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46 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Political culture |
Broadly shared values, beliefs and attitudes about how the government should function and politics should operate; American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy. |
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Economic Regions |
East TX, Plains, Gulf Coast, Border Region, Metroplex, Central corridor. |
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Political Ideology |
System of beliefs, Explain and evaluate social conditions, provides programs for social and political action, role of government; Libertarianism, modern liberalism, and conservatism; |
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Libertarianism |
Individual to live as one chooses, problems are laws, customs or conditions that block choices |
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Conservatism |
Interconnected individual maintains order, stability, continuity, problems are radical ideas, innovations, passions, desires, lack of restraint |
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Liberalism |
Indvidual ensures political, economical; improve humanity, problems are human nature and inequalities |
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Majority-minority state |
Anglos are no longer majority, all minorities together outnumber Anglos; This can/might change political culture. |
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Political Subculture |
Moralistic subculture, Individualistic subculture, Traditionalistic subculture |
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Moralistic subculture |
the belief that government should be active in promoting the public good and that citizens should participate in politics and civic activities to ensure that good. |
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Individualistic subculture |
the belief that government should limit its role to providing order in society, so that citizens can pursue their economic self-interests. |
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Traditionalistic subculture |
the belief that government should be dominated by political elites and guided by tradition. |
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Traditionalistic/Individualistic subculture |
Texas has what kind of political subculture? |
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Principles of constitutions |
It is a social contract |
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Political culture and constitutions |
Political culture drives constitutions; Texas has traditional/individualistic subculture. It is structured and organized, reflected in all by 1869 constitution, and it still works today |
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Structure of constitutions |
Flexible, Brief and Explicit, and broad outlines of government |
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Revising constitutions |
Amending the constitution, requires 2/3s of both chambers and majority of voters. (since 2007, 47 proposed, 44 passed) |
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Republican Government |
A representative democracy, a system of government in which power is derived form the people |
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Separation of powers |
The division of governmental power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making. |
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Checks and balances |
The constitutional idea that overlapping power is given to different branches of government to limit the concentration of power in any one branch. |
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Ballot wording |
Description of amendment, usually non-instructive or misleading. |
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Citizen Initiative |
Use of petitions; more often amendments proposed; not passed as often 32 to 64 percent; Texas doesn't allow this? |
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Denials of Power |
Powers are denied |
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Grants of Power |
Powers are granted |
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Past Texas Constitutions |
Republic of Mexico (Coahuila y Tejas) Republic of Texas Statehood Constitution Civil War and Reconstruction Constitutions Constitution of 1876 |
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Republic of Mexico (Coahuila y Tejas) |
Federalistic government, didn't recognize slavery. |
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Republic of Texas |
1836 cont.: Independence constitution, composite constitution, unitary government, president had limited term (3 years and no consecutive election/army raised). |
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Statehood Constitution |
Limited exec authority; biennal sessions of legislature (every other year), 2 year terms, homstead protections, Women had equal property rights. |
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Civil War and Reconstruction Constitutions |
Const. of 1861: Essentially the same as Statehood const; prohibited emancipation, provision to secede from U.S., Provision to join Confederacy. Const. of 1866: Rejoin union, abolished slavery, nullified secession ability (overturned by reconstruction act of congress) Const. of 1869: imposed by military rule; moralistic culture influenced. |
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Constitution of 1876 |
Current constitution; concerns of this are what government can and cannot do, that it reflects the Traditionalistic/Individualistic Subculture, there are shorter government terms, and restricted governor and legislature, and abolished state control over education. |
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General Purpose Governments |
Cities, towns, municipalities. Discretionary powers (control finances; hire/fire personnel) |
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Limited Purpose Governments |
Counties, nonschool special districts, school districts. |
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Nonschool Special Districts |
Any special district other than a school district; examples include municipal utility districts and hospital districts. (sometimes known as "Ghost governments") |
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General-law City |
Charter create by state statue, it is aldermanic. |
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Home-Rule city |
The rules in which a city operates; local governments have considerable independent governing power under these charters. |
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Mayor-Council |
A form of government in which the mayor is the chief executive and the city council is the legislative body. |
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Strong Mayor system |
A system in which the mayor's power enables them to control executive departments and the agenda of the city council |
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Weak Mayor System |
A system in which the mayor's power is more limited in their capacity. |
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Council-Manager system |
A form of city government in which public policies are developed by the city council and executive and administrative functions are assigned to a professional city manager. |
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Mayoral elections |
Non partisan elections; no party |
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City Commission/Council |
Non-partisan elections; single number district; at-large elections; or combination of both |
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At-large elections |
an election in which officials are selected by voters of the entire geographical area, rather than from smaller districts within that area |
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Non-partisan elections |
No party is advertised during these type of elections |
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Cumulative voting |
Votes are equal to number of seats open; Can cast all votes for one candidate or any number of combinations. |
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County Government |
This type of government does not have power to legislate; they often function primarily as an administrative arm of the state government. |
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School Districts |
A specific type of special district that provides public education in a designated area. Types: Independent, Consolidated, Municipal (Stafford, TX). |
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Single-member district |
An electorate that elects only one representative for each district |