Government 2306
Williams
UNIT 1 LECTURE NOTES
Foundations and Political Participation
In this initial unit we will discuss two primary ideas, the foundations of Texas
government and politics, then information about participation in the political process.
Chapters discussing Political Culture and The Constitution of your online textbook, along
with the lecture notes, will help to provide us with the foundations we need in order to
understand government and politics, not only in their relation to Texas, but also the our
country’s system of government.
The remainder of the unit will discuss how we as citizens participate in our system of
government. These chapters cover what are essentially the “Inputs” to the political
system. Among the inputs to our political system we include political parties, voters,
campaigns and elections, and finally interest groups. There are online chapters for each
of these areas which you will need to read.
The Context of Texas Politics
Politics
The process that determines whose values will prevail in society. Political scientist
Harold Lasswell defined it as the struggle to determine “who gets what, when, and how”.
It involves conflict and the struggle for lesser resources. Political conflict is rooted in
two general conditions of society: 1) scarcity, society’s resources are finite, but people’s
appetites are not; 2) differences in values, people see things in different ways.
In very basic terms, those that have “it” want to keep “it”, those that don’t have “it” want
to get “it”.
Government
A public institution with the authority to allocate values in society.
Two aspects to government:
1) the institutions in a society which make decisions that affect the whole society
2) it also involves the processes by which decisions are made.
Know this: government is deeply involved in politics, but politics is also found in other
aspects of society.
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Public policy
What government formulates. Laws, rules, regulations, ordinances - all these things are
examples of public policy. There is seemingly no end to the policies that government
formulates. This is largely in response to what you, the tax-paying public, requests.
Power
Those who decide political issues are said to have power, a term that refers to the ability
of persons or institutions to control policy decisions.
Authority
Power exercised through the laws and institutions of government is known as authority.
Authority can be more strictly defined as the recognized right of an individual,
organization, or institution to make binding decisions.
Sovereignty
The ultimate authority to govern. Under modern theories of governing power, each
individual has the authority to govern themselves. They concede some of this
sovereignty to a government to help make an orderly society. This is the basis of what is
called the “social contract”.
Legitimacy
The belief people have that their government is based upon morally right principles, and
that therefore they should obey its laws. All governments, in order to be effective, must
have this. Somehow, the people must recognize the right of the government to govern.
Democracy
The form of government based upon the theory that the legitimacy of any government
must come from the free participation of its citizens. It is simply a set of rules
determining who will exercise the authority of government. It is based on the idea of the
consent of the governed, which has come mostly to mean majority rule.
Theories of Power in Modern Democracies
Essentially, there are three different theories of modern democracy in America, and who
is able to exercise power under each:
1) majoritarianism. This is the concept the that numerical majority prevails not
only in counting votes but also in determining public policy. This is sometimes
referred to as classical democracy. The problem with this form of democracy is
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that sometimes minority groups can get overlooked when considering public
policy.
2) pluralism. This holds that policies are effectively decided through power
wielded by special interests that dominate particular policy areas. It helps to
protect the rights of minorities. It tries to assure representation for all segments of
a diverse (pluralistic) society. The problem with this form of democracy is that
many times the will of the majority is thwarted.
3) elitism. The holds that policy is controlled by a small number of well-positioned,
highly influential individuals. It is NOT democratic at all. In most theories of
elitism the elite is an economic elite who controls the principal economic
resources and products in society. The elite uses its economic power to gain and
hold political power, sometimes openly and sometimes covertly.
No one of these theories completely explains how decisions are made, but each has its
merits, and, as we shall see during this semester, helps to explain how things happen
within our government institutions and processes.
Federalism
This is the sharing and/or division of power and authority among more than one level of
government. It helps to diffuse authority, yet can also be confusing when trying to
determine accountability. We will discuss this more fully when studying the second
chapter. Federalism makes an impact on Texas politics in several ways:
1) a significant portion of state revenue each year comes from federal grants
2) the U.S. Congress can appropriate funds through military bases, highway funding,
etc.
3) the Constitution and laws of the U.S. are considered supreme, so when there is a
conflict between a state’s laws and the U.S., those of the U.S. take precedence.
Political Culture
According to your textbook, political culture can be defined as a “people’s shared
framework of values, beliefs and habits of behavior related to government and politics.”
As per your online textbook, “the concept of political culture refers to how we view the
following four aspects of politics, government and society:
o
o
o
o
The relationship between government and the people
Rights and responsibility of the people
Obligations of government
Limits of government authority
Though not covered in your online textbook, there are several key factors that combine to
create the unique political culture of Texas. These factors include:
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a) geographic size
b) relative geographic isolation (until 20th century), and, in keeping with this, it
was sparsely populated until the 20th Century
c) prior independence (a separate republic), which is fostered in an attitude of
intense state patriotism (we often think of ourselves as Texans first, and
Americans second)
d) part of the “old south” as well as being a frontier area (the “wild west”)
e) status as a former slave state, and the ramifications of our history of reluctance
(along with other southern states) to grant citizenship rights to former slaves,
as well as Hispanics
f) diversity of population (see Impact of Population on Political Culture below)
These factors combine to produce a very unique political culture. Since it can be stated
that culture drives institutions, it is vital that you understand how this mix has created a
culture that is considered very conservative ideologically. As stated in your online
textbook, “Texas political culture and ideology are well described by the combination of
three main philosophical streams: classical liberalism, social conservatism and
populism.”
“Classical liberalism places the primary political value on political arrangements that
allow for the fullest exercise of individual liberty as long as the liberties of others are not
unreasonably restricted. Classical liberal ideas often form the basis for opposition to the
use of government to attain social objectives. They stress instead reliance on private
initiatives or the free market to determine the best outcomes.”
The second philosophical stream that your textbook discusses is social conservatism.
“Social conservatism derives from the classical conservatism rooted in feudal English
and European thinking that viewed liberalism with suspicion, embraced traditional
hierarchical social relations, and tended to interpret social change as a threat to
established practices and beliefs. In contemporary forms, social conservatives tend to
support the use of government to reinforce traditional social relations. They value
established traditions, especially established religious beliefs and practices, and respect
traditional authority figures such as business, military and religious leaders.” We
especially see social conservatism work within party politics, and we will examine this
more closely later. We also need to note that “classical liberalism and social
conservatism sometimes exert countervailing, even contradictory pressures within the
state’s political culture.”
Finally, your textbook recognizes the philosophical idea of populism. “Populism is
concerned primarily with the well being of ordinary people, and emphasizes the popular
will as the chief virtue of political position. Populism has both political and social
dimensions. Politically, it tends to support involvement of the government in regulating
society and the economy. But populism may also take socially conservative forms, or
rely more on style and rhetorical appeal to ‘the people,’ rather than on the substance of
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what political leaders are actually advocating. Thus, depending on the context, populist
appeals may support very different political positions.”
Your textbook goes on to state that “For much of the Texas Political history, classical
liberalism, social conservatism and populism in practical terms have translated into a
‘low taxes, low services’ approach to government.” Texans have historically, and
overwhelmingly, been suspicious of government, and seeming prefer as little government
as possible. This philosophy is generally referred to as conservatism. This term is quite
complex, and we will study it more in depth later in this unit. In general, it refers to a
hostility of government activity, especially in the economic sphere. There is a strong
support among Texans for the concept of capitalism. This is a set of rules governing the
distributions of costs and benefits. It emphasizes the idea of the free market, or laissezfaire, as the ultimate regulator of who gets what.
