states our governor has very little power, he/she can only get what they want if they agree with speak of house and lieutenant governor.
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Governor George W. Bush DATE
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ran for governor in 1994 on the basis of 4 policy plans- welfare reform, education reform, tort reform, changes in the juvenile justice system. In 1995 legislative session he got all 4 legislative issues that he wanted. He was successful because he was a good politician, got long well with everyone. In 1994 was the 1st election in which republicans took over most everything in Texas. Importance: a good politician can get more out of the governorship than you might think if you just knew the formal powers (laws and constitution).
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Governor Rick Perry
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was the lieutenant governor in 2000 when Bush resigned, so perry became governor. At first he was a very poor legislator, in the 2001 legislative session perry was uninvolved. After session was over he immediately vetoed 82 bills but he did not voice opposition while they were going over these bills. In 2006 Perry was much more involved, constantly consulting with speak and lieutenant governor. Called a special session to fix education dilemma. Importance: A governor that is not confident can still learn on the job how to be more effective with the legislature. Texas governor is extremely weak but a politician can figure out how to work the system and get things done.
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Texas Office of Homeland Security DATE
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created in 2003 by texas legislature, concerned with terrorist attacks, purpose is to develop plans to prevent and deal with terrorist attacks, and to deal with natural disasters. This was lodged in governor's office, governor is now responsible for this. Importance: governor is slowly gaining power.
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Comptroller
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elected to discipline the legislature, he gathers economic data and they project for the next two years how much the legislature can spend.In 2003 the legislator passed a budget and the comptroller announces that they spent too much and didn't certify the budget. Perry vetoed money from the comptrollers office, because she waited until the legislative session was over and they had to have a special session.
Importance: The Texas government has a person who controls where the money goes, the US govt. does not? |
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Texas court of criminal appeals
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hears only appeals from the criminal track. No argument.
Importance:? |
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Texas Supreme Court
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deals only with civil questions (lawsuits). No argument.
Importance:? |
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Letter Opinion 97-001
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The attorney general has the power to issue advisory opinions (opinions about whether something is unconstitutional). This is an example of one issued in 97 and it was the 1st one, dealt with affirmative action at UT, law school was discriminating against whites and asians in it's admissions policies, law school had two boxes- whites and asian were in one, hispanics and african americans were in another (they were judged at a much more lenient measure). In 96 a white female student challenged the law school's racial discrimination. President of UH asked attorney general what the court decision said for other schools. His opinion(Letter opinion 97-001) said that the court decision meant there can be no affirmative action at any university in Texas. Importance: the attorney general has a lot of power in texas politics.
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Is Justice for sale?
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the idea that elections are corrupted by money. This is the opposite problem that the US govt. has with judicial branch because judges in US govt are appointed not elected. Judges are supposed to be impartial (not care who win a lawsuit), but if there are two lawyers in front of you, one of them who raised lots of money for your campaign and the other didn't how do you be impartial when you have to run again? Problem: Judges used to not be able to discuss legal issues, but this was overturned. Problem: Judges need money for their campaign. 72% of money comes from lawyers. Importance: do lawyers rent the loyalty of justices? Do campaigns bias the rulings of the judges?
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Robin Hood Law DATE
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93 school finance law. Took money from the rich school districts and gave it to the poor school districts to equal out education funding. In 05 texas supreme court created a de facto property tax which was unconstitutional according to Texas constitution and the robin hood law was thrown out. 96 special session of legislature- another law cut property taxes state wide and restructured the state's franchise tax (tax on business). State would still have the same amount of money. Franchise tax money would be distributed to equalize money in the districts. This tax did not raises as much money as was lost in the property tax, it was billions short. That is why we have to cut the budget now. The courts forced the legislature to deal with inequalities in the public school finances- still dealing with this problem. Importance: what will this decide for the budget next month? Will there be unequal finances to school districts and go to the courts, or will there just be very low funding for all schools?
