Explain The Three Branches Of The Texas Constitution

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

1. What three branches were created by the Constitution? The three branches that were created by the Constitution are the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch.

The Texas Legislative Branch of Government The Texas Constitution divides the state government into three separate: the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. These three branches share equal power within the Texas State governemt. The executive branch is lead by the governor, the judicial branch consists of the Texas Supreme Court and the local courts around the state, finally, the legislative branch, is lead by the Texas Legislature, which includes the 150 members of the house of representatives and the 31 members of the state senate. These members of the house of representatives are elected to two-year terms and Senators serve four-year terms.

Those restraints have evolved into weaknesses that compromise the integrity and authority of the state government. But, legislators could adjust the constitution to be less restrictive and more effective by strengthening the executive's power, instating a full-time legislature, and reorganizing the judiciary. The Texas Constitution distributed executive power over a multitude of elected offices. At the time the framers wrote it, this seemed like a good idea.

To begin a constitution is the fundamental laws of a state which sets out how that state will be organized and the powers and authorities of government between different political units and citizens. The United States Constitution was created to overcome the Articles of Confederation weaknesses, to offer centralization, and to have more power in the government. Where in the Texas Constitution they wanted to try to avoid and reverse some of the things that were happening and going on. Which goes to show that these two constitutions have many differences that could be used to overpower the similarities. Some of them can be pointed out in the amending process, the bill of rights, the executive branch, and also the different salaries of each.

Introduction: The constitutions of the US and Texas are tied to political culture and fundamentally influence politics. Political culture fundamentally influences by broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should work and politics should operate. The American political culture highlights the values liberty, equality, and democracy. Political cultures in the U.S have an effect on how people participate in politics and how individuals and institutions interact. According to chapter 1 on the textbook Daniel Elazar established a scheme for the state political culture.

House representatives from 30 to 32, which meant redrawing the maps. At that time, each party controlled one chamber of the state legislature and became deadlocked on the redrawn districts. A Federal court stepped in and provide one which gave the Democrats a 17 to 15 advantage. Republicans gained control of both the House and Senate in 2002, and House Majority Leader Tom Delay beginning negotiating redistricting to better reflect the Texas voters, which were primarily Republicans, in the U.S. House of Representatives. (14) Before finally approving the redistricting plan, Democratic legislators twice fled the state to prevent a quorum in the House.

The Texas legislative process is governed by the Texas constitution as well as the House of Representative and the Senate. Its primary function is to enact laws to provide for the health, welfare, education, environment, and economic and general well-being of the citizens of Texas. It also establishes public policy through the passage of bills and resolutions and proposes amendments to the state constitution, which are then submitted to the voters for approval or disapproval. When a bill is proposed, it must go through the legislative process before it becomes a law. The legislative process is very long and has many steps.

As for Texas, the State Legislature has given of reflection of being the most powerful branch in the state government. This structure most of the time has a belligerent use towards the power of the purse to regulate and manage the state government activities. As stated in the article “Like most state legislatures, it is a bicameral institution, consisting of a lower house, the Texas House of Representative, and the upper house, the Texas State.” Regularly the Legislature meets on the second Tuesday of January of every odd-numbered year. The substitute governor who is elected statewide separates from the main Governor and takes control over the Senate as its members elect the speaker of the house from that body.

The Texas State Court system is very structured. There are 5 levels of the Texas Courts. Level 5 starts with Justice and Municipal Courts. Justice Courts have Jurisdiction over civil actions, small crimes, and criminal misdemeanors. The Municipal courts have jurisdiction over municipal ordnance cases and criminal misdemeanors that are only punishable by fine.

Texas is the second most populated and second largest state in United State. Due to its size, Texas contains diverse landscapes that resemble both American South and Southwest. Most of the population centers are located in areas of formers prairies, grass lands, forests, and the coastline. The current Texas Constitution was adopted in 1876. Like most of the states, it also provides for a separation off power.

and Texas Constitutions are similar documents. They both represent the principles of representative democratic government, in which power originated from the people. Both contain a bill of rights that protects civil liberties from government infringement, both provide for two branches of legislature with a House of Representatives and a Senate and both request a system of checks and balances and separation of powers between legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. They also both divide government power between upper and lower levels of government. In the U.S. Constitution the states are subordinate to the federal government, and in the Texas Constitution the counties are subordinate to the state government.

The legislative branch naturally reflects the democratic form of government. However, all three branches are considered weak, but compared to the three branches of the Texas state government, the legislative branch is less weak and the most powerful because of the broad authority it has been given. (laits.utexas.edu). According to the (tsha.utexas.edu) “Under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the legislature, as representative of the people of Texas, exercises plenary powers, limited only by the Texas and United States constitutions and valid federal laws. The legislature may exercise the state 's inherent police power to promote and safeguard the public safety, health, morals, and welfare; and, by nineteenth century judicial interpretation, is superior to local governments, which are regarded as "creatures of the state.

The framers of the Texas Executive established a system that was designed to check the powers of the government. As opposed to the US Constitution that vested the power of the executive in the president of the nation (Berry, 1385), the Texas Constitution sought to ensure that the state did not have the excess powers. As such, they came up with a plural system where a variety of individuals make up the executive branch of the state (Texas State Government at a Glance). While the governor of the state remains as the highest ranking officials in the state, they hold the least of powers in the plural system.

The Constitution of 1876 was toward the end in the development of a new, restructured and revised constitution in Texas, yet it was not the last attempt to revise the natural law of Texas. Pressure begin to build to change and streamline the Texas Constitution in the late 1960s. By 1969, fifty-six obsolete and out dated provisions were revoked, including a whole article. This called for a more fundamental overhaul and restructuring of the Constitution, which led to an extensive and prolonged process of constitutional revision that began in the 1970s. Efforts during this time were imperative for two reasons: it explained a long-standing concern whether the legislature had the constitutional right to convene as a constitutional convention; and secondly, the Texas Constitutional Revision Commission provided a thorough revision of the state constitution that served as the foundation for a new