In reality and in practice, most Texans actually use pseudo laissez-faire economics.
What this refers to is that most business people don’t want government interference with
regard to regulation or taxation, but if they get into trouble then they want government to
help them out.
A differing philosophical view of government is called liberalism. In general (and again,
we will study this in more depth later), liberals have a distrust of the free market.
Liberals have often seen what they believe are abuses of capitalism by either wealthy
individuals or corporations. In their view government is justified in taking a more
activist role in not only the regulation of economic activity, but also in the redistribution
of wealth within society.
Another factor to note is that most Texans favor and follow something of a belief in
social Darwinism. People who succeed and prosper are worthy and deserve to be at the
top of the socioeconomic ladder, while those that sink to the bottom are unworthy and
deserve their poverty. This is exhibited by a resistance to government aid. In
conjunction with the strong belief in capitalism, this leads to a belief in a trickle down
theory of economics. This rejects the liberal’s idea of using government as a tool of
economic redistribution, and accepts the notion that money will flow from the “top
down”, meaning that if wealth is accumulated at a higher socio-economic status then
when those groups spend it then it will ultimately trickle down to the lower classes, thus
making them better. The liberals reject this notion in that they feel that the wealthier
classes tend to hold onto their money and not spend it. To a degree they may be correct,
because Texas has historically had one of the highest rates of poverty among all the
states. There are many other indicators of the acceptance of the concept of social
Darwinism among Texans (see slides in classroom discussion).
Impact of Population on Political Culture
The population of Texas has grown substantially since 1970. Immigration into Texas has
come from several areas. In general, there has been a significant shift in the population
of the U.S. from the cooler northern states to the so-called Sun-Belt (Southern states).
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There are two principle factors responsible for this shift. First, many of the older
manufacturing centers of the upper Midwest to the Northeast United States started
closing in the 1970s due to foreign competition (primarily the auto industry at first).
Second, the high cost of heating fuels caused more people to move to the South to
warmer climates. This has impacted the politics of the United States in several ways:
The 1990 Census gave Texas three (3) additional seats in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
The 2000 Census gave Texas two (2) more. Texas now has 32 members in the
U.S. House of Representatives. This effectively gives Texas more
national influence.
According to the 2000 Census numbers, Texas has approximately 20.4 million
people.
Texas has a total of 254 counties. The population of Texas is not evenly spread
out. Most people in Texas live along or east of IH-35.
Race and Ethnic Information – Since 1850 Texas has been predominantly AngloAmerican. However, between 1970 and 1990 the population totals of
various racial groups in Texas were growing at far different rates:
Anglo-Americans
+34%
Hispanic-Americans +111%
African-Americans +42%
As of the 2000 Census, minorities now made up 45% of the population of the
state:
Anglo-Americans
55%
Hispanic-Americans 41%
African-Americans 11%
Asian-Americans
3%
According to recently released Census studies, as of the year 2005, Anglo-Americans
were no longer the majority population in the state.
Urban and Rural differences – As of 1998, it was estimated that 85% of the population of
Texas lived in urban areas. The 3 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs, a term
used by the Census bureau to describe large, complex, multi-city urban areas), Houston,
Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio, account for 52% of the total population of the state.
Political Implications of Population Change
First of all, the economic differences between the Anglo-American population (which
tends to be wealthier) and the Hispanic-American and African-American populations
(which tend to be of lower socio-economic class) creates political conflict. What political
scientists believe will happen is that as the population shifts from a single dominant
group (Anglo-Americans) to the Hispanic-American and African-American groups (we
can see this from above with these groups representing the largest increase in percent of
population growth) we will see the more “liberal” attitudes of these groups becoming
more of a force in Texas politics and public policy in the future.
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Constitutional Democracy
Characteristics of Constitutions
A constitution can be defined as the basic law of a state or a nation that outlines the
primary structure and functions of government. There are, essentially, two types of
constitutions.
Ideal Constitutions – constitutions that set up the basic structure and functions of
government, but allows the details of those structures and functions to be worked out by
another entity, usually the legislature. An example of this type of constitution is that of
the United States.
Statutory Constitutions – these are constitutions that go into considerable length
to specify what government can and cannot do. It can be very detailed and can actually
spell out what would be considered laws within its body. This is essentially what the
current constitution of Texas is.
There are, basically, four purposes of constitutions. These include:
1) Legitimacy. Essentially this is an agreement between those who govern and
the governed. The people believe that their government is based upon morally
right principles and that they should therefore obey its rules. We spoke before
about “sovereignty”, the recognized right of someone to rule. As said here
previously, the modern theory of democratic government holds that
individuals are free to govern themselves, except that they give up some of
their autonomy in order to form an orderly society. We agree to give up our
individual sovereignty in exchange for certain conditions. That is the basis of
legitimacy.
2) Organizing government. Governments must be organized in some way that
clarifies who the major officials are, how they are selected, and what the
relationships are among those charged with basic governmental functions.
The key concepts to remember here are separation of powers and the concept
of checks and balances. The concept of separation of powers was first
postulated by a French philosopher named Baron de Montesquieue. His
proposal was that the power of government could better limited by separating
governing authority into three branches, which he referred to as kings, lords,
and commons. This model was used by James Madison to create the
legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The theory is that
by separating governing power into three competing institutions it can help
limit that governing authority. Madison was a very shrewd observer of human
nature, and noted that “ambition must be made to counter ambition”. By
creating an adversarial relationship between the different branches of
government he sought to limit the power that any one branch might have.
Most states (including Texas) have largely adopted this as the basic model of
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democratic governments throughout our country. The concept of checks and
balances was largely the design of Madison. It is an intricate design of not
allowing any one branch of government to be able to function without some
type of check by another branch. For example, the legislature is the branch
given the power to conceive laws, but before any idea (bill) within the
legislature can become a law it must be approved (signed) by the executive (in
Texas, that would be the governor). If the executive feels that the proposed
law is unwise, then they have the power to veto that law. In return, the
legislature can usually override a veto, but this typically must be done by a
two-thirds majority vote. These two concepts are key to helping keep
government limited in its scope. Here in Texas, under out current
constitution, we have gone quite far in limiting the power of various
government officials.
3) Providing power. This states specifically what government can do. In a
way, it is also a limiting factor in that, if viewed this way, because
government can only do the things stated by the provisions here. In the U.S.
Constitution, Article I, Section 8 spells out the specific powers that
government has. These are referred to as enumerated powers. I do not
expect you to know each of the powers listed, but I do expect you to know
what this means.
4) Limiting power. In a sense this reflects the deep insecurity our Founding
Fathers of the United States Constitution felt with regard to granting powers to
government. Essentially they sought to find ways to protect the rights of
individuals. They were keenly aware that as an organization, government was
far more powerful than any individual. They created the Bill of Rights
specifically for the purpose of protecting individual rights of citizens from
arbitrary government action. Indeed, perhaps one of the most important
aspects of government in the United States (and not just Texas) deals with the
concept of limited power or limited government. The Founding Fathers
sought to find ways to restrict the lawful uses of power that government could
have over its citizens. This concept goes back to the ideas and theories of
John Locke (see “Additional Study Notes, Chapter 2”). In essence, Locke felt
that the powers of government should be strictly limited, and that government
existed for the sole purpose of “protecting life, liberty, and property”.
