By Loren Miller

Political Culture:
A people’s shared framework of values, beliefs, and habits of behavior related to government and politics.
It refers to how we view the:
-- relationship between the government and the people
-- rights and responsibilities of the people
-- obligations of government
-- limits on government authority

Political Culture:
American political culture is a mix of three distinct subcultures:
-- moralistic
-- individualistic
-- traditionalistic
The political culture of a state can change over time and a state as large and diverse as Texas may contain different cultures in different areas of the state.
How do Texans feel about government and politics?

Moralistic Political Subculture:
Rooted in Puritan New England.
Concerned with “right and wrong” in politics.
Politics revolves around issues and politicians run for office to advance issues.
Belief that government can be a positive force; one that values the individual but functions for the benefit of the general public.

Moralistic Political Subculture:
Citizen participation is encouraged and politicians should not profit from their public service.
-- corruption is not tolerated because government service is seen as public service.
Bureaucracy is viewed favorably as a way to achieve public good.
Does this sound like Texas?

Individualistic Political Subculture:
Rooted in the Middle Atlantic states and in the southern part of the Midwest.
The primary objective of government should be to further private enterprise, while intervention into people’s lives should be limited (rugged self-reliance).
Does this sound like Texas?
“What’s good for the business community is good for Texas.”

Individualistic Political Subculture:
Government’s role is to ensure stability so that individuals can pursue their own interests.
Business and politics are appropriate avenues by which an individual can advance their interests.
-- conflicts of interest are commonplace.
-- a degree of political corruption is viewed as inevitable.
-- bureaucracy is viewed negatively as it hinders patronage.

Individualistic Political Subculture:
Politicians’ motives for running for office are based on material self-interests and to advance themselves professionally.
Elections are oriented toward gaining office and do not deal with issues.
Politics is a matter for professionals rather than for everyone.
-- Government should not get in the way

Traditionalistic Political Subculture:
Predominant in the southern states and rooted in their plantation culture and the patron system of northern Mexico.
Government has an active role, but it primarily serves to maintain dominant social and religious values (maintain the status quo).
Government is also expected to support traditional class distinctions and to encourage the beliefs of the dominant religion.

Traditionalistic Political Subculture:
Politics is the special preserve of the social and economic elite.
Participation in politics is a privilege:
-- social pressure and restrictive election laws that limit participation are legitimate.
-- Texas was one of the last states to eliminate the poll tax and the white primary and recently enacted a restrictive voter ID law.

Traditionalistic Political Subculture:
This subculture supports personal rather than public solutions to problems and makes it easy to ignore human needs.
-- Texas ranks at or near the top in dubious social policy areas such as high school dropout rates, incidence of teen pregnancy, and number of children living in poverty.
-- These data mirror the reluctance of Texans to accept change of almost any kind.
-- One of the last states to introduce legalized gambling and abolish the
“blue laws.”

Texas Political Culture:
No single unified Texas political culture has emerged. Texas has a mix of traditionalistic and individualistic subcultures.
-- traditionalistic overrides the individualistic in East Texas which was initially settled from the upper South and from the Mexican border area.
-- individualistic overrides the traditionalistic in the rest of the state

Texas Political Culture:
The traditionalistic aspect of state politics are exemplified by:
-- the long history of one-party dominance in state politics
-- the low level of voter turnout
-- social and economic conservatism
The individualistic aspect of state politics are exemplified by:
-- support for private business
-- opposition to big government
-- faith in individual initiative

Texas Political Culture:
Factors accounting for the diversity of cultures include:
1) Migration Patterns – Texas has always been a diverse society and many groups have not been assimilated
-- German Hill Country
-- Rio Grande Valley

Texas Political Culture:
2) Legacy of Political Independence – an independent nation; confident of own abilities; pride in the state
-- Conservative: self-reliant; opposed to outside help
3) Influence of the Old South – particularly in
East Texas
-- Southern fundamentalism: conservative; Bible Belt; race as an issue; friendliness and hospitality

Texas Political Culture:
4) Influence of the Frontier – isolation; economic distress; physical hardship
-- selfreliance: don’t rely on government;
Judge Roy Bean
-- attachment to boots, guns, horses and beer (horse stealing v. wife killing)
5) Religious Fundamentalism
-- moral legislation: blue laws and prohibition
-- belief in hard work and self-help and opposition to labor unions

Political socialization reflect some of the values of a political culture.
The people and institutions that are responsible for teaching us the dominant values of the society in which we are raised are agents of socialization.

