Review for 1

st
Exam
1. Objective
Articles I-V of the Texas Constitution: (Article 1=Bill of rights, Article 2 = Provides for the separation of
the powers of the government. It also states that the government is not allowed to take over the other
facets of government, and that all power must be separated equally between governments, Article 3=
establishes that the legislature consists of the state Senate and House of Representatives. It also lists the
qualifications required of senators and representatives and regulates the details of the legislative
process and specifies their powers, Article 4= Describes the powers and duties of the Texas Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State of Texas, Comptroller of public accounts, Commissioner of the
general land office, and Attorney General Article 5=Describes the composition, powers, and jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the District, County, and Commissioners Courts,
and the Justice of the Peace Courts)
E.J Davis: (Edmund Jackson Davis (October 2, 1827 February 7, 1883) was an American lawyer, soldier,
and politician. He was a Southern Unionist and a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War.
He also served for one term from 1870 to 1874 as the 14
th
)
Governor of Texas: (currently is Rick Perry since 2010, no term limit The governor of Texas is the head of
the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.
The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to
convene the legislature. The governor may grant pardons in cases other than impeachment)
10
th
Amendment: (to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on
December 15, 1791.[1] It expresses the principle of federalism, which undergirds the entire plan of the
original Constitution, by stating that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated to
it by the states or the people. The framers of this amendment had two purposes in mind when they
drafted it. The first was a necessary rule of construction. The second was to reaffirm the nature of the
federal system)
Constitution of 1869: (The salary of the governor was increased to five thousand dollars a year. The
attorney general and secretary of state were appointed by the governor; other officials were elected by
the voters. The Supreme Court was reduced from five to three judges and the term reduced to nine
years, one new judge to take office every third year. All judicial offices were appointive. All elections
were held at the county seat and had to continue through four consecutive days. A poll tax was
authorized; its receipts, along with the income from the school lands and one-fourth of the annual taxes,
went to the school fund. The office of state superintendent of public instruction was continued, and
school attendance was made compulsory. An immigration bureau was authorized; county and local
government was outlined in detail; blacks were included as voters; homesteads were to be given gratis
to actual settlers; mineral rights were released to landowners; the legislature was forbidden to grant
divorces or authorize lotteries; all qualified voters were to be qualified jurors; and the legislature was
permitted to prohibit the sale of liquor near colleges, except at county seats. Permission for the
legislature to call a new constitutional convention was withheld, but the amendment procedure was
unchanged wasnt liked)
Constitution of 1876: (produced sections prohibiting banks and requiring a stricter separation of church
and state than that required in older states. Reconstruction, under the highly centralized and relatively
autocratic administration of Governor Edmund J. Davis and his fellow Radical Republicans, prompted
provisions to decentralize the state government. Upon regaining control of both the legislative and
executive branches of the government, the Democrats determined in 1874 to replace the unpopular
Constitution of 1869. They wanted all officials elected for shorter terms and lower salaries, abolition of
voter registration, local control of schools, severely limited powers for both the legislature and the
governor, low taxation and state expenditures, strict control over corporations, and land subsidies for
railroads)
Block Grants: ( a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government
with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. This can be contrasted with a categorical
grant which has more strict and specific provisions on the way it is to be spent. An advantage of block
grants is that they allow regional governments to experiment with different ways of spending money
with the same goal in mind)
Categorical Grants: (are grants, issued by the United States Congress, which may be spent only for
narrowly defined purposes)
Concurrent Powers: (are powers in nations with a federal system of government that are shared by both
the State and the federal government. They may be exercised simultaneously within the same territory
and in relation to the same body of citizens)
Denied Powers: (things that The Constitution prohibits the Federal Government from doing. For
instance, interfering with the free expression of religion or the right of people to petition the
government)
Political Culture: (the set of attitudes, beliefs and sentiments that give order and meaning to a political
process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political
system)
Political Socialization: ( the study of the developmental processes by which people of all ages (12 to
30) and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors)
Dual Federalism: (a political arrangement in which power is divided between the federal and state
governments in clearly defined terms, with state governments exercising those powers accorded to
them without interference from the federal government)
Cooperative Federalism: (a concept of federalism in which national, state, and local governments
interact cooperatively and collectively to solve common problems, rather than making policies
separately but more or less equally)
New Federalism: (a political philosophy of devolution, or the transfer of certain powers from the United
States federal government back to the states The primary objective of New Federalism, is the
restoration to the states of some of the autonomy and power which they lost to the federal government
as a consequence of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal)
Plural Executive: (formed when there are several officials that fill the executive administrative function.
Most states share executive authority among several officials, all of whom are elected by the state's
population. These officials include a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, auditor,
and secretary of state)
Part Time Legislature: ( spend the equivalent of half of a full-time job doing legislative work. The
compensation they receive for this work is quite low and requires them to have other sources of income
in order to make a living)
populism: (a political doctrine that appeals to the interests and conceptions (such as fears) of the
general people, especially contrasting those interests with the interests of the elite)
Social Conservatism: (a political ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as
traditional values. The accepted goals and ideologies related to preserving traditions and morality often
vary from group to group within social conservatism. Thus, there are really no policies or positions that
could be considered universal among social conservatives. There are, however, a number of general
principles to which at least a majority of social conservatives adhere, such as support for traditional
family values)
Sources of Population Growth:( people giving birth, national and international relocation, health)
Open Primary: (a primary election in which any registered voter can vote in any party's primary. Voters
choose which primary to vote in, and do not have to be a member of that party in order to vote)

Police Powers: (the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory
for the betterment of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants.[1] Under the
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the powers not specifically delegated to the
Federal Government are reserved to the states or to the people. This implies that the Federal
Government does not possess all possible powers, because some of these are reserved to the State
governments, and others are reserved to the people)
Deadwood
Categories of Political Culture
Closed Primary: (a type of primary election used to chose candidates who will run in the general
election.In a closed primary, only voters registered for the party which is holding the primary may vote)
Run-Off Elections: (used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen
candidate. However, if no candidate receives the required number of votes (usually an absolute majority
or 40-45% with a winning margin of 5-15%), then those candidates having less than a certain proportion
of the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most votes, are eliminated, and a second round
of voting occurs)
Getting on the Ballot
Speaker of the House: (The Speaker is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after
the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, currently is John
Boehner)
Lt. Governor: (or Vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction,
but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor a "second-in-command". In many
Commonwealth of Nations states, a lieutenant governor is the representative of the monarch and acts
as the nominal chief executive officer of the realm, although by convention the lieutenant governor
delegates actual executive power to the premier of a province)

2. Essay

1. What do you think is good about the Texas constitution? Why? What is bad about the Texas
constitution? Why? What would you change or add to the Texas constitution? Why?
It clearly defines the power of the states and seperates it from federal, lengthy can be bad and good,
had over 653 proposed amendments, written by racist people a while ago, federal trumps the state
no matter what, federal has the right to create a new law thats necessary to carry out another law,
texas can be sometimes unconstituional

2. What are some advantages that our federal form of government has over a strong national
government in a highly centralized system? What are some disadvantages of a federal system like
ours?

3. What is the function of a state constitution? In what ways are the Texas and the U.S. constitutions
similar in principle? What are some of the key differences between the Texas and U.S.
constitutions?