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tort reform
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A tort is a civil lawsuit. 80's- texas was a state that was very pro-lawsuit, it was easy to get a judgement in your favor. Lawyers liked the system the way it was- business people and doctors hated the system- because they got sued. Doctors claimed that in texas doctors were getting sued so much that their malpractice insurance was very high. Doctors and business people formed a coalition to get the tort laws changed in texas, lots of money given to republic candidates. Lawyers were part of democratic coalition in texas. Republicans took over the state after 94 election, and even more so after 02 election, Legislature in 95 & 03 radically changed texas tort laws. Texas is now the hardest state to sue someone of all the 50 states. The main changes done were they capped the amount of money that could be awarded to the winner. After 03 the max amount of money that could be awarded was $750,000. Prevented venue shopping- strict rules about where you can sue. Defined certain terms to be harder to meet. Deception, malice, and others. Texas is now the worst place to be a lawyer to bring these suits, best place to be protected from these suits. If you sue some one in a tort case and you lose you have to pay their expenses- people want this in addition to what already is. Importance: legislature has imposed its will on the courts. Severely restricted what the courts can do in civil lawsuits.
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Cameron Todd Willingham DATE
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In 91 willinghams house in corsicana caught fire and his three daughters were killed; willingham was arrested for setting the fire and committing murder. Only 2 pieces of evidence. Neighbors testified he had acted oddly during the fire- they expected him to get his daughters, but instead he moved the car. People who are under stress usually act oddly. 2nd- testimony by assistant fire chief doug f? 7& state fire marshall that pattern of spread of blaze in house and other fire science evidence pointed to ? These two pieces of evidence said he was guilty and was executed in 04. forensic science institution- Organization made to investigate how the courts prosecuted. In 07 innocence project presented a report to forensic science institution. Craig bailer- chairman of international association of fire safety science, hired to review evidence of willinghams trial. He claimed that the two people that testified were only personal beliefs. Final report issued two weeks ago- admitted that flawed evidence was important to convicting willingham.
Importance: implementation of capital punishment is so bad, it is done so poorly that there is evidence to believe that the state has executed innocent people. |
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Tulia
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A small town in swisher county between lubbock and amarillo. Attempts to suppress use of illegal drugs- regional narcotics task forces. Panhandle regional narcotics task force- Thomas Coleman as undercover agent. They did not investigate his background, he left other places under ethical clouds- said to be a racist liar, and a thief. In 99 arrested 46 people 44 black 2 hispanic. Coleman said they had all sold him illegal drugs- series of them tried in 2000, 38 convicted. Several explained they would accept plea bargains. Sentences to first three convicted- 60, 90, and 434 years. Coleman was the only one who had any evidence- he never showed any drugs. After tulia defendants went to prison other people investigated the story didn't make sense that a small town could support so many drugs. In 03 a retired judge was assigned to look into the case. By 03 all of the convicted were freed by perry. Importance: entire swisher county deprived these people from their civil rights.
