Three Branches of the Texas Government Essays

Despite, all of the revisions the Texas Constitution still has its strengths and weaknesses. The strengths it has a clear definition of restrictions on what government officials can and can’t do. It has the Bill of

The relationship between a governor and its elected or appointed bureaucrats are important for a state bureaucracy. It is very likely that most – if not, all bureaucracies share the common agreement: that the executive and legislative bodies must work together fairly with state agencies to reach their goal, which is to establish, control, and enforce certain policies that help create a perfect society. However, in the bureaucracy of the state of Texas, that goal seems to be unachievable. There are two articles that exploits the struggles between the state’s agencies and the state legislature. One explains the issue of budgetary powers for a Texas governor, and the other describes the frustration of authority between the Texas legislative lawmakers and one powerful state agency. There seems to be a fragmentation within the Texas bureaucracy, which can be rooted to the “Plural Executive” form of government that’s established in the state’s constitution, and the influence of interest groups on the state legislature.

The Texas Legislature should continue to serve as part-time lawmaking bodies. This has been this way for over 137 years, and has become tradition. There are several reasons why it is a better idea to keep the part-time lawmaking. People fear that if they start meeting in regular session each year it would cause increased governmental power and spending. (Texas Politics- Newell, Prindle, Riddlesperger, Dovovan, Smith, Mooney) If the government met more often the people would think that they would make more rules and have more

The Texas Government must remain in the confines of the Texas Constitution which ultimately means to follow the four major functions. These four major functions define a constitution and its meaning therefore leaving the Texas Government with the same predicament and views, due to the same principles they both share within each other. Regardless of the sudden changes in current laws and policies the Texas Constitution must remain with its natural basics that a constitution settles in.

The Texas Constitution grants legislature chambers individual powers and responsibilities. The senate has the ability to object or confirm any appointment. This will need two-thirds vote. The house has the ability to initiate a tax increase however the senate must agree for it to pass. With majority vote the House can use the power of impeachment to dismiss an executive or judicial officeholder. Each House member represents around 139000 people were there are fewer senate members representing approximately 673,000. Having these two groups allows for each one the correct the other as a check and balance.

The house of representatives is consisted of around 150 members while the senate has a total number of 31 members. The speaker of the house who is elected independently by the members of the house heads the house. The legislature is a very powerful arm of the Texas government; it also has a very strong constitutional connection with the Lieutenant Governor. If I were given a chance to change something in this system of ruling, I would have changed the allowances that the legislators are given for their mileage of 5 dollars to a value much higher because they have many things that they are doing in the government. The indebtedness that the legislature receives of $200, 000 is excessively low for the hard work of the legislators therefore I could change the amount they get and therefore raise it

The status of the current Texas Constitution has been a growing source of controversy. Originally written to limit the power of government after Radical Reconstruction (Champagne 84), the 1876 Constitution has remained in effect despite Texas’ dramatic growth and development over the years. The document contains many explicit details that, unlike the U.S. Constitution, leave minimal room for flexibility in interpretation. At 86,936 words in length, the Texas Constitution has thus far required 467 amendments, the fourth highest number within the country (Champagne 91).

The current Texas Constitution was ratified in 1876. It was a natural and necessary reaction to the previous constitution which was imposed by carpetbaggers and radical reformists. The new constitution better represented the political culture of home-grown Texans: limited government and maximum freedom of the citizens. This constitution not only limited the power of government, it also limited governmental terms and set the salaries of government officials. Farmers and [then] conservative democrats were primarily responsible for the current Texas Constitution.

Legislative reapportionment dominated the reforms of the 1960s in the country and Texas. Following U.S. Supreme Court decision, a federal district court ordered Texas legislature reapportionment on the bases of equally populated districts in 1965. Which some may believe lead to the emphasis of fair representation of ethnic and racial minorities in the 1970s. A notable reform effort occurred between 1971 and 1974. First, it answered the long-standing question on whether or not legislature had the right to convene itself a constitutional convention.

The state is made up of different sectors all in existence and intertwined each other. The constitution serves many functions in the operations of the government and the life of the people governed. The document houses the rules of the land and the conditions governing the way the various sectors of the economy react and act in a mutual status. The constitution is the key to the viable existence of the people of Texas providing the fundamental rules and laws for the inception and operations of legal laws (Brown et al., 2014). Likewise, the constitution outlines the underlying breakdown of the way the individual powers and limits to the powers in place exist.

The Texas Constitution separates the Texas state government into three different but equivalent branches: the Texas executive branch of government, led by the governor; the Texas judicial branch of government, which is made up of of the Texas Supreme Court and all the other state courts; and the Texas legislative branch of government, led by the Texas Legislature, which consists of the 31 members of the Texas senate and the 150 members of the house of

Texas has changed in various ways over the course of history. Not only has it changed politically, it has changed culturally, demographically, and more. The transition of Texas from a Democratic primary state to a Republican primary state happened in the 1970s with the elections of a Republican governor and senator. In this paper, I will further discuss the transition of Texas from a Democratic to a Republican state, and share my opinions on how I believe Texas government could stay a majority Republican state.

Paying them only about $7,200 per year, Texas has what is known as a citizen legislature. They work for 140+ days every other year(depending on whether or not a special session is called), and have to try to get everything done in that limited amount of time. They do not get paid much, and cannot rely on being a legislator for a steady source of income. They have to be someone that is well off, have a flexible work schedule, and have other sources of income. Due to all of these requirements, the Texas legislature does not accurately reflect the demographics of the state of Texas.

The Texas Legislature is the most significant body in the state involved in decision-making, which is a bicameral legislative body consisting of two chambers i.e. the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate is made up of 31 members who serve four-year terms while the House of Representatives consist of 150 representatives elected for a term of two years. Generally, legislators in this state tend to be wealthier, more educated, and having higher education status as compared to their constituents. The elitist nature of the Texas Legislature is attributed to several factors including the costs associated with running for the legislature and the relatively low annual salary of approximately $7,200.

There are four major critics of the constitution. The weak executive authority is divided into 5/9 individual to minimize the power of the government in which people critic that now the Texas government is weaker compared to the other states. The second criticism is the limit on legislature questions that meets every 2 years for six months and critic because is not sufficient to discuss all the needs of the people. The tree clitic id the bifurcated judicial branch that is divided into 2 separated court systems: civil and criminal. The critics are that are too many courts in Texas, but there are not that many judges in which they don’t have to have a degree in law. The fourth critique is that the Texas constitution has unclear parts or redundant and the critic is that people have many questions about what is written in the document or makes no sense to them. The first and the second critics are also limits that the drafters create to limit the Texas government. The reason for dose limits is because they wanted to have weak constitutions to limit the power they had to make decisions. Also, it was limited to make the executive branch weakness for the government not to have too much power like government