Home Life:
We begin to pick up social and political attitudes at an early age.
Children tend to pick up their parents’ views with relatively little questioning.
“Those crooks in Congress”
“The liberal media”
As we mature we expand our circle of influencers.

Grade School:
Public schools are conservative in that their job is to conserve and reproduce the dominant values in society.
Good citizenship
Patriotism
Permissible forms of political participation

Higher Education:
We begin to be exposed to conflicting and controversial views.

Religion:
How does religion impact socialization?
Registered Voters

A political ideology is a consistent set of values and beliefs about the proper purpose and scope of government
Are people consistent in their political ideology?
-- no; people can be liberal in some areas and conservative in others
-- e.g., liberal in domestic affairs and conservative in international politics

Principles of Liberalism:
-- a broad political principle centered on the rights of the individual
-- belief in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all
-- it is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and protect civil liberties and human rights
-- the role of the government is to see that no person is in need
-- tend to be optimistic in that they believe that society is progressively getting better

John F. Kennedy

The darker the blue, the more liberal the state
2011

Principles of Conservatism:
-- a broad political principle centered on learning from past solutions for answers that we need today
-- want to return to traditional religious and ethical absolutes; distrust of reform or change
-- defend the status quo
-- emphasis on personal responsibility (self-reliance)
-- belief that the role of government should be to provide the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals

Ronald Reagan

Liberal/Conservative
The darker the red, the more conservative the state
2011

Texas Political Culture:
Voter ID laws and voter turnout
Social welfare spending (Texas is a low tax, low service state)
Prayer in school
Gay marriage
Sex education
Abortion rights
Subsidies for businesses
Union membership

Percentage of Texas Registered Voters Who Support Extending
Domestic Partnership Benefits to Government/Public University
Employees
2010 62.3%
2013 65.7%
Texas Voters Who Support Recognizing Same Sex Marriage if Wed in
Another State
2010 48.4%
2013 52.0%

Texas Voters Who Support Allowing Civil Unions for Gays and
Lesbians
2010 63.1%
2013 64.7%
Texas Voters Who Support allowing Gays and Lesbians to Marry in
Texas
2010 42.7%
2013 47.9%

The Economy of Texas:
The economy of the state has been and still is in transition:
-- cattle
-- cotton
-- timber
-- oil
-- high tech

Cattle:
The earliest explorers brought cattle into Texas:
-- Coronado (1530s)
-- cattle from Mexico interbred with cattle brought by Anglo settlers to produce
“Texas longhorns” (hearty cattle that could thrive on the open range)
Plentiful land and minimal government interference encouraged huge cattle empires.
-- King Ranch (1,300 square miles)
Texas leads the nation in cattle production (2010).

Cattle Ranching

Cotton:
Before the Spanish brought cattle into Texas, cotton was already growing wild in the region.
The soil was fertile and rich and led to easy cultivation.
Before the Civil War cotton production spread and during the war the sale of cotton to European markets aided the Confederacy.
It is estimated that 50% of U.S. cotton and 10% of the world’s cotton comes from Texas (2012).

Timber:
The Piney Woods of East Texas and the Big
Thicket was largely uninhabited until the 1800s.
Following Texas’ independence waves of immigrants built new communities and a construction industry was created in which timber was needed.
The laying of track for new railroads also brought increased demand for timber.
As the population of Texas grew so did the impact of timber on the Texas economy.

Timber:
The impact of timber on the Texas economy declined by the 1920s.
-- clear cutting had depleted the availability of timber in many parts of East Texas
The discovery of oil in the region required the elimination of more timber.
By 2000, Texas was the nation’s 10 th largest timber producer.
Draught and fires in 2011 and 2012 resulted in the loss of many acres of trees.

Oil:
Long before Europeans arrived, Native
Americans used oil seeping from the Texas soil for medicinal purposes.
By the late 19 th century many barrels of oil had been produced from crudely dug wells in different area of the state.
In 1901, Spindletop ushered in the industry that dominated the state’s economy for the next century.

Oil

Oil:
During the next 50 years Texas evolved from a primarily agricultural culture into an industrial society.
Oil brought industrial employment on a large scale to rural Texas and offered rural Texans an alternative to life down on the farm or ranch.
-- oil spawned huge processing industries including pipelines and refineries

Oil:
Texas oil production is on the rise.
New production is coming from shale formations:
-- Eagle Ford shale formation running from
South Texas near Laredo to East Texas.
Production is also rising in the Permian Basin fields of West Texas:
-- impact of hydraulic fracturing techniques

(Millions of Barrels)
Oil production has risen 60% since 2007 (2013)

The Economy of Texas:
Having an economy built on agriculture and oil had a major impact on the state’s development.
In the 19 th century, Texas’s economic health depended on the prices of cotton and cattle.
For much of the 20 th century, the state’s economy rose and fell in line with oil prices.
Because commodity prices tend to fluctuate,
Texas’s economic history was one of booms and busts.

