The Influence Of Political Culture In Texas

Political culture is what the public believes the government’s roles and functions should be as well as how the government should be run. There are three main subcultures in Texas that shape its political culture which include the individualistic, moralistic, and traditionalistic subculture. The individualistic subculture is a belief that the government should intervene with the privacy of its citizens as little as possible while also providing proper opportunities that allow the citizens to achieve personal interests. The moralistic subculture is the public belief that the government should focus on assisting public welfare and encourages active participation by the public in politics. The traditionalistic subculture is the belief that elite

citizens should be in charge running the government. Political culture impacts Texas’ government by affecting the different political parties that are present as well as how the public views politics. In the 2012 election, Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney for the presidential seat nationwide, however in Texas, Romney was actually the winner. Texas is Republic and has a more conservative political culture, therefore the state will more than likely side with Republicans since a large amount of the citizens are Republicans.
In the 2012 election, citizens of the United States voted to determine who would be the president who is also the head of the executive branch. The executive branch is one of the three branches that make up the government along with the judicial and legislative branch. In Texas, the governor is in charge of the executive branch who is followed by a lieutenant governor similar to how the president has a vice president. The governor is “the state’s top executive officeholder” (Gibson et al. 186) and is elected by the voters. The governor can serve an unlimited amount of four year long terms, however they can only serve two terms consecutively. In order to become a governor, the candidate must a United States citizen who is at least thirty years old and has resided in Texas for at least five years prior to the election. As a governor, that individual possesses the appointment power that “allows a degree of control over 410 governmental entities” (Champagne et al. 258).