Locke’s writings had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers of the
United States. They sought ways to limit government power in order to
protect “essential liberty”. We have discussed several of the concepts used by
the Founding Fathers that in effect limit government power, but they are
summarized here
a. Grants of power – even though it provides power to the government,
strictly defining the powers of government, in theory, limits
government power because those are the only powers that government
has. As mentioned above, Article I, Section 8 of the United States
Constitution spells out the enumerated powers that the government has
(raising taxes, regulating commerce, providing for an army and a navy,
creating postal offices and postal roads are a few examples of what is
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in Article I, Section 8), which is probably the best example we have of
specific grants of power. The Texas Constitution also provides for
specific grants of power, but they are spread out throughout the entire
constitution and not nearly as organized.
b. Denials of power – the U.S. Constitution also has specific denials of
power. The government cannot suspend the right of habeas corpus
(produce the body) except during wartime. This is an important legal
concept that forces governments to explain the reason they are
detaining people in jail. Without this governments would be free to
arrest and detain people with little or no reason. Another example of a
denial of power is the concept of ex post facto (after the fact) laws.
The U.S. Constitution strictly prohibits the creation of these. What
this means is that when a person commits an act that is not considered
illegal at the time they commit it, the government cannot then create a
law forbidding that act and then charging that individual with
committing a crime. Government can indeed create such laws, but
they only apply to acts committed after the law takes affect.
c. Separation of powers – in designing the government of the United
States, James Madison followed the model set out by Baron de
Montesquieu (see Additional Study Notes, Chapter 2 for a fuller
explanation). Essentially, this model suggested a way to limit
government power but dividing it into three branches, each branch
having their own function. Madison’s concept was to check power
with power (Madison himself states in Federalist Number 10 that
“ambition must be made to counteract ambition”) by dividing the
authority of the government so that no single institution could exercise
great power without the agreement of other institutions. Texas, and
most other states, followed this model by creating a three branch
system of government: the executive (governor), the legislative, and
the judicial.
d. Checks and balances – this concept was created by Madison himself
as a way to further control the power of the government. Essentially
what it does is create an intricate relationship between the three
branches where no one branch can fully function without a check on it
by another branch. For example, the legislature can pass bills, but they
do not become laws without the approval of the governor. In addition,
the concept of the balance provides that if the governor vetoes a piece
of legislation that the legislature can override that veto with a 2/3s vote
of both houses. To a degree this system is somewhat dysfunctional in
Texas due to the strict limitations on government power created by the
Constitution of 1876. Since our legislature can only meet every other
year (and only for 140 days in that year), if a governor vetoes
legislation after the legislative session has ended, then the legislature
has no opportunity to override that veto. A little more information
about the different branches of the Texas government as specified
under the Texas Constitution can be found below.
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e. Bill of Rights – at the time that the United States Constitution was
written, most of the states had already incorporated a Bill of Rights
into their constitutions. The purpose of a Bill of Rights is to list
specific rights (liberties) that citizens have which government cannot
take away. Among these are freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
and freedom of the press. Though we have come to focus more on
national rights as described in the first ten amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, we have to recognize that all states have included a Bill
of Rights in their constitutions. Texas is no different, and indeed the
First Article of the Texas Constitution is the Bill of Rights that you
have as citizens of Texas (see below for more discussion).
f. Federalism – this further provides a limiting factor on government in
the United States by creating a system of government in which the
governing powers are shared by the national government and each of
the states’ governments. It is further defined below.
A final concept regarding the purposes of constitutions is the concept of representative
government. When creating the U.S. Constitution, the Founding Fathers of our country
were reluctant to give direct power to the citizens. They feared what they referred to as
the tyranny of the majority and proposed to control the power of the majority. (In
actuality, they referred to it as the power of faction, and feared both majority and
minority factions. Madison wrote directly about this in Federalist Number 10, which is
considered one of the finest essays on political thought in the history of western
civilization and is highly recommended reading.) Madison believed it was essential to
keep most of government beyond the control of majority factions. Thus, the framers
distinguished between a democracy and a republic.
1) In a direct democracy the public decides issues directly.
2) In a republic, or representative government, officials elected by the public meet
in representative institutions to decide policy for the public.
3) The Framers adopted the trustee theory of representation as proposed by the
philosopher Edmund Burke. Representatives were trustees, not necessarily
obligated to the majority.
Your textbook spends considerable time discussing the history of the various
constitutions that Texas has had. Although I do think it is important for you to know
about these, and I highly recommend you should read them in order to have a better
understanding of the development of governmental systems in Texas, I am not going to
require that you know all of this information for the first exam.
What I do think is important is a thorough understanding of the current constitution that
we have and the reasons for its coming into being. Therefore there are two constitutions
that you should know about and understand fully.
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Constitution of 1869
The first of these is the Constitution of 1869, also referred to as the Radical
Reconstruction Constitution. In many ways the constitution that we have today, and the
provisions of it, are a direct result of what this constitution did. Immediately after the
Civil War ended, President Lincoln had intended on minimal penalties to be imposed on
states that had seceded from the union. Unfortunately, President Lincoln was
assassinated and the so-called Radical Republicans came into power in Washington, D.C.
This group of politicians was very angry at the southern states for having withdrawn from
the union and sought to punish them for their actions. Since the southern states were
already occupied by northern troops, it was relatively easy for them to enforce new
policies on Texas, and all southern states, that were viewed very unfavorably.
The Radical Republicans enforced their will on Texas (and all southern states) through
several actions:
1) they set aside the government already formed by Reconstruction in 1866
2) the enfranchised (grated voting rights) to former slaves and other minorities
3) they disenfranchised (removed voting rights) from former Confederate
soldiers and other prominent whites in the state
4) the imposed military rule across the state
Once they had accomplished these things, they forced the state, in 1868, to write a new
constitution to replace the one written just two years earlier. This new constitution was
ratified in 1869. Among the provisions were:
1) it greatly centralized power in the state government, especially in the office of
the governor, giving him considerable appointive power
2) it provided for generous salaries for state officials
3) it stipulated appointed judges
4) called for annual legislative sessions
5) took away considerable power from the counties and local governments, thus
giving more authority for governing decisions at the state level rather than
with local governments
This constitution was easily ratified because all former confederates were barred from
voting. This constitution, and other ones forced upon other southern states, was deeply
resented by most white southerners.
In the elections of 1869, immediately following the ratification of this constitution, E.J.
Davis was elected the new governor. Governor Davis had fought for the Union during
the Civil War, and his term of governor (1870-1874) was marked by a large degree of
corruption. With almost unlimited appointive power, Governor Davis was able to place
friends and cronies in office, much to the chagrin of the ordinary Texans.
Eventually the power of the Radical Republicans in Washington began to wane. The cost
of micro-managing the south was proving to be a burden, and many northerners were
ready to move on. In the elections of 1873, Governor Davis was defeated by Democrat
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Richard Coke. The Republicans charged that the election was fraudulent, and the
Republican dominated Supreme Court of Texas invalidated the results. However, the
Democratic state legislature upheld Coke as the winner. For a while both acted as
governor. Eventually, Davis stepped down when President Ulysses Grant withdrew his
support for him from Washington.
Constitution of 1876
By 1875, the Democrats in Texas had finally obtained enough power statewide to call for
a new constitutional convention. In September of that year, 90 delegates elected
statewide gathered in Austin to write a new constitution. It was a very diverse group,
including six African-Americans. However, the group most represented (just over half)
were members of the Texas Grange. The Grange was a national movement of farmers
during the 1870s. Though not quite a workers union, they nevertheless were brought
together to try to gain reform of government policies in order to help farmers stay
economically solvent.
