This past week we looked more deeply at the nature of cities in general and in Texas more specifically. We saw that cities rest on city charters as much as states (and nations) rest on constitutions. While states have the authority to issue charters, the home rule movement was fought to allow cities a degree more autonomy from state authority than they had originally possessed.
The material also covered counties and provided links to the various departments and institutions in Harris and Brazoria County that have an online presence. Hopefully this has provided some substantive understanding of what county governments actually do. I'll have similar material for city departments soon enough and we will cover them more when we look at the executive branch more fully.
This week also introduced students to the concept of separated powers, in case you either forgot it from GOVT 2305 - might have been napping - or have yet to take 2305.
This sets us up for next week's preliminary look at the three branches of government on the state level. You'll note that we look separately at the legislative, executive and judicial branches, and how they are designed in the states. The intent is to get familiar with what they are, and the issues associated with them. This will allow us to look at how they are each designed in the Texas Constitution in the three subsequent weeks.
Get ready because few things are more fun than reading through Articles 3, 4, and 5 of the Texas Constitution.