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LCRA DATE
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Lower Colorado River Authority 2009
Texas water law tends to favor private land owners, but it also recognizes a public interest in water. There are various govt. entities to regulate the use of water, LCRA is one of them. Nonprofit public utility- established in 1934; governs southern half of colorado river ~400 miles. Austin's drinking water comes from this water. South of Austin colorado river is used by rice farmers (requires lots of water). In 2009 370,000 acre feet of water were provided by LCRA to rice growers. Businesses payed LCRA $138.00 an acre foot, rice farmers $5.39 an acre foot. Industries are subsidizing farmer's water. If it was any more expensive for farmers the farmers would go out of business. In summer of 2009 the level of lakes dropped so low that the LRCA was going to start cutting off water to austin or farmers- decided to cut farmer's water. Rice farmers were upset, but never turned into a political conflict because there was heavy rain in september. Importance: illustrates Urban vs. rural area water conflict: both think neither should have as much water. |
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whooping cranes DATE
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2010
The tallest bird in North America, 1937- 15 whopping cranes left in texas and 6 in LA, established a refuge to protects these birds, listed as an officially endangered species, now about 244 whooping cranes. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality- when someone wants to withdraw water from a river you have to apply to TCEQ (they usually always say you can take water). They are supposed to protect environment and economy- they actually do more to sustain texas economy. 23 birds died in winter of 2008-2009 TCEQ said it was bc of drought, but really bc not enough fresh water flowing into the bay. Salinity level rises if there is not enough freshwater. Blue crabs died off and blue crabs are a major food source for whopping cranes. Dec 09 – federal lawsuit against TCEQ- sued by aransas project -illegal harassment of the cranes. Importance: conflict between development and environment that will become more common in future of texas as population rises. |
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Texas Water Plan DATE
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1969
Texas needed to build a huge pipeline across LA to Northwest to FW metroplex and then farther west. Mississippi water would be used to water fields in lubbock and drink DFW/arlington area. ~800 miles long. LA was opposed to this. This would have been very expensive. In 1969 this plan was voted down by people in Texas. Importance: this is the type of transfers that the dryer areas are going to be pushing for not just between texas and other states but also within Texas. |
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TWDB DATE
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2001--
Texas Water Development Board They are supposed to come up with a Texas water plan every 5 years. Planning doesn't necessarily solve problems, doesn't address political problems. Last water plan in 07- board wants to build dams to have enough water in the future. The people who live in these areas don't want their property flooded. Two counties wanted to use the same Corizo-wilcox(sp?) aquifer. Importance: this type of conflict will grow increasingly in texas in the future. |
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Southern Heritage
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A.Southerners are more violent that Northerners.
B.Southerners are much more religious than Northerners. C.Politically the south is more conservative on social issues than the north. Southern politicians run for office as social conservatives but, when they get into office they govern as economic as well as social conservatives. Even though southerners are not more conservative on economic issues southern states have more conservative policy. This demonstrates political conservatism. Importance: This helps understanding the roots and thought process in Texas society today. Southerners are more politically conservative |
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The western heritage
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A.Texas was officially a frontier state before any other state. A frontier line was
established because Texas is long from east to west. B.There is a romance of Texas, the imagination is of Raising cattle and living on a ranch even though raising cotton is much more important to Texas economically. C.The 100th parallel of longitude divides the east from the west the line wavers back and forth based on rainfall in practical terms about 2/3 of texas is in the west. D.For the most part, the west is arid or semi arid so if you want to grow something you have to irrigate the land, Further more, if you want to support a city you need huge water projects to provide for the people of the city. Irrigation and big projects like dams and canals either directly or indirectly require government money. Westerners are hypocrites in a large sense because the only reason there is civilization in the west is because of socialist water projects yet westerners have this myth of rugged individualism this makes westerns politically conservative but anti government even though they are in favor of government projects. This also demonstrates political conservatism as well as hypocrisy. Importance: This helps understanding the roots and thought process in Texas society today. Westerners are conservatives but hypocrites because they rely on socialist projects |
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Historical Context of the constitution
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The writers of the constitution believed them
selves to be an occupied oppressed group.They were resentful of the reconstructed government they had been living under so when they wrote the constitution in 1876 they decided that the problem was that the government had been too powerful and efficient, so they created a constitution that would make a weak government and keep it weak. IMPORTANCE: Texas adapted from the founding father’s techniques and now has a weak constitution with little power to be given, but because it is in depth it needs amendments. |
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disintegrated executive
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the executive powers in Texas are broken up and distributed between executives.