The constitution that resulted from this convention was dramatically different than
previous ones used in Texas. It was, essentially, a reaction to conditions of the times.
The basic slogan of the convention was “Retrenchment and Reform”, indicating a strong
movement back to the governing traditions that Texas had prior to the occupation of the
state. The members of the convention had one thing in common, a strong distrust of
government. Key elements that were built into the new constitution included:
1) Limiting the term of office of the governor to two years.
2) Limited the legislature to biennial (every two years) sessions (if you are not
able to meet in session, you can’t make laws, which were largely viewed as
mischief). A constitutional amendment later limited legislative sessions to
only 140 days in those years that it did meet.
3) Judges were chosen by popular election rather than being appointed.
4) The governor had very few appointments to offices that he could make.
Indeed, there are five major political offices (the Lieutenant Governor, the
Attorney General, the Comptroller, the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the
Commissioner of the General Land Office) that exist in the executive branch
that are elected independently of the governor. Also, two major policy
making bodies, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Board of Education,
that are elected independently of the governor. This greatly weakens the
power of the governor to make or have influence over policy decisions within
the state. Having so many elected officials other than the governor in our
state’s structure is referred to as the plural executive.
5) the debt that the state could incur was limited to $200,000.00
When finally put to election by the voters in 1876, it was overwhelmingly approved by a
2-1 margin. Why was this constitution so dramatically different from previous Texas
constitutions, as well as the U.S. Constitution? Three key reasons:
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1) It was a strong negative reaction to the Reconstruction era. Keep in mind that
most of the people living in the state during this time were of white heritage,
as well as having supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. They
strongly disliked what had been forced upon them by the so-called “carpetbaggers”, thus they did not want to allow their new government to have any of
the provisions of the previous regime.
2) As well as being a negative reaction to Reconstruction, it was also a very
negative reaction to the regime of Governor E.J. Davis. The corruption, lack
of accountability, high salaries of government officials, all contributed to a
strong distrust of government power. Thus the delegates sought to limit the
power of all government officials as much as they could.
3) The Agrarian movement of the 1870s. Among other things, it sought to bring
about greater participation of all citizens in government as well as a general
feeling of further limiting the power of government.
It is this document that has now been our state constitution for over 120 years. It has 17
Articles (one has been stricken by an amendment), is over 81,000 words in length (only
Alabama’s is longer), and has been amended 432 times (compare with the U.S.
Constitution which has 7 Articles and has been amended only 27 times). It includes misnumbered sections, misspelled words, and Articles that were left blank. One sentence
contains 756 words. For all of its failings, it is still the basic document that governs us
today.
Federalism
Texas exists (as we have said) within a federal system. This is a structure of government
which is characterized by a division (or sharing of) powers between a national
government and associated regional (or state) governments.
Why is this? It has to do with the historical origins of our country. Originally there were
13 independent colonies. After American Revolution, under the Articles of
Confederation, they functioned mostly as autonomous states. Many people in the early
days of our country were very suspicious of a strong, centralized government. One of the
major compromises that led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution was to leave a lot of
governing authority at the state level.
However, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution provides that the “Constitution, laws, and
treaties of the national government take precedence over the constitutions and laws of the
states.” This is known as the “supremacy of laws clause” of the U.S. Constitution, or,
more simply, the supremacy clause. In other words, in the event of a conflict between
the U.S. Constitution, or the laws of the U.S. and a state’s constitution or laws, the U.S.
Constitution takes precedence. What is important to understand is that historically the
states have been mostly left to themselves to create their own laws and policies on many
areas of public policy. It has only been largely since the 1970s that we have seen a
movement to create more centralized laws and regulations that would make certain
policies uniform throughout the country. A recent example of the is the “Leave No Child
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Behind Act”, which sought to create national standards that all state schools had to live
up to.
As an attempt to counter-balance the powers of the national government, the 10th
Amendment to the United States Constitution states that “the powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people”. This has come to be known as reserved powers,
which, in theory, are powers left to the states. Over the history of the United States there
has been a struggle to understand the exact nature of the relationship between the states
and the national government. At times it has become extremely violent (as evidenced by
the Civil War), but at other times it has been fought out through the court systems. It is
an evolving concept in that the exact nature is never clearly known. This continues
today, and will continue into the foreseeable future.
Specific Features of the Texas Constitution
Your textbook does a very good job of summarizing the specific features of the Texas
Constitution. However, there are a few things to note here.
Article I – the Bill of Rights.
What is a bill of rights? Basically, it tells you of your protections against government
interference. Provides for equality under the law, allows for religious freedom, the
separation between church and state, freedom of the press, etc. As an interesting note
about the Texas Constitution’s Bill of Rights, however, is that there is a provision that
calls for a “test” for people who wish to hold public office. In order to do so you must
acknowledge the existence of God. This is not enforced however, because that violates
the U.S. Constitution (see “deadwood” below). We will discuss the concepts of civil
rights and civil liberties later in the semester.
Article II of the Texas Constitution outlines the “separation of powers”. It is debatable as
to whether this needs to exist here at all, considering that other articles establish the
different branches of government and discuss their specific powers
Article III, establishes the legislature, its composition, qualifications, organization, and
meeting time. It is extremely limiting! The legislature can only meet every other year
(and since the 1950s, for only 140 days), unless called into emergency session by the
governor. Salaries are also fixed, and can only be changed by constitutional amendment.
It creates two houses, a Senate (31 members) and a House of Representatives (150
members).
Article IV specifies the executive branch. It is very IMPORTANT to note here is that the
governor has limited authority to appoint other members of the executive branch. We
will discuss the concept of the plural executive more fully later in the semester, but
basically it means that other important executives are also elected independently of
governor. These include the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller of
Public accounts, Commissioner of General Land Office, Secretary of Agriculture, and
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members of the Railroad Commission as well as the State Board of Education. All in all,
the governor of Texas is one of the weakest governors in all of the United States.
Article V establishes the judicial branch. This is extremely confusing! Distinct features
include:
1) six different types of courts including two supreme courts
2) each level of trial courts has concurrent, or overlapping, jurisdiction
3) qualifications are such that no legal training is required for some positions (not
required to have a degree in law)
4) all judges in Texas are elected
Articles III, IX, and XI deal with various levels of local government. Local governments
fall into 3 categories: counties, municipalities, and special districts (which we will discuss
more in last unit of semester).
There are many interesting little features of the Texas constitution that are generally
ignored because of a variety of problems. These are known as “deadwood” because they
cannot be made operational. Because they have been written into the constitution the
only way we could get them out is with a constitutional amendment! One of the specific
features of the Texas constitution that is a piece of deadwood is a provision that stipulates
that you must be 21 to vote. Since this violates the laws of the U.S. it is just ignored.
Revision of the Texas Constitution
The “deadwood” referred to above is one of the reasons that many people talk about the
need to revise our constitution. As we mentioned last time, it is a complex and confusing
document: long, wordy, with many mistakes. Rather than create only the essential
structure of the state government, the delegates who wrote our constitution in 1876
implemented many legislative provisions within the body of the document. This has led
to it being amended an inordinate number of times (432 as of today, and counting!).