The Economy of Texas:
The nature of the state’s economy has contributed to a relatively lopsided distribution of income.
-- even though Texas has been a rich state, most Texans have not been wealthy
-- agricultural workers and oil roughnecks were poorly organized and poorly paid

1940s:
World War II is the point of departure for change in
Texas
-- change from rural to urban
Why do people come to Texas?
-- Jobs
Why would industries move to Texas?
-- cheap labor (weak labor unions)
-- energy resources
-- favorable tax rate
-- local encouragements
-- cheap land
-- favorable regulatory climate (weak pollution laws, etc.)

1980s:
The 1980s were an economic disaster for Texas.
-- the oil industry collapsed
-- oil went as low as $10/barrel
-- there were severe cuts in defense spending
-- the Cold War ended

1990s:
By the end of the 20 th century the state’s economy had picked up.
-- the fastest growing segment was the service sector
-- lower paying jobs
-- Mississippi and Texas have the largest number of minimum wage workers in the nation (9.5% in 2010)
In addition, a booming entertainment industry, an increasingly important film community, as well as expanding tourism contributed to this trend.

The 21 st Century:
The first decade of the new century did not begin well for Texas or for the United States’ economy.
-- terrorist attacks
-- corporate misdeeds (Enron)
-- stock market collapse
-- subprime mortgage crisis
In Texas there was a push towards deregulation
(fewer government regulations) which has had mixed results.

The 21 st Century:
The most rapidly growing segment of the state’s economy involve healthcare and hightechnology industries.
-- telecommunications and robotics
High-tech companies employ larger percentages of professional, technical, and managerial personnel.
-- wages and salaries are nearly twice as much as the average for other privatesector positions.

The 21 st Century:
The key to future economic growth in Texas will lie in developing an educational infrastructure that can meet the demands of an evolving 21 st century economy.

Texas Misconceptions??:
We ride horses to school . . . .
If we don’t ride horses to school, we drive pick-up trucks with gun racks on the back . . . .
Texas is a rural state.
All the women look like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
We mangle the language (e.g., George Bush ).
We’re all dumb (e.g., Rick Perry )
We’re rude and crude (e.g., Lyndon Johnson)
We’re all rich!

LBJ

2010

We are all Wealthy?
Wealthiest States Poorest States
1. Maryland
2. New Jersey
3. Alaska
$71,100
$69,700
$67,700
4. Connecticut
5. Hawaii
$67,300
$66,300
6. Massachusetts $65,300
7. New Hampshire $63,300
8. Virginia $61,700
9. Minnesota
10. Delaware
$58,900
$58,400
1. Mississippi
2. Arkansas
3. W. Virginia
4. Alabama
Texas $50,700
$37,000
$41,100
$40,200
$41,600
5. Kentucky $41,700
6. New Mexico $42,600
7. Tennessee
8. Louisiana
$42,800
$42,900
9. South Carolina $43,100
10. Oklahoma $44,300

Mississippi
New Mexico
Louisiana
Arkansas
Kentucky
Georgia
Alabama
Arizona
South Carolina
Texas
24.2%
20.8%
19.9%
19.8%
19.4%
19.2%
19.0%
18.7%
18.3%
17.9%
2012

2012

Tax Filers earning at least $116,500
Tax Filers earning at least $414,000
2011

The top 10 percent accounted for almost half of state income in 2011. (48.0%)
The top 1 percent brought in the largest share of state income in at least a century. (20.8%)
Income inequality is increasing and this is seen as a threat to the middle class and the economy.

Cameron, TX
Hidalgo, TX
El Paso, TX
Bronx, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Tulare, CA
Caddo Parish, LA
St. Louis, MO
Kings, NY
Mobile, AL
34.7%
34.3%
28.7%
27.1%
23.8%
23.7%
23.5%
22.4%
21.9%
21.1%
2010

The People of Texas:
95% of the people lived in rural areas in 1850.
85% of the people live in urban areas today.
-- three of the ten most populated cities in the United States are in Texas.
-- today many rural areas are experiencing rapid population growth due to the resurgence in oil and natural gas production.

