Essay on Texas Political Culture Text

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length: 1083 words 3.1 double spaced pages texas is an intricate state with deep roots embedded in limited government authority. The two most important cultures in texas are individualistic and traditionalistic culture. Individualistic views are summoned by limited government and that politics are the root of malicious acts, and is usually responded with negative reactions from the community. The individualistic culture is viewed as priority in private independent business rather that those of the community as a whole. Unlike individualistic views, traditionalistic culture is motioned by conservatism.

This cultures vision is supported by the common wealth of society’s privileged. The traditionalistic subculture has a lower voting turn out rate compared to the opposition. Inflexibility, traditionalism, and partisanship: the texas response to new federalism.

to view the full essay now, purchase below the server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, email 160 protected and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. Additionally, a 500 internal server error error was encountered while trying to use an errordocument to handle the request. Political culture and texas political history the history of texas politics also is, in part, the story of how the various strands of texas political culture have been combined to form periods of stability, as well as jarring, discordant moments of deep seated tension, rupture, and sharp change. The democratic party enjoyed electoral dominance on all levels of state government and in the lone star state's representation in the national government. Democratic rule was dominated by a conservative white political elite that strongly promoted economic development, but that resisted change either in race relations or social programs for the poor. Tensions within the party over these issues were effectively muted until the civil rights movement and mounting tensions in national politics finally erupted into state politics in the 1950s.

Republicans were not completely absent during this period, but their electoral victories were few and limited in scope. The most common successes were at the presidential level, where texas supported republican candidates in 1952, 1956, 1972, and in every election after 1980 as republican strength grew. The history of the texas party system reflects the political heritage of the rest of the old south, including secession from the union, racial segregation and nationally mandated desegregation, the mobilization of conservative christians, and continuing immigration of people from the northern states. But the party system is also shaped by other equally important currents more commonly shared with other states in the southwest, rather than the old south.

Specifically, the strong spanish and mexican traditions going back to colonial times, and the long term influence of mexican culture have influenced the state in profound ways. The size of the state, its unique history, and the resulting political and cultural variety of texas society have all contributed to the development of what might be called a pragmatic center. Scratch the surface of this pragmatism, and one is likely to find that what is practical is a relatively conservative, pro business set of policy preferences, periodically affected around the edges by mobilized groups without the power to remain influential over long periods of time such as third parties.

The resulting political culture has been reflected in a party system that has consistently rewarded pragmatism, compromise, and deal making over ideological purity. Key characteristics of the political and policy climate in texas after the civil rights movement reflect this pragmatism and the relative strength of conservatives in both parties. The societal consensus on these points has been challenged and modified to some extent during various periods in texas history, but never substantially overturned. As a result, these tendencies continue to exert a strong influence through to the present. Individualistic culture is described as a culture which looks to government to maintain a stable society but with minimum intervention in the lives of the people, while traditionalistic culture is described as a culture that is a product of the old south, which uses government as a means of preserving the status quo and its leadership.

Daniel elazar asserts that the political culture of texas is strongly individualistic in that government is supposed to maintain a stable society but intervene as little as possible in the lives of the people. He identifies the state's politics with economic and social conservatism, strong support of personal politics, distrust of political parties, and minimization of the latter's importance. An important source of texas' conservatism is the nineteenth century frontier experience.

In the early nineteenth century, having obtained land grants from spain, anglo settlers moved to texas individually or with such leaders as stephen f. Many of these settlers had been unsuccessful in business or wished to escape their pasts, and texas provided them with new opportunities. After securing independence from mexico in 1836, the republic of texas developed its own economic, military and education system. Texans, unlike other americans who received military help from the federal government, had displaced native americans from a large region by themselves, established farms and communities, and persevered through extreme economic hardships. These achievements have been enlarged over time by historians and fiction writers emphasizing the violent aspects of texans' struggle for independence from mexico and their clashes with native americans who unsuccessfully resisted the westward movement of anglo settlers.

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Thousands of native americans and settlers men, women and children were slain on the texas frontier from the 1820s to the mid 1870s. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order after the texas frontier was secured, there remained the task of bringing law and order to the land. In some areas, range wars, cattle rustling and other forms of violence continued to menace law abiding citizens into the twentieth century. As a result of these experiences, many texans grew accustomed to the use of force in settling disputes and struggling for survival. In 1995, when the legislature legalized the carrying of concealed handguns by licensed owners, some people interpreted the action as another influence of frontier days, when many texans carried concealed weapons or bore pistols openly in holsters. Two assumptions underline the concealed weapons law first, that texans do not need to rely on law enforcement for protection and, second, that citizens of the lone star state have a right to possess and carry weapons.

Today, shootings and other violence may be as common in texas' inner cities and elsewhere as they were on the state's frontier in the nineteenth century. Compared with other heavily populated states, texas has a limited government with restricted powers: a legislature that meets biennially, with salaries that can be increased only after approval by texas' voters a governor who has limited budgetary, appointment and removal powers and an elected judiciary with multiple levels of courts. Government spending for social services on a per capita basis is consistently among the lowest in the nation. Public education in texas is poorly funded and has remained a source of court battles and legislative conflicts for several years.

Including independent school districts, texas has more than 3,0 special districts that perform a single service or groups of related services not performed by city or county governments. Turnout of the voting age population falls below 50 percent for presidential elections, and consistently below 30 percent for gubernatorial elections. In 1998, george w bush became the first texas governor elected to a second consecutive four year term although he resigned two years into his second term, following his election as u.s. The traditionalistic culture of texas also can be traced to the early nineteenth century. The plantation system thrived in the rich, fertile soil of east texas, and cotton was by far the state's largest money crop. Before texas' entry into the confederacy, much of its wealth was concentrated in a few families. Although only a quarter of the state's population and a third of the farmers owned slaves, slave owners had 60 to 70 percent of the wealth and controlled state politics.

After the civil war 1861 1865 , jim crow laws limited blacks' access to public services. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century's literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes and all white primaries further restricted voting rights. Today, many texans are descendants of migrants from traditionalistic states of the old south, where conservatism, elitism upper class rule and one party politics were long entrenched. Although urbanization and industrialization, together with an influx of people from other states and countries are changing the cultural patterns of texas' population, elazar insists that the traditionalistic influence of the old south still lingers. He notes that many texans have inherited southern racist attitudes, which for decades were reflected in state laws that discriminated against african americans and other minority groups. In 20, however, two civil war plaques were removed from the texas supreme court building as demanded by the national association for the advancement of colored people.

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