In general there are five things that advocates of constitutional reform generally focus on:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
the biennial legislative session
the judicial system
the fragmented executive branch
county government
detailed provisions of the constitution.
There have been several attempts at revising and/or rewriting the current constitution. As
of this date, no major overhaul has been successful.
Why? In general, people seem satisfied with the way things are. Also, it is generally
hard to get people to change things. Unless there is some major crisis, most people tend
to resist change, especially Texans.
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Amendment Process
Finally, I want to mention one final thing about our constitution, how the Texas
constitution can be amended.
In Texas there is only one way to amend our constitution, please know this:
1) proposals must originate in the legislature, and can only occur during a regular or
special session.
2) must have a two thirds vote of both houses for an amendment a proposed change to
be put to the Texas voters.
3) Legislature specifies the date of the election, and then the proposed amendment(s)
must be advertised in a paper in each county once a week for four weeks starting 3
months prior to the election
4) Voters only have to approve of an amendment by a simple majority vote.
This process does NOT include the governor, other than if an amendment is approved by
the citizens of the state, the governor’s office makes an announcement indicating such
approval.
Voting, Campaigns and Elections
In order for us to begin to understand how and why we vote, we first must have an
understanding of how and why we think the way we do. We all have certain ideas and
beliefs about a wide variety of things, including political ideas, values and beliefs.
Typically, we refer to these ideas, values and beliefs as “ideology”. However, before we
discuss ideology, we first must understand where these ideas come from.
The learning process by which we teach and learn our political knowledge, beliefs,
attitudes, values and habits of behavior is referred to as political socialization. These
things tend to pass from one generation to the next, thus this is somewhat how we explain
the conservative nature of the Texas political culture.
Essentially, there are five basic agents of political socialization: family, peers, schools,
churches, and the media.
The family. This is considered to be the most important agent of political socialization.
The reason for this is a learning theory from education called the “primacy principle”.
What this says is that the things that we learn first are often lodged most firmly in one’s
mind. In Texas we have a heritage of a general anti-government attitude and a
conservative point of view that is passed along to our children. As children grow, they
tend to develop the ideological traits that their parents have adopted, thus conservatism
remains a dominant force in Texas government and politics.
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There are two other learning theories that you should be aware of. The second theory,
structuring, states that early learning “structures” later learning. In other words, what
we learn early in life tends to cause us to continue to learn in a manner that supports what
we already believe. Thus we continue to behave in a manner consistent with what we
learn at an early age. The third learning theory is called the “age-cohort tendency”.
What this says is that if there is going to be significant change in our behavior (from that
of our parents) it is going to happen at a younger age. It is very rare that older citizens
change their positions on political opinions.
Schools, peers and churches. These agents help enable our conservative attitude. This is
in large measure because they reflect the values already in place in society. We do not
often associate ourselves with people who challenge the way we think. What these
agents tend to do is reinforce these attitudes rather than challenge them (such as saying
the Pledge of Allegiance in grades schools, for example). We are brought up to respect
our government institutions and think that we should not challenge them.
The media. The media can simply be defined as those business organizations that exist to
provide us with “news”, information about what is happening in the world around us.
We generally separate the media into two types: broadcast (television and radio), and
print (newspapers and magazines). I do not feel that it is overly important to know much
(at this point) about the media). However, I do feel that you should be aware that the
media tends, in Texas, to be pretty conservative, primarily because the media more often
than not relies on advertising revenues from other businesses in the local areas, thus
tending to reflect the business point of view on most issues (hard to bite the hand that
feeds you). Many people today feel that the media is becoming even more conservative
in light of the fact that many large media corporations are purchasing news outlets and
thus controlling more of what gets distributed as news.
With regard to the political process, the media serve an important function because they
provide us with a link to our political institutions and leaders. This is one of the
important concepts from this unit: linkage institutions (political parties, interest groups,
and the media). Because we do not often have direct access to our leaders today we rely
on these groups to carry our “message” to our political leaders.
Ideology: a consistent pattern of behavior based on a core set of ideas, values and beliefs.
The two dominant systems of beliefs and values in America and Texas today are referred
to as liberalism and conservatism. In your professor’s humble opinion, these terms are
thrown about much too casually by many people including the media, as well as political
pundits. What does it really mean to be liberal or conservative? This is not easy to
answer.
Liberalism is often identified as being “left wing”, while conservatism is often referred to
as being “right wing”.
How do we classify ideology? This can be VERY confusing.
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Many sources simplify this issue based mostly along economic policy, but today it is
much more difficult to understand what the differences really are.
Our analysis on ideological types is based upon looking at ideology on these four policy
areas:
1) economic issues
2) social issues (government’s role in resolving complex social problems: school
desegregation, health issues, etc)
3) government’s role in deciding moral issues
4) position on civil liberties
Below are summaries of how each of these ideologies views these different issues.
Conservatism:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Economic issues: basic belief in laissez-faire, but in practice tend to be
pseudo laissez-faire. That is, the theoretical assertion that an
unregulated economy produces the best results coupled with practical
support for government policies that help business to overcome
problems in the marketplace. Commonly referred to as the “right wing”
of the political spectrum. Conservatives often argue that economic
problems are caused by over-regulation by the government.
Do not necessarily believe that government has a role in solving social
issues.
Do tend to believe that government should support “traditional values”,
including morality, and teaching respect for institutions. Believe in
government having a role in the regulation of religion, sexual activity
(except that government should NOT distribute condoms), and drug
use. This tends to come from a very pessimistic view of how people
behave. Have to save people from themselves.
Civil liberties: complex! Believe government has no role in regulating
ownership of handguns, but then support things that would limit
freedom of expression in certain areas (including religion). Also tend to
be “tough on crime”, to the degree that they do not fully support all Bill
of Rights issues involving rights of the accused.
Liberalism:
1) Economic issues: more apt to blame “market failure” for economic problems
and to place more faith in the ability of government to direct economic
activity. Commonly referred to as the “left wing” of the political spectrum.
2) Do tend to support government involvement in solving social problems
(expansion of voting rights).
3) Prefer that government NOT be involved in moral issues. This primarily
stems from belief that each individual has right to determine their own
destiny.
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4) Civil liberties: also complex! Tend to support restriction of gun ownership
rights, but otherwise they are considered “civil libertarians”, strongly
supporting freedom of expression, religion, and rights of accused.
In addition to liberals and conservatives, there are also two other ideological types that
deserve mention here: libertarians and populists. These are two ideological types that
have a certain amount of influence in policy areas. Generally speaking (and very
simply), libertarians distrust government influence in just about every sector of policy
issues. We cannot consider them as simply anarchists, because they do view the role of
government as being somewhat legitimate, but very limited. Populists are the polar
opposites of libertarians. In general, they view the role of government as being very
active in virtually all policy areas.
REMEMBER: all of the above are to a degree generalities. Even within ideological types
there can be wide variation on policy issues. In most circumstances, citizens can vary
widely in how they feel ideologically based on specific policy issues. For example, a
person may find his or herself strongly conservative when it comes to economic issues,
but more liberal when it comes to social issues. This is not at all uncommon.
What is important to remember for our class is that TEXAS is STRONGLY
CONSERVATIVE!!!! This has a very strong affect on party politics in this state. In
general, today, we associate the Republican Party with conservatives, and the Democratic
Party with liberals. However, Texas, up until a generation ago, was primarily a
Democratic state. Why would that be? Is Texas liberal? Not at all. The primary reason
that Texas was a Democratic state was the influence of the Civil War and the fact that the
Republican Party was the party which was in power in Washington during that period.