1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
17%
24%
32%
41%
45%
63%
75%
80%
80%
80%
83%
85%

WHO ARE TEXANS?
Geography
Projected Population Growth from the year 2000 by Metropolitan Area
< 25%
26 – 45%
46 – 65%
66 – 85%
86% +
2020 2040
SOURCES: Texas State Data Center; Office of State Demographer.

Texas +1.203m
+5.18%
Greatest Increases:
DFW and Northern Suburbs
Houston (Montgomery and Fort Bend Co.)
Rio Grande Valley
Austin
San Antonio
El Paso
Greatest Declines:
Almost 100 counties in Panhandle and
East Texas lost population

The People of Texas:
Micropolitan Statistical Area:
-- urban cluster with a population between
10K and 49K
-- 581 in U.S.; 42 in Texas (Huntsville)
Metropolitan Statistical Area:
-- freestanding urban area with a total population of at least 50K
-- 374 in U.S.; 44 in Texas (Amarillo)

The People of Texas:
Combined Statistical Area:
-- two or more adjacent statistical areas
-- 128 in U.S.; 9 in Texas
(Midland-Odessa)
Metropolitan Division:
-- county or group of counties within a core based statistical are that contains a population of at least 2.5 million
-- 29 in U.S.; 2 in Texas
(Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington)

The People of Texas:
Cities are eager to obtain the highest possible statistical designation because many congressional appropriations are based on this designation.
-- e.g., to qualify for mass transit funds an area must be a Metropolitan Statistical
Area
Of Texas’ 254 counties, only 48 are metropolitan
-- these counties account for more than
80% of the votes cast in elections

(in Millions)
Steve Murdock on Demographic Change in Texas

The People of Texas:
By the Civil War, more than one-half of the state’s Anglo residents had migrated from the
Southern states.
-- most remained in the Eastern half of the state as farmers
Many German immigrants established settlements in the Hill Country before the Civil
War.

Anglo Population in
Texas Counties, 2010

The People of Texas:
Until 1836, Texas was a part of Spain and then
Mexico and Latinos were, and still are, concentrated in South and Central Texas.
Latinos remained mostly an agrarian people until after World War II when increasing numbers of Latinos moved to urban areas to work in manufacturing, sales and clerical positions.

The People of Texas:
Since the 1950s, the Texas Latino population has been enlarged by a relatively high birth rate and a surge of both legal and illegal immigration from Mexico.
By the 1980s, the Latino population in Texas had become very diverse following increased immigrants from Central America, South
America and the islands of the Caribbean.
-- however, today more than 80% of the
Latino population are of Mexican origin.

Hispanic Population in
Texas Counties, 2010

The People of Texas:
Latino political influence is increasing:
-- in 2010, Texas had more than 2,300
Latino elected officials (the largest number of any state and 40% of all Latino elected officials in the U.S.)
-- League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC)
-- Southwest Voter Education Project

The People of Texas:
The first African Americans entered Texas as slaves of Spanish explorers in the 16 th century.
Slavery was abolished in Mexico in 1831, but a larger number of slaves were brought to Texas from the United States.
By the 1860s, almost 25% of the population of
Texas was African American.

The People of Texas:
Blacks began to congregate in
“freedmantowns” (communities on the outskirts of cities)
-- Black labor contributed to the economic development of Texas cities and helped to transform Texas from an agrarian society to an industrialized one.
Today, while the Black population continues to grow, it is moving at a much slower rate than other ethnic groups.

African American Population in Texas Counties, 2010

The People of Texas:
Asian Americans are relative newcomers to
Texas.
Most of Texas’s Asian American families immigrated to the United States from Southeast
Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) but a growing number are native born.

The People of Texas:
Most Asian Americans live in the state’s largest urban centers and many have college degrees.
This is a reflection of the intensity with which the state’s young Asian Americans focus on education.
-- while Asian Americans account for less than 4% of the total population of the state, they comprise 18% of the undergraduate enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin.

Race/Ethnicity 2000 2010 % Change % of Pop. % of Pop
2000 2010
Anglo 10.9m 11.4m 4% 52% 45%
Hispanic 6.7m 9.5m 42% 32% 38%
Black 2.4m 2.9m 22% 11% 12%
Am. Indian 68.8k 80.5k 17% .3% .3%
Asian 554k 948k 71% 3% 4%
Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander 10.7k 17.9k 67% .1% .1%
Other Races 19.9k 33.9k 70% .1% .1%
Two or More
Races 230k 320k 39% 1% 1%

Economic and Political Issues:
Immigration
Water
Environmental Protection (Public Health)
Education
Poverty