Main points from 2306

For our review of a semester's worth of material today:

• The need for public education was written into both the Texas Declaration of Independence and the 1876 Texas Constitution. It explains why you have to take this class.
• The precise role of the states within the national governing systems was fluid from 1776 to 1789.
• In the U.S. Constitution delegates from the original states gave up some their claims to national powers.
• The U.S. Constitution carves out specific roles for the state to play in running elections and provides guarantees and obligations for them. It also establishes that new states can be formed and that they are to be organized into republics.
• With few exceptions, the United States Constitution allows the states to pass whatever policies it chooses.
• However, the Texas Constitution – independently – places limits on policymaking in the state.
• Most of the states after the original 13 were US territories prior to becoming states.
• Texas was never a US territory. This explains why it controls so much of its land.
• Expansion westward happened almost immediately after the Constitutional was ratified. By mid-century, all the territory that would become the lower 48 was acquired.
• The U.S. Constitution says nothing about cities.
• The precise relationship between the state and nation governments has been debated ever since.
• This involves debates over the meaning of the commerce and equal protection clauses among many others.
• Conflicts over those two clauses form the heart of the conflict between Texas and the national government.
• Major periods of expansion of national power over the states include the post Civil War era, The New Deal and the Great Society.
• The people who populated Texas came primarily from Southern, protestant slave states. This created conflict with the Mexican government.
• Political culture still helps explains the conflict between Texas and the national government.
• The state of Texas had several constitutions between 1824 and 1876. Each was a reflection on the politics and circumstances of that era.
• The Texas Constitution is quite long and detailed due to the amount of times it has been amended.
• The structure of the Texas Constitution is designed to place specific limits on what the state government can do.
• The design of Texas government – and the ideas Texans have about the relationship between government and the people – was heavily influence by the Jacksonian movement.
• The Texas Bill of Rights provides a more explicit set of guarantees of individual rights to Texans than the US Bill of rights.
• Cities are primarily economic entities, political entities second once they are granted governing authority by the state.
• Cities do not have an independent sovereign status – they exist because states allow them to.
• Counties serve as administrative units of the state.
• County officials elected locally.
• Key positions in all three branches of government in Texas are elected – this creates problems for the separation of powers in the state.
• The Texas Legislature only meets in session briefly every two years.
• Texas legislators are expected to hold other jobs or positions.
• There are significant limits placed on spending in the state, including pay as you go requirements that can only be surpassed if allowed by a constitutional amendment.
• Executive power in the state is divided into separately elected positions in order to distribute power.
• The Texas Governor is argued to be among the weaker among the states.
• Texas elects its judges – this is alleged to have consequences since judges need campaign contributions in order to run successful.
• Each state is in charge of its own election rules.
• These rules include the ability to regulate political parties and primary elections.
• Texas has open primaries – voters do not register as members of a political party.
• The national government can hear challenges to election rules based on the Voting Rights Act – which rests its authority on the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
• - The U.S. government had no authority over suffrage until the 15th Amendment.
• - Texas has a tendency to be dominated by one political party.
• - Policymaking in the states – Texas included – tend to focus on the “police powers.”