The Republicans during this period were largely dominated by radicals who wanted to
punish the South for the Civil War. Many were strong abolitionists, and they supported a
military occupation of the South to enforce policies that were very unpopular. The
distaste for these policies was so strong that even though the South was considered
ideologically conservative, it still took several generations of voters to pass before the
South started becoming more Republican.
One thing to note: the Democratic Party in Texas is still quite conservative in terms of
comparing it with the Democratic Party in other parts of the United States.
With regard to the actual concept of voting, the term suffrage is simply defined as the
right to vote.
Today, in the United States, you must be 18 years of age on election day and a citizen of
the United States in order to register to vote. Another common provision is that one not
be under indictment for a felony or already been convicted of a felony to be able to vote.
However, all states have provisions that allow ex-felons to possibly regain their voting
status after a certain period of time (assuming good behavior).
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Originally the U.S. Constitution left it up to the states to determine who had the right to
vote. In most areas this meant that you had to be a white male, own property, and be of
certain religious beliefs (usually protestant) to qualify to vote.
In many ways the history of the United States can also be viewed as a struggle of many
groups to obtain the right to votes. The expansion of voting rights has been especially
important to two groups: women and minorities (especially African-Americans).
For women, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920) granted them the
right to vote.
The end of the Civil War saw three important constitutional amendments added that were
designed to provide citizenship and voting rights to former slaves.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1865) put an end to the institution of
slavery.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868) is a long a wordy amendment
that carries a lot of meaning in several policy areas, but for our purposes here it was
important because it granted citizenship to ex-slaves.
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1870) state that the right to vote “shall
not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This
essentially granted former slaves (African-Americans) the right to vote.
Unfortunately, African-Americans still met resistance (principally in the south) to voting
rights after this. Many “gimmicks” were devised to continue to restrict their right to vote.
Among these were the following:
1) Poll taxes - a certain fee was required to be able to vote, though it was not
necessarily overly expensive
2) White-only primaries – since you must be a member of a party group to
participate in a primary, the political parties were able to control who was on
the ballots during the primaries, as well as who could vote in the primaries.
The net affect was that when it came time to vote in the general election, only
white candidates were on the ballots.
3) literacy tests – these were exams to determine if you were qualified to vote,
at least from an intellectual point of view. The interesting thing to note from
these was that they were not required for white people, who were already
considered sufficiently intelligent to vote.
The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s saw many new initiatives to try to
remove these barriers to minority participation in the electoral system.
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1964) – outlawed poll taxes for the
Presidential, Vice-presidential, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representative elections.
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Voting Rights Act of 1965 – prohibited any government from using voting procedures
that denied a person the right to vote on the basis of race or color.
1966 – Supreme Court rules that 24th Amendment protections from poll taxes extend to
all elections. Following this, the Texas Legislature passes a law that allows for
registration of all people, but still restricts it to period from October 1 through January 31
in any year. This is overturned in a 1971 U.S. District Court decision that finds the
practice of restricting registration to certain dates illegal.
After that ruling the state legislature then revises law so that the registration procedures
are now:
- voters may register in person or by mail
- registration remains in effect as long as voter remains qualified (doesn’t move,
no convictions, or register somewhere else)
- voters may register at any time and vote in any election, provided that they are
registered 30 days before an election
Finally, in order to bring us up to date with voting rights, the 26th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution is passed in 1971, which lowers the voting age to 18 years old.
To vote in Texas today you must be all of the following:
- U.S. citizen at least 18 years of age on election day
- A resident of the state and county for the 30 days immediately preceding
election day
- A resident of the election precinct on election day
- Registered to vote 30 days before election day
Why should you vote? Essentially there are three points of view. From the standpoint of
the individual, it may not seem logical or important, but many people do because they
have been taught that it is their civic duty. For candidates, it is quite important that
people vote. Candidates cannot win elections without votes, and they must recognize
each individual’s reasons for voting. Finally, for the political system it is very critical
that people vote. Voting legitimizes government, decreases alienation and opposition,
influences public policy, and, when done on a large scale, insures against dishonesty in
elections.
Why don’t people in Texas vote? There are several reasons for this:
1) Political socialization – we don’t encourage it. We are taught to accept government.
2) Political party system – historically weak in Texas with one dominant party. This
discourages public policy debates from different viewpoints.
3) Socioeconomic and ethnic status – Texas has historically been considered a poor
state. Statistically the poor are less likely to vote.
4) Americans vote too much. In Europe typical voter votes only 2 to 3 times in a four
years period whereas many Americans are faced with a dozen or more separate
elections on the same period of time. Americans are also expected to vote for a wider
range of political offices too. With and average of one elected official for every 440
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citizens there is virtually an election somewhere in the U.S. every week. We are
weary of voting.
Campaign – the period of time before voting day begins when candidates attempt to
influence potential voters to support them.
Successful candidates follow two simple rules of campaigning:
1) get your name recognized in a popular way
2) keep your arguments simple and emotional
Campaign resources – two primary resources: people and money.
People are comprised of professionals and volunteers. Professionals plan, organize,
manage, write speeches, and raise money. Volunteers distribute literature, register and
canvass voters, and get supporters to the polls.
Publicly funded campaigns – money comes from a central pool that is shared equally by
all candidates. The United States is one of few democracies which do not use this
method of campaign funding.
Privately funded campaigns – money comes entirely from private citizens or groups.
Reform of campaign funding has primarily focused on restricting how much individuals
can contribute to a campaign.
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) – Supreme Court ruling that held that the restrictions of the
Federal Campaign Act of 1972 suppressed 1st Amendment guarantee of free speech.
Impact was important for individuals who wished to fund their own campaigns (Ross
Perot, for example). This protection was also extended to Political Action Committees
(PACs).
“hard money” – contributions that go directly to a candidate. These are easy to track
(all candidates must, under state law, report direct contributions), and are usually limited.
“soft money” – contributions that go to political parties or PACs. These are very
difficult to track and regulate.
Negative campaigning – the practice of using personal attacks on candidates by their
opponents. Harmful to democracy for four reasons:
1) some elections are being decided on the basis of inaccurate or irrelevant charges
2) discussions of public policy are being pushed aside
3) many good people may not enter public life for fear of being publicly humiliated
4) citizens are disheartened and thus more apt to stay home on election day
Primary – an election held within a party to nominate candidates to the general election
or to choose delegates to a presidential nominating convention. It is held on the 2nd
Tuesday in March in even numbered years in Texas. A candidate for any political office
must win a majority of votes cast to receive party nomination. If no majority is acquired
then the two leading candidates have a runoff thirty days later.
The two types of primary elections that I want you to know about are the following:
Open primary – any registered voter may participate in a party’s primary.
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Closed primary – only registered members of a party may participate in that party’s
primary.
By law Texas holds a closed primary, but voters may vote in any party’s primary with the
understanding that once they have voted in one party’s primary they may not participate
in the affairs of another party in that same year.
Administration of primaries is the responsibility of each party. Most of the duties
fall upon the county chairperson who is responsible for arranging for polling places,
voting machines, and counting votes.
General elections – held in even numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first
Monday in November to choose state and national executives and legislators, and state
judges. General elections are run by the state governments (each state runs its own
election). That is why it is often said that even though we may be voting nationally, we
are still having 50 separate elections. In Texas, the chief election official is the
Secretary of State. It is the job of the Secretary of State to certify the results of the
general elections.