IMPORTANCE: This was adapted from the founding father’s constitution and it one of the reasons Texas holds a weak constitution |
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Texas Rankings
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A.Texas rank among state expenditures:
-Per-capita personal income 26 -Per-capita state government 50 (1 spends the most) -Spending per school pupil 38 -average public school teacher salary 33 -medicaid spending 37 -average monthly temporary assistance for needy families 44 -women infant and children programs 48 -state spending on arts agency 43 -spending on water quality 47 -tax burden 50 B.Quality of life objective measures -violent crime rate 12 -incarceration rate 4 -poverty rate 8 -well being of children 34 -green state ranking 34 - average sat reading score 48 - sat math score 44 - health care 49 - health index 45 - not covered by health insurance 1 - adult pop over weight 8 C.Quality of life subjective vs objective measures On objective measures, Texas is a comparatively poor place to live, but on subjective measures, Texas is the 15th happiest state. Liberals argue that there is a causal relationship here and that the reason Texas scores so low on objective measures is because we have such a small inactive weak government. Conservatives argue that there is a problem in these measures because these statistics include the poor immigrant workers that live in Texas. |
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Southern Heritage
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A.Southerners are more violent that Northerners.
B.Southerners are much more religious than Northerners. C.Politically the south is more conservative on social issues than the north. Southern politicians run for office as social conservatives but, when they get into office they govern as economic as well as social conservatives. Even though southerners are not more conservative on economic issues southern states have more conservative policy. This demonstrates political conservatism. Importance: This helps understanding the roots and thought process in Texas society today. Southerners are more politically conservative |
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The western heritage
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A.Texas was officially a frontier state before any other state. A frontier line was
established because Texas is long from east to west. B.There is a romance of Texas, the imagination is of Raising cattle and living on a ranch even though raising cotton is much more important to Texas economically. C.The 100th parallel of longitude divides the east from the west the line wavers back and forth based on rainfall in practical terms about 2/3 of texas is in the west. D.For the most part, the west is arid or semi arid so if you want to grow something you have to irrigate the land, Further more, if you want to support a city you need huge water projects to provide for the people of the city. Irrigation and big projects like dams and canals either directly or indirectly require government money. Westerners are hypocrites in a large sense because the only reason there is civilization in the west is because of socialist water projects yet westerners have this myth of rugged individualism this makes westerns politically conservative but anti government even though they are in favor of government projects. This also demonstrates political conservatism as well as hypocrisy. Importance: This helps understanding the roots and thought process in Texas society today. Westerners are conservatives but hypocrites because they rely on socialist projects |
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Historical Context of the constitution
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The writers of the constitution believed them
selves to be an occupied oppressed group.They were resentful of the reconstructed government they had been living under so when they wrote the constitution in 1876 they decided that the problem was that the government had been too powerful and efficient, so they created a constitution that would make a weak government and keep it weak. IMPORTANCE: Texas adapted from the founding father’s techniques and now has a weak constitution with little power to be given, but because it is in depth it needs amendments. |
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disintegrated executive
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the executive powers in Texas are broken up and distributed between executives.
IMPORTANCE: This was adapted from the founding father’s constitution and it one of the reasons Texas holds a weak constitution |
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Texas Rankings
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A.Texas rank among state expenditures:
-Per-capita personal income 26 -Per-capita state government 50 (1 spends the most) -Spending per school pupil 38 -average public school teacher salary 33 -medicaid spending 37 -average monthly temporary assistance for needy families 44 -women infant and children programs 48 -state spending on arts agency 43 -spending on water quality 47 -tax burden 50 B.Quality of life objective measures -violent crime rate 12 -incarceration rate 4 -poverty rate 8 -well being of children 34 -green state ranking 34 - average sat reading score 48 - sat math score 44 - health care 49 - health index 45 - not covered by health insurance 1 - adult pop over weight 8 C.Quality of life subjective vs objective measures On objective measures, Texas is a comparatively poor place to live, but on subjective measures, Texas is the 15th happiest state. Liberals argue that there is a causal relationship here and that the reason Texas scores so low on objective measures is because we have such a small inactive weak government. Conservatives argue that there is a problem in these measures because these statistics include the poor immigrant workers that live in Texas. |
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Rule of Capture
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water lecture, the ground water a legal principle in texas, says that own land in texas the gound water under that land is yours, you as the properity owner have complete control, which is contradicted by what: the state’s authority to regulate, hemphill and robbers county, contradiction that has not been resolved, can the state or country regulate the water
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