How Did The Texas Constitution Influence The Government

In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions. As the weight of the legislative authority requires that it should be thus divided, the weakness of the executive may require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified.” (Madison, Fed.

However, this is exactly what the Texas Constitution was designed to reverse and avoid. The framers of the U.S. Constitution wanted to enable government action;

The Constitution of 1876 was toward the end in the development of a new, restructured and revised constitution in Texas, yet it was not the last attempt to revise the natural law of Texas. Pressure begin to build to change and streamline the Texas Constitution in the late 1960s. By 1969, fifty-six obsolete and out dated provisions were revoked, including a whole article. This called for a more fundamental overhaul and restructuring of the Constitution, which led to an extensive and prolonged process of constitutional revision that began in the 1970s. Efforts during this time were imperative for two reasons: it explained a long-standing concern whether the legislature had the constitutional right to convene as a constitutional convention; and secondly, the Texas Constitutional Revision Commission provided a thorough revision of the state constitution that served as the foundation for a new

(The Three Branches) should not be so far separated as to have no constitutional control over each other.” In conclusion, the constitution protected us from tyranny using the three methods,Equal Representation from all the States, Federalism, and the system of checks and balances. The framers succeeded in creating a well built constitution because all three methods have created security that no tyrant, or tyranny would

The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government…” The author explains that the only way to keep the government the way they want it is to fix it from the inside out – which his precisely what the new form of government offered in the Constitution does. Another idea explained in the Federalist Papers No. 51 by the author was the government was separated into different branches of power, each with their own set of rules, obligations, and goals to strive for in order to keep the freedoms of all people at the forefront. He states, “In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own.” Although separated into different branches, each branch of government is dependent on its people, who are the foundation of a lawful authority, yet the founders realized that if that idea were followed full out the citizens would have a voice in selecting the judges, presidents and other legislators.

Since the Texans did not like the way Mexico treated them, why would they want to promote slavery? No matter what year the constitutions were written in there is were no justification for slavery. It is ashame that individuals, local or higher government could lead Texans to believe that slavery was constitutional. On the other side, how could those Texans not realize that slavery was wrong?

The Texas Legislative Branch of Government The Texas Constitution divides the state government into three separate: the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. These three branches share equal power within the Texas State governemt. The executive branch is lead by the governor, the judicial branch consists of the Texas Supreme Court and the local courts around the state, finally, the legislative branch, is lead by the Texas Legislature, which includes the 150 members of the house of representatives and the 31 members of the state senate. These members of the house of representatives are elected to two-year terms and Senators serve four-year terms.

Valerie Jimenez Professor Gilligan Government – 2306 25 September 2017 Texas and U.S Constitution There is no doubt that the Texas and United States Constitutions are important to keep democracy. Both constitutions contain similarities as well as some major differences. The first similarity would be the process of separation of powers. Separation of Powers was created by the “framers of the Constitution [who] feared too much centralized power” (PBS) and who knew that “the accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny” (PBS).

Over the many constitutions that Texas has ratified, the number of terms limited to the state governor only increased as time went on. Currently, Texas has no limits on the amount of terms a state governor can serve; Rick Perry actually holds the record for longest running governor totalling four terms until he finally decided not to run again. According to the editorial titled, “Texas Governor Needs Term Limits” (My SanAntonio, 19 September 2010) a similar term limit, like the one imposed on the president of the United States, is needed for Texas governors. The editorial includes examples of terms from the beginning of the government and up until now. In contrast, the editorial titled, “Why Texas Doesn’t Need Term Limits” (The Dallas Morning

I believe that all members of the Texas legislature should be term-limited. I think that since the President of the United States has term-limited. It would only be fair that all branches within the government to practice term-limited as well. So far, there has only been fifteen states that practice term-limited (Maine, California, Colorado, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Nevada). Term limits can be divided into two categories: consecutive and lifetime.

Each state has its own different constitution. The state constitution performs a number of important functions. The Texas constitution was established in 1876.The Texas constitution has some differences and some similarities. Both the whole U.S constitution and Texas constitution both were drafted as wealthy, predominantly-white ,and well-educated land owners. The U.S and Texas constitution both provide the separation of powers within the government and checks and balances within between government entitles.

The framers of the Texas Executive established a system that was designed to check the powers of the government. As opposed to the US Constitution that vested the power of the executive in the president of the nation (Berry, 1385), the Texas Constitution sought to ensure that the state did not have the excess powers. As such, they came up with a plural system where a variety of individuals make up the executive branch of the state (Texas State Government at a Glance). While the governor of the state remains as the highest ranking officials in the state, they hold the least of powers in the plural system.

Purpose and Structure of Local Government in Texas Generally, in the United States most of the public and media attention is directed towards the national government and to some extent the state government, in the United States. Regardless of this fact, local governments although covered on a lesser magnitude hold the greatest impact on the lives of common Americans. Local governments are created by the state, and they derive the power they hold from the state’s statutes and constitution. Operating on a constitution that was drafted over a hundred years ago, and to enable every citizen is able to access government services, the structure of Texas local government is divided into four parts namely; Counties, cities, special districts and local

Throughout my paper I am going to describe the rules for amending the Texas constitution, the attempts at constitution reform during 1970’s, explain why the reform attempts failed and discuss why I believe the Texas constitution should have board language instead of having frequent amendments. The rules for amending the Texas Constitution are found in Article 17 of the Texas Constitution. Article 17 of the Texas Constitution explains the rules in the following steps: proposed amendments, publication, submission to voters and adoption (Sec 1. Article 17, Texas Constitution, amended Nov. 7, 1972 and Nov. 2, 1999).

The Texas and Maine state constitution are both used to govern their respective states. They both limit government, separation of powers, and also they both have bill of rights that protect the rights of the people. But, in various ways, the documents have key differences that distinguishes one from