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The Texas political culture is a blend of traditionalist and individualist. Both of the traits can be traced back to the formation of Texas. The Individualist roots of the lone star state can be tied to several factors. First, the American settlers and the Mexican people who strives to better themselves through opportunities had an Individual mindset that made them desire to settle the rugged land. Second, after the revolution Texas became Its own nation and with Its own constitution. Third, with the abundant resources of cattle, cotton, and oil Texas was economically strong and needing little federal support.
The traditionalist roots can be found in a few areas. First Texas having the abundant resources has created many wealthy people who have a power over the government. Second, many laws in Texas favor large corporations and low taxation. Third, full citizen participation in politics and voting has never been encouraged as much as many other states due to the wealthy and vast size. These are some of the factors of the traditionalist and individualist political culture of Texas today based strongly on the Jackson democracy. Traditionalistic culture also was brought by the Anglo southern Immigrants and their values about leaver. . The political culture affects the government In a few ways. First, the Individualist of state government is willing to go against the federal government on issues such as when the Texas rules violated the federal Clean Air Act of 1990. The stance Texas took on the Clean Air Act is an example of the state government striving to benefit big business. These would be policy stances. Second the traditionalist side run by the upper class is able to make strong moral laws such as the death penalty, gun control and abortion. These laws affect the lower class more than the upper class.
How? Explain. Third, the laissez-fare ideology helps the economy grow in late twentieth century and created many employment opportunities, however this ideology leading to Social Darwinism does not favor government support for the unemployed. Also consider pseudo laissez fair political realties. In conclusion despite low rankings In education, Texas residents rank In overall satisfaction as the government favoring employment is factor in this quality of life issues. So does this mean that people are happy with being employed and tolerate all other negative policy outcomes?
How can this be explained? To deepen analysis also consider how government institutions and their structure are affected by these values. 3. The demographic shift of Texas has changed politics in ways involving population shift, government assistance and major education issues. First the income gap between minorities and Anglo has narrowed. This is partially attributed to more of the minorities owning businesses or obtaining higher education which led to increased political Influence from the minorities through lobbying, and elected positions. Source? I have different data.
Second, the large amount of undocumented Immigrants has led to Issues In managing federal aid. Due to the supply adequate aid to Texas to cope the number of students in schools. It does include them in the count. Most funding comes from the state for education, which gains billions from undocumented immigrants because of the sales tax. This has caused the Texas government to focus on spreading what money it has more broadly, but at the same time lowering the overall quality of education. Texas has had funding problems with education from way before this recent plasticization of illegal
Immigration. We’ll learn about this in Unit Three. Third, there has been consolidation and streamlining of government agencies to handle the larger number of citizens. For the example the policy that was passed to combine health, welfare and social services into the Health and Human Services commission. These are some examples of Texas politics shifting the demographics. Tie to the political cultures. Explain why Texas has chosen to respond in the ways it has given its political cultural ‘aloes. 4. Texas political culture affects racial and ethnic minorities in mainly economical
Nays. First, Texas does not favor the state aiding poverty, but instead believes the federal government should aid this. I would argue it doesn’t even think the federal government should do this! This lack of aid is detrimental to minorities. Second, in education there is more assistance in higher education than lower education. Mainly from the federal government. Minorities are less benefited by this assistance. Third, there is an affirmative action program for admission to state schools that benefits minorities. There have been Supreme Court cases from UT ruled against this.
While affirmative action is still valued in abstract, it is increasingly difficult for schools to figure out how to do this. What the state schools DO have is the automatic acceptance for the top 10% of all high schools, regardless of demographic background of the student. Fourth, Texas politics being in favor of economic growth creates all levels of Jobs which benefits minorities. In conclusion the Texas politics does not directly benefit minorities through aid but it does indirectly through the employment opportunities and education. Tie to the political cultures to demonstrate the connection is understood.