Political Culture

Sources

Brigid Callahan Harrison, Jeah Wahl Harris, Gary M. Halter, with Michelle D. Dearforff, 2011, American Democracy Now (Texas Ed., 2nd ed.), McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Daniel J. Elezar, 1975, “The American Cultural Matrix,” in The Ecology of American Political Culture: Readings, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., pp. 13-42.

Donald Lutz, 1987, “The Texas Constitution,” Perspectives on American and Texas Politics, Donald Lutz and Kent Tedin, eds., Kendall-Hunt Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa.

Political Culture
“Culture refers to a way of life combining the totality of experience.” (Elazar, 1975: 1).

Culture, and, in turn, political culture, grows out of such sources as race, ethnicity, language, religion, and, we might add, geography, economic development, art, music, history, and so on (Elazar, 1975: 5).

Culture is the sum of everything that makes us what we are, and it influences everything that we think and believe. Political culture consists of our broadest attitudes and beliefs about the purpose, limits, and practices of politics. It is comprised of our assumptions about what government should do, who should have power, who should have rights and/or responsibilities, what it means to be a citizen, and other fundamental issues.
The Moralistic Political Culture

The moralistic political culture emphasizes the commonwealth conception as the basis for democratic government. Politics, to the moralistic political culture, is considered one of the great activities of man in his search for the good society – a struggle for power, it is true, but also an effort to exercise power for the betterment of the commonwealth. Consequently, in the moralistic political culture, both the general public and the politicians conceive of politics as a public activity centered on some notion of the public good and properly devoted to the advancement of the public interest. Good government, then, is measured by the degree to which it promotes the public good and in terms of the honesty, selflessness, and commitment to the public welfare of those who govern. (Elazar, 1975: 20)

The moralistic political culture predominates in the north – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Vermont, Maine, New York (upstate), Michigan (outside of Detroit), Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho
The Individualistic Political Culture

The individualistic political culture emphasizes the conception of the democratic order as a marketplace. In its view, government is instituted for strictly utilitarian reasons, to handle those functions demanded by the people it is created to serve. A government need not have any direct concern with the questions of the “good society” . . . . Since the individualistic political culture emphasizes the centrality of private concerns, it places a premium on limiting community intervention – whether government or nongovernmental – into private activities to the minimum necessary to keep the marketplace in proper working order. In general, government action is to be restricted to those areas, primarily in the economic realm, which encourage private initiative and widespread access to the marketplace. (Elazar, 1975: 17)

The individualistic political culture holds politics to be just another means by which individuals may improve themselves socially and economically. (Elazar, 1975: 17).

[Some] believe that an officeholder’s primary responsibility is to serve himself and those who have supported him directly, favoring them even at the expense of the public. (Elazar, 1975: 18).

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois; and Chicago and New York,
The Traditionalistic Political Culture

The traditionalistic political culture is rooted in an ambivalent attitude toward the marketplace coupled with a paternalistic and elitist conception of the commonwealth. It reflects an older, precommercial attitude that accepts a substantially hierarchical society as part of the ordered nature of things, authorizing and expecting those at the top of the social structure to take a special and dominant role in government. Like its moralistic counterpart, the traditionalistic political culture accepts government as an actor with a positive role in the community, but it tries to limit that role to securing the continued maintenance of the existing social order. To do so, it functions to confine real political power to a relatively small and self-perpetuating group drawn from an established elite who often inherit their “right” to govern through family ties or social position. . . . At the same time, those who do not have a definite role to play in politics are not expected to be even minimally active as citizens. In many cases, they are not even expected to vote. (Elazar, 1975: 22)

Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Virginia, Louisiana

The Individualistic-Traditionalistic Origins of the Texas Constitution of 1876

As. T. R. Fehrenbach put it, [the men who attended the Texas constitutional convention of 1875 were]

mostly old Texans . . . of the ninety members, more than twenty held high rank in the C.S.A. This was a restoration convention. . . . It was a landowner’s group, including forty members of the Grange. . . . This was an antigovernment instrument: too many Texans had seen what government could do, not for them but to them. It tore up previous frameworks, and its essential aim was to try and bind all state government within tight confines.

These men were landowners who had objected strongly to the centralist government under Reconstruction. The document reflected the antigovernment sentiments of the traditionalistic-individualistic political culture of the state. The new document reimposed shorter terms of office, reestablished many statewide and local elected offices, and severely restricted the ability of government to act. The powers of both the legislature and the governor were restriced. (Harrison, Harris, Halter, and Deardorff, 2011: 290).
Characteristics of an Ideal Constitution

According to legal experts and political theorists, there are some ideal characteristics that constitutions should possess and against which constitutions can be compared. Ideally, a constitution should be brief and explicit, embody only the general principles of government, and provide the broad outlines of government subject to interpretation, especially through the court’s power of judicial review. Constitutions should not be detailed and specific, but broad and flexible. . . . Formal amendments to the constitution should be infrequent, deliberate, and significant. . . . (Harrison, Harris, Halter, and Deardorff, 2011: 293)
The Inherent Power to Govern – The States Get into More Stuff

As your text notes, “State constitutions are amended more frequently than the U.S. Constitution. One reason is that state constitutions deal with a wider range of functions” (Harrison, Harris, Halter, and Dearforff, 2011: 297).

