The controversy surrounding the 78th Texas Legislature between the Democratic and Republican Party state representations and senators was that there was an attempt to redistrict the recently redrawn congressional districts. This issue of, “redistricting” was indorsed by the Republican Party. The endorsement of “redistricting,” wasn’t surprising considering that the Republican Party had just won the Texas state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. The Republican Party’s position on the issue was clear through the statements of Tom DeLay, “Texans deserve representation that reflects their values and believes.” Knowing that the redistricting would result in catastrophic losses for the party, the Democrats apposed the idea of, “redistricting.” The Democrats were so opposed to the idea of, “redistricting,” that they fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma. The justification for the party fleeing was said best in the words of state Representative Jim Dunnam, “We're here in Ardmore, Oklahoma, because the real problems of Texas are budget problems, are school finance problems, are health ...
Texas inhabitants have decisions of some sort almost every year, and at more than one cases all through the 12 months. all through biennial in vogue races, the gigantic scope of workplaces and submissions brings about phenomenally long tickets. electorate, confronted with tickets loaded down with applicant names and issues unforeseen to them, astonish why they ought to vote.
University of Texas at Austin. Texas Politics, The legislative Branch. Austin, 2nd Edition-Revision 94 2009, Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services.
The writers of Texas’ constitution had good intentions but the current iteration of the Texas Constitution has not weathered the test of time as well as the U.S. Constitution. In the present day, Texas legislature is heavily influenced by interest groups due to a dominating political party, thus slowing the progress of the part-time legislature by pushing the agenda agreed upon by both the party and interest group. Part of Governor Rick Perry’s platform in 2012 was “adapting the Texas model to the U.S. Congress.” Opponents argued that The Texas legislature is working as intended and should not be
Texas politics can be interpreted as a very difficult and complicated institution. Its political democracy can be construed to fall under the mixture of two very distinct theoretical approaches. These models include elitism and pluralism. Elitism is the belief that individuals who derive power from leadership positions from large organizations and have great financial wealth can monopolize and influence important policy decisions. Pluralism is the theory that democracy can be achieved through competition among multiple interest groups. While many can argue that these two theories do not coincide with another, it can be noted otherwise. In this essay, elitism and pluralism will be discussed on how they are both visible in Texas democracy.
Animal Farm illustrates the Russian Revolution through the tale of animals obtaining their freedom. Ironically, one of the leaders of the farm, Napoleon, turns the animals into his slaves. Thus, the animals merely obtain a new master. Through this twist of symbolism and irony, Orwell presents the theme about how power will corrupt the mind. Napoleon essentially represents the the corruption of power. In this way, Orwell conveys his theme by showing the adverse effects of Napoleon’s growing power, so that the reader can see the stages of corruption that follow.
Newell, Charldean. "Inflexibility, Traditionalism, and Partisanship: The Texas Response to New Federalism." Review. Annual Review of American Federalism 12 (1981 (1983): 185-95. Publius. Oxford University Press. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
In his article, “Homestyle,” Richard Fenno seeks to answer one question: How does an elected representative's view of his/her district affect his or her political behavior? To answer this question, Fenno identifies what a Member of Congress’s
Constitutional reform ultimately failed because neither Legislators nor citizens took an interest (Newell et al 59-60). Additionally, there was much bickering dividing members on key issues such as: strengthening the Executive Branch, requiring Justices of the Peace of have a completed law degree and keeping Texas as a right to work state. These issues, combined with citizens’ concerns on education, health care, highways, air quality (Newell et al 60) and the fact that most Texas are politically conservative, preferring the current constitution which they understand and over a new constitution which may prove worse than the current one (Newell et al 60) proved difficult to meet the two-thirds Legislative vote and public
It has become common for people to blame the polarization of politics on gerrymandering. According to a study “Does Gerrymandering Cause Polarization,” redistricting increasingly produces districts that are homogenous with respect to ideology; this is because ideologically homogenous districts make it more difficult for moderates to win, since moderates are divided so they no longer hold the majority in any given district even if they are the majority of the population. Due to redistricting (gerrymandering) polarization is possibly greater than it would be if the districting process were more politically neutral, but the fact that the U.S. Senate has experienced an increase in polarization at the same time the House has, suggests that gerrymandering plays a modest role at best in polarization (“McCarty, 3”). This leads us to our next theory that economic inequality is a possible cause for the increase in
While Voting Rights legislation had a great impact on changing the composition of Congress, other factors exist as barriers to minority representation in Congress. One of these is the use of single-member districts. Of great debate as to whether it is helping or hindering minority candidates is the establishment of minority districting and the use of racial gerrymandering. The question of constitutionality and these dist...
Gerrymandering by definition refers to “district line-drawing that purposefully maximizes seats for one party or voting bloc” (Davidson et al., 47). Two commons forms of gerrymandering are cracking and packing districts. Cracking refers to splitting a group of people up (often into two separate districts) to weaken party strength or group strength. Likewise, packing refers to placing a group of people into one district to strengthen the weight of a given groups (party/demographics) votes (Davidson et al., 47). Gerrymandering is an important concept to understand because it is often used by one party or another to dramatically affect the results of elections. Currently according to the authors of our text, the most common form is partisan gerrymandering. Here, congressional members of a state where one party controls uses that power to gerrymander and ensure safe seats for members of that same party. It’s extremely manipulative and squashes any chance of the minority party rising to power and becoming elected in that state. Even with laws put in place to punish those who engage in this practice, the act of gerrymandering continues. Gerrymandering is not overstated and needs addressed by all states regardless of party control. Such an act is prevalent in Ohio given that the GOP
The topic I have chosen is gerrymandering. Before getting too deep into this paper, I’d like to take this time to explain what gerrymandering is. To gerrymander is to redraw and resize electoral voting districts across a state. This is done to ensure that the political party that has control of the state can keep control by distributing voters in a manner that alters the people’s representation.
In the article by Texas Vox Oil and Gas Lobby Cashes In, Kills Local Control, Kaiba White firmly criticizes the impact that the passing of House Bill 40 has on local control. The claim made in this article is simple: local control, a secular Texan tradition is being undermined by greed. 1 As the author
The Congressional Election of 1794 was a very important and influential one in the evolution of the American political party system. Although Federalists dominated the early political world of the newly constructed union, the Democratic-Republican candidate, Swanwick, was victorious. There were many factors that contributed to Swanwick’s victory that can’t be ignored when analyzing how the Democratic-Republicans procured the victory in the election of 1794. All the evidence available needs to be investigated in order to understand the influences of the candidate, their position on the various controversial issues of the time period, and the voters themselves on the outcome of the election of 1794.
The setting in the novel ‘One Flew Over the cuckoo’s Nest’ written by Ken Kesey in 1962 and the novella ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ penned by charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1890 show similarities as both texts take place in sick rooms though they are set one hundred years apart. The setting of the texts lead readers to define sanity and insanity by looking at the characters influence on setting showing who is and who isn’t in power.