Special elections – may be called to fill vacancies in Congress or the state legislature, or
to vote on proposed constitution amendments. However, the most common use of special
elections is when cities choose their councils, or special districts (such as school districts)
choose their boards.
Absentee or early voting – Texas voters may vote absentee for a period of two weeks
before the election at the county clerk’s office or at a variety of polling places around the
county. Prior to 1987, absentee voting was restricted to those with cause (illness or a
planned absence from the county). In 1987 Texas implemented early voting. This allows
people to cast ballots for a two week period prior to the general election. The primary
purpose of early voting was to try to increase the number of voters who turn out for
elections. This has been met with modest results however, as voter turnouts have not
seen much of any increase. Another concept to try to improve voter turnout has been to
try to increase the number of people who are registered to vote. In an attempt to do this,
the United States Congress passed (in 1993) what became commonly referred to as the
motor voter law. This required the states to offer voter registration to persons when they
renewed their driver’s licenses. Again, this has only met with modest success.
Political Parties
It is very important to note: political rivalry is based upon ideological differences.
This is what helps to explain how organizations such as political parties or interest groups
form. Thus, in order to better understand the nature of political parties (and later on,
interest groups), it is first necessary to understand what specific political ideologies exist
today, and what their characteristics are.
Ultimately, it comes down to something that is referred to as an interest.
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An interest is something of value that people share and that is affected by government
activity, thus they feel that it is important to defend the interest. An interest may be
economic, religious, ethnic, racial, or perhaps even environmental. Whatever it is people
feel strongly about it and feel the need to do something about it.
All these things we have talked about so far discuss how and why we think the way we
do. Because we have certain beliefs, we want our government’s policy to reflect those
things we believe strongly in. Thus we tend to organize ourselves into groups that reflect
our interests.
Ultimately some of these groups come together in what are known as political parties. A
political party can be defined as electoral organizations seeking to control government.
The political party is the one institution that aims to develop broad policy and leadership
choices and then presents them to the voting public to accept or reject. This process
gives citizens the opportunity, through elections, to influence how they will be governed.
Thus, political parties are one of what we have already discussed as a “linkage
institution”, an institution that provides a link between ordinary citizens and elected
officials.
Party Competition and Majority Rule: The History of U.S. Parties
Party competition in American today takes place primarily between the Democratic and
Republican parties. Competition between these two major parties narrows the choices of
options to two and in the process enables people with different opinions to render a
common judgment. In electing a party, voters choose its candidates, its philosophy, and
its policies over those of the opposing party.
1) The first parties in American originated from the rivalry between those who
favored a strong national government that defended commercial interests
(Federalists) and the supporters of states’ rights and small landholders
(Jeffersonian Republicans, which eventually became the Democratic party).
2) Emergence of grass-roots political parties during the Jacksonian era
strengthened the power of popular majorities.
3) Dissention over the issue of slavery, resulting in the Civil War, ended nearly
three decades of competition between the Whigs and the Democrats.
4) After the Civil War, the nation settled into a pattern of competition between
the Republican and Democratic parties that has prevailed ever since.
Durability of the two parties is due not to the ideological consistency but to their
remarkable ability to adapt during periods of crisis and remake themselves with new
bases of support, new policies and new pubic philosophies.
The post Civil War era brought political change to parties known as “realignment”. A
party realignment disrupts the existing political order because a significant proportion of
voters favored one party over the other. Realignment results in an enduring change in
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party coalitions which forces the government to take new policy directions. There are 4
elements of realignments:
1) The disruption of the political order because of the emergence of one or more
unusually powerful and divisive issues.
2) An election contest in which the voters shift their support strongly in favor of
one party.
3) A major change in policy through the action of the stronger party.
4) An enduring change in the party coalitions, which works to the lasting
advantage of the dominant party.
Keep in mind that realignments are relatively rare, there has to be major changes in
existing political order for these to occur.
A de-alignment offers an alternative explanation for electoral change. This has come
into use in more recent times. It suggest that the U.S. electoral system, rather than
undergoing a realignment favorable to one party, has been in the process of moving a
partial but enduring number of voters away from partisan loyalties. The de-alignment
thesis portrays a wavering sector of voters as shifting its support from one party to
another, arguing that parties have a weaker hold on the voters than in the past. Increases
in split-ticket voting and in numbers of voters who label themselves as “independents”
are indicators of this trend. Please keep in mind that much of this theory is based on the
decline of partisanship, which did indeed seem to be evident from the 1960s through the
early 1990s. However, since the mid 1990s, we have seen a renewal of heavily partisan
activities among policy makers in Washington. This seems to be despite the fact that
many voters still identify themselves as independent and not belonging to one of the
major parties. The two major parties have drifted further towards their “core
constituencies” in recent years, which has increased partisan rancor in many parts of the
country.
Texas, historically, has been dominated by a single party, thus it is described as having a
one party system. The dominate party for the majority of the period from 1875 until
approximately the mid-1980s was the Democratic Party. This was due to the backlash
against the Republican Party which was the major party in Washington at the end of the
Civil War. The Radical Republicans sought to punish the South for their part in the Civil
War. This included military occupation of the South as well as many programs that
brought much economic hardship to the region. As a result most white southerners
joined the Democratic Party, and that heritage was handed down for several generations.
A one party system is not considered by political scientists to be a viable electoral
system. With the lack of party competition there is often little serious debate over issues,
and voter turnout is quite low.
Beginning in the mid-1980s Texas began to see a trend of increased party competition
from the Republican Party. This was primarily due to the ideological inconsistency of
the citizens of Texas with the Democratic Party platforms. Some theorists feel that we
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have entered into a period of increased party competition here in Texas as a result of this
movement, but others feel that it is more symptomatic of a realignment, and that we will
simply shift our loyalties from the Democrats to the Republicans. Only time will tell
which will prevail.
Electoral and Party Systems
While the United States has historically been a two-party system, most other democracies
have multiparty systems, in which three or more parties have the capacity to gain control
of government separately or in coalition.
1) The primary factor that helps to perpetuate the two party system in the U.S. is
plurality voting with single-member districts. Election of a single
candidate who receives the most votes within a specific geographical area
perpetuates the power of a dominant in an area making it difficult for
challenging parties to gain power. The way our system of elections is set up,
under the U.S. Constitution, there are no provisions for run-off elections.
Thus, whoever gets the most votes (not necessarily a majority) in general
elections is the one who gets to occupy public office. This is what is meant by
plurality voting (the most, not necessarily the majority). In addition, U.S.
Congressional districts are defined as specific geographical areas. Within
each district only one person gets to serve. This perpetuates a winner-take-all
type of system which discourages potential third parties.
2) European democracies use proportional representation and multi-member
districts, which encourages smaller parties to compete for power. They can
draw support from minority factions and take more decisive stands on issues.
3) Historically, the American two-party system encourages both parties to stay
near the center of the political spectrum and avoid divisive issues in order to
attract the most voters. Both parties tend to follow shifts in public opinion.
4) Groups that support a party are collectively referred to as a party coalition.
European parties tend to divide along class lines while American parties must
attract broad coalitions since they have to accommodate a wide range of
interests to gain the voting plurality necessary to win elections.
5) In a general sense, the American Democratic and Republican parties appeal to
different coalitions of the electorate and vary somewhat in stands and
priorities for policy.
