Texas Land Use Policy: Unique Features And Political Culture

This took place in an era where the republic of Texas

Chapter two of the textbook “Texas Politics” discusses the abundant state constitutions of Texas. The current constitution of Texas is quite lengthy and often ridiculed due to its outdatedness whereas when compared to that of the United States constitution, the results viewpoint and reactions are quite the opposite. Because of this, Texas, along with a great number of other states must constantly make formal changes to the constitution, this is known as a constitutional amendment. The current Texas constitution is extremely long, particularly compared to the United States constitution, this being because of the variety of policies that the constitution attempts to put on the citizens of Texas in order to maintain peace and civility.

Since 1980, the Republican candidate, running for President, has received a high percentage of the vote in Texas, than he did nationally. However, the thing that has changed between 1996 and now, is that their is a different distribution in the vote for President within Texas. During the time between 1960 and 1992, the Big 6 counties (those counties that consist of the largest cities in Texas) carried the GOP Presidential candidate (Thornburn 168). The only exclusion to this was Johnson in 1964. Now in 1996, they have produced the lowest percentage of the vote for the GOP candidate.

The Texas Park and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is a state agency based in Texas that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitats. Mainly, the department’s responsibilities include a range of activities. State law permits TPWD to plan, obtain, improve, operate and maintain a system of public lands, including historical and cultural areas. Notably, these resources encompass approximately 1.4 million acres of parks, wildlife management areas, recreational areas, historical or cultural sites, and natural areas. Additionally, the department serves as the state agency with prime responsibility for conserving, protecting and enhancing the state’s fish and wildlife resources whereby, it monitors and assesses habitats, surveys fish, and game populations,

The Federal judge John Hannah stated “The dominant political party treated all member of the opposing party as if they were “enemies of the state” instead of the respected state leaders, many with a great wealth of government knowledge and ability that has and would inure to be benefit of Texas” (133). The issue is that voting in Texas is so racially divided; discriminating against Democrats is equivalent to discriminating against minorities. Democrats fought to keep their place in legislature by concentrating on individual officeholders during the redistricting process. Republicans, instead of undertaking the chore of encouraging minority voters, would rather overpower their ability to choose their own representation.

Only 19 percent of Texas overall population has high school degrees only. Both the Texas House and Senate have zero

Texas has seen many changes since the first constitution of Coahuila y Tejas was drafted in 1827. During this time Texas was still a part of Mexico, as it sought it's independence from Spain in 1821. The first constitution was built for a unicameral congress which consisted of 12 deputies. Texas was at that time considered a buffer for Mexico against many of the Native American tribes.

Ledesma and Giusti (2021) explored how California and Texas differ in terms of their cultural characteristics from a socio-economic perspective. Their research found that California has a more diverse population than Texas, which has a higher percentage of Hispanic and African-American residents. Additionally, California has a larger population of foreign-born residents, with almost one-third of the population being born outside of the United States. In terms of economic development, California has higher median household income and a larger number of high-tech jobs. Texas, on the other hand, has a higher percentage of lower-paid jobs in the service industry.

Considering all the amendments, Texas has succeeded in making sure that its government has restricted powers and that they, more or less, operate in a manner that suits the people of

In comparison to most of the State, people from East Texas voted for those politicians, whose ideas and promoting campaigns were the most discriminating and conservative. Such a difference is based on the fact that there were some tensions between the local politicians and country’s government. Mostly, Texas had a two-party system, which aimed to establish a balance between opinions on different subjects, including segregation. The eastern part of Texas, on the other hand, was more homogenous, meaning that all local politicians shared the interests of one dominating group of people. These politicians were segregationists because they had segregation promoting campaigns and their own well-being depended on this issue a lot.

The Plan Houston, the general plan has its strengths and weaknesses just like any other plans. Houston is the fourth largest city in America. Currently, in urban planning course, we are studying about comprehension plan. I learned from the course was that comprehension plans are blueprints for the city. It is odd that Houston does not have a general plan like other major urban cities.

Political culture establishes the backdrop against which politics unfold, it establishes the outer limits of what is possible, or even probable in the political realm. Texas political culture can be described as traditionalistic and individualistic. Texas traditionalist political culture believes in the values that policies are designed to preserve social order in the state, politicians come from society’s elite, and politicians have a family obligation to govern. While on the other hand, individualistic political culture believes that government should be limited when it comes to the lives of the public, individual rights of the citizens should be the main focus of a government rule, and a stronger support of personal politics rather than elitism. Texas also has a strong populism influence.

Federalism in Texas The state of Texas practices a political culture based on traditionalistic and individualistic values. It is evident that the state of Texas falls into the historical interpretation of cooperative federalism. Cooperative federalism is metaphorically represented by the marble-cake in the sense that the power of state and local governments becomes blended and cannot be properly distinguished. Cooperative federalism, otherwise known as the marble-cake federalism can best be used to describe Texas due to the fact that Texas is incredibly active in interpreting states’ rights.

The annexation of Texas occurred in the early 1800’s. American colonists were expanding into the Northern sector of the Rio Grande, which developed the need for Texas to become a part of the United States. In the South, the people supported the drive toward the annexation of Texas, but the Northerners opposed this idea. Texas was another slave state and the nature of their society did not appear appealing to the North.

The history of political parties in Texas is marked by nearly a century of Democratic Party dominance followed by a realignment that shifted the balance of power in favor if the republicans. Political science professor Cal Jilson noted that the dominance of one party in Texas has been a result of the state’s dominant values. Both parties in Texas today reflect more conservative versions of their national counterparts. The other chapter talks about the Interest groups in Texas. Interest groups plays a critical role in all democratic systems of government.