The longer a constitution is, the more likely it is to be amended. (Harrison, Harris, Halter, and Dearforff, 2011: 297).

The Texas Constitution – Not the Ideal

Few state constitutions can meet these standards of brevity and few amendments. This is especially true of the Texas Constitution. . . . If we compare the Texas Constitution with the “average” state constitution, we find that it is longer than most, at 93,000-plus words, and has more amendments. Texas currently has 456 amendments. . . . Most state constitutions might be more accurately described as statutory or legislative acts rather than constitutional law. This is especially true of the document that governs Texas. (Harrison, Harris, Halter, and Deardorff, 2011: 293)
The States, the Inherent Power to Govern, and Expansive State Constitutions

The states, for instance, have assumed the power to regulate the health, welfare, and morals of their citizens, and under this heading they have dictated “the height of fences, the price of bread, who could and could not make bricks, whether a single person could live alone, and what time people were to go to bed.”
TEXAS CONSTITUTION: SELECTED SECTIONS

Article 3, Section 47: Lotteries and Gift Enterprises; Bingo (Stipulates the persons who may hold bingo games and where)
Article 3, Section 50b: Student Loans
Article 3, Section 50b-1: Additional Student Loans
Article 3, Section 50c: Texas Grain Warehouse Self-Insurance Fund
Article 3, Section 51g: Social Security Coverage of Proprietary Employees of Political Subdivisions
Article 3, Section 52c: Vacant
Article 3, Section 52e: Dallas County Bond Issues for Roads
Article 3, Section 59: Workmen’s Compensation Insurance for State Employees
Article 3, Section 60: Workmen’s Compensation Insurance for County Employees
Article 3, Section 61: Workmen’s Compensation Insurance for Municipal Employees
Article 16, Section 22: Fence Laws
Article 11, Section 7: Counties and cities on the Gulf of Mexico; Tax for Sea Walls, Breakwaters, and Sanitation; Bonds; Condemnation of Right of Way
THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION:

“. . . elitest, permitting only the narrowest governmental objectives, and making real change nearly impossible . . .”

PROPOSITION 2:

This two-pronged amendment gives the elderly the ability to transfer their homestead exemption from one home to another and allows the Legislature to limit increases in annual appraisals of resident homesteads to 10 percent of market value. The first provision duplicates an amendment already approved by voters in August. The second is designed to soften the financial impact of upward-spiraling valuations. Although the 10 percent cap is not mentioned in the amendment, it is specified in an accompanying law that was approved this year.

PROPOSITION 4:

This “cleanup” proposition attempts to streamline the 80,000 word constitution by deleting several obsolete provisions and reordering some sections. The constitution has been amended 365 times in 121 years, but numerous outdated provisions remain. One archaic passage says people under 21 years of age are not eligible to vote, but that provision was made moot in 1971 when the U.S. Constitution was amended to allow those as young as 18 to vote. Another passage targeted for removal disqualified paupers from voting. Disqualification of “idiots and lunatics” as voters would be changed to those who are ruled “mentally incompetent.” Further, the same proposition would abolish the office of county surveyor in Jackson County and deauthorize funding for the canceled supercollider project. The main criticism of this proposition is that it doesn’t go far enough to eliminate various obsolete passages.

PROPOSITION 9:

Only Harris County would be affected by this proposal to allow the legislature to authorize a property tax of up to 5 cents per $100 assessed valuation to benefit rural fire prevention districts that serve unincorporated areas of the county. The tax has been capped at 3 cents per $100 valuation for the past 40 years. The county has 14 rural fire prevention districts, and six of them have the option of converting to another type of district to be able to raise their tax rates. But this amendment was proposed to allow all of them to quickly increase revenues. If the amendment were approved, elections would still be required in the various districts before tax rates could be increased.

PROPOSITION 13:

To bolster the fiscal soundness of a popular new program that allows prepayment of higher education expenses, this amendment extends the state’s “full faith and credit” to the Texas Tomorrow Fund. The proposal would make the fund a constitutionally protected trust fund. Currently, there is only an implied guarantee that tuition and fees will be paid as promised. While endorsing the purpose of the fund, critics of the amendment questioned whether it sets a dangerous precedent by binding the state to cover unanticipated escalations in college costs.

PROPOSITION 14:

Minimum qualifications for constables would be authorized by this amendment, beyond the existing requirements that apply to all office holders. If approved, the amendment would allow a new state law to take effect that requires constables to have a high school education; be at least 21 years of age; or be at least 18 years of age in the case of some military veterans and those with 60 hours of college credit. A grandfather clause exempts constables elected or appointed before January 1, 1998. The qualifications are deemed too restrictive by some opponents, who claim some counties will have trouble finding eligible candidates.