The most important thing to remember about political parties is that they exist to get
candidates elected to office in order to influence public policy. Thus, political parties
sometimes sacrifice ideological consistency in order to simply win an office.
In order to appeal to the broadest possible number of voters parties attempt to create
platforms (statements of what the party’s position is on a variety of issues) that will
appeal to a coalition (wide and varied groups) of interests. It is impossible to make
everybody happy, but the party attempts to make enough people happy so that its
candidates are successful and can win office.
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Party Organization
Political parties in the United States follow a fairly typical pattern of organization despite
the differences between the states. Generally speaking, the parties are divided into the
permanent organization and the temporary organization. The permanent organization
consists of little more than a skeleton force of people who conduct the routine but
essential business of the party. The main persons who are members of this group are
typically the precinct chairperson(s), county chairperson, the County Executive
Committee, the District Executive Committee, the State executive Committee, and the
State Chairperson. The party’s primary purpose of winning elections requires far more
people and much greater activity. The party comes alive in election years in the form of a
temporary party organization geared to capturing power.
The temporary party organization is focused on the spring primary and the fall general
election. It attempts to choose attractive candidates and mobilize voters to support them.
In Texas, party membership is determined by the act of voting, since the parties do
not maintain permanent party rolls (membership lists – remember that in Texas by law
we have closed primaries, but in practice they are open because of the lack of these lists).
Whichever primary a voter votes in, they are considered members of that party for the
remainder of that year, and may only participate in runoffs (if there are any) of the party
for which primary they voted in.
In the 254 counties of Texas, there are more than 6,000 precincts, each having from 50 to
as many as 3,500 voters. However, only a small fraction of those who vote in the
primaries – who are themselves only a fraction of the total number of registered voters
and a smaller fraction of the citizens of voting age – participate in conventions or other
party affairs. With regard to the overall organization of the party, voters who voted in a
party’s primary may attend precinct conventions and cast ballots for the precinct
chairperson. In addition, precinct conventions are able to send to the county convention
one delegate for every 25 votes cast for the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the last
election. Thus primary voters are able to participate in choosing the delegates to the
county convention. It is unlikely, however, that anyone other than longtime party
members will be chosen for these positions. The main function of the precinct
convention is to select delegates to the county convention, which is the next echelon of
the temporary party organization. The main function of the country convention is to
select delegates to the state convention.
Both major parties hold their state conventions on a weekend in June during evennumbered years. The party state executive committee (SEC) decides when and where the
convention is to be held. Depending on the year of the election cycle in which it occurs,
the June convention performs some or all of the following activities:
1) It certifies to the Secretary of State the party nominees for the general election
in November.
2) It writes the party platform.
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3) It selects the members of the SEC.
4) It names the Texas committeeman and committeewoman to the national party
committee.
5) During presidential years, it selects the “at-large” delegates to the national
party convention (who are not committed to supporting any particular
candidate, as opposed to the “pledged” delegates who are sworn to support
specific candidates and whose identity depends on the support candidates
received in the March primary election).
6) It selects a slate of presidential electors to serve in the Electoral College in the
event the party’s candidates for president and vice president win in Texas.
Interest Groups
Interest – something that has value and is considered worth defending, whether it is
economic, religious, ethnic, racial or anything else.
Interest group – a private organization of individuals who have banded together because
of a common cause or interest.
Political interest groups – groups that try to influence public policy to the advantage of
the members of the group.
Interest groups differ from political parties in the following respects:
1) The focus of parties is broad, encompassing many interests, while the focus of a
group is narrow, comprising just one interest
2) Parties attempt to gain power by running candidates in elections while groups merely
try to influence officeholders.
3) Parties must appeal to citizenry for support while groups may work entirely behind
the scenes.
Interest groups are usually classified into five distinct types of groups: economic groups,
spiritual or ideological groups, artistic-recreational groups, public interest groups, and
ethnic groups.
The two most important things to understand about interest groups are that not all
interests are organized, and that organized interests are much more powerful than
unorganized interests.
There are three general rules of interest-group formation:
1) economic producing groups are more likely to be organized than consuming groups
2) regardless of the type of group, people with more education and income are more
likely to join than are people with less income and education
3) citizens who join groups out of personal involvement (as opposed to economic stake)
tend to feel very strongly about the particular issue that is the group’s reason for
existence.
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Interest groups attempt to persuade both public and individual government officials to
take a particular point of view on specific policy issues. In doing so they perform
important functions in the political process:
1) they furnish information to officeholders in all branches of government
2) they politicize and inform members of their groups as well as others
3) they mediate conflict within their groups
4) they engage in electioneering, especially the contribution of money to the candidates
5) they help to form public opinion by disseminating information supporting their own
policy stands to citizens
Interest groups are involved in a wide range of activities:
1) interest groups enhance democratic government in many ways, such as providing
information, getting people involved in politics, and contributing to debate about
issues.
2) Although they do offer some positive influences in government, their efforts to skew
the process of government to benefit themselves can make a corrupting influence and
deflect public policy-making into private channels.
3) Interest groups also involve themselves in electioneering through supporting
candidates for public office. Some of this influence is accomplished through political
action committees – a committee formed by an organization, industry, or individual
for the purpose of collecting money and then contributing that money to selected
political candidates and causes. Texas currently has no limits on how much these
groups can contribute to candidates.
4) Lobbying – to lobby is to attempt to influence policy makers face-to-face. Lobbyists
are individuals who are hired by specific interest groups to directly work with policy
makers in order to gain favorable legislation or rulings for the group who hired them.
Lobbyists generally feel that making direct contact with legislators is the best
lobbying technique. Contributing money to politicians is the best way to ensure
personal access to legislators. However, the power of money in the interest-group
system brings up uncomfortable questions about democracy in Texas. When policy is
made at the behest of a few rich interests working behind the scenes, then government
is plutocratic (that is, government by the wealthy), not democratic. Because the
volume of legislation and the difficulty legislators have in staying informed,
information is one of the most important resources available to lobbyists.
Information is a tool of influence not only in dealing with the legislature, but also in
dealing with the bureaucracy.
5) Interest groups also work to persuade the public. Some interest groups attempt to
influence the government indirectly by “educating” the public. This can help by
increasing the amount of information on public available to citizens on pubic policy.
However, citizens have to be cautious in that the viewpoint may tend to be one-sided.
Citizens should always questions the accuracy of information from these sources.
6) As society has grown more complex, administrative agencies or bureaus have been
created to regulate various private interests to protect the public. These agencies
often exist within the executive branch of government. Since the administrators who
run these agencies have considerable latitude in interpreting laws, the executive
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branch of government may be an interest group target. Though regulatory agencies
are intended to be independent, the often become dominated by the interest they were
created to control. Co-optation is the transition of an agency from guardian of the
public interest to a defender of private interests. This results from several factors:
a) those who serve in regulatory agencies tend to come from (and later return to) the
regulated industry
b) even the best intentioned regulators may develop personal ties to people
associated with the regulated interest that make it difficult to remain independent
c) once needed regulations are in place, public awareness of the regulated interest
declines, making it easier for the industry involved to co-opt the regulators
without public scrutiny.
Because courts make policy by interpreting and applying the law, interest groups are
active in the judicial process. The NAACP provides an outstanding example of an
interest group that was able to press its case in the courts after having been unsuccessful
both in electoral politics and in lobbying the legislative and executive branches.
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