POLS 207 2nd Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Current Lecture II Demographic Trends a Massive growth in population of the state b Larger percentage of minority groups i Hispanics African Americans Asian Americans III Economic Trends a From Cotton Cattle and Oil to a diversification of state economy IV 6 Economic Regions a East Texas b Plains Region c Gulf Coast d Metroplex e Central Corridor f Borders Current Lecture STATE POLITICAL CULTURES Demographic Trends Trend 1 massive growth in population of the state 4 factors explaining the large migration of people to TEXAS in the last 40 years o 1970s 11 million o 2000s 21 million o 2010s 25 million 20 growth rate in Texas since 2000 st 1 reason TX is a Sunbelt state state with better weather average growth is higher in Sunbelt states 2nd reason proximity of Texas to Mexico o contributes in two ways one is increased immigration because TX is a border state o second is economic opportunities trade between TX Mexico provides economic opportunity 3rd reason late 1970s early 1980s OIL Boom o added jobs and a reason for people to come to the state th 4 reason economic decline in industrial Midwest o due to the economic decline in the industrial Midwest people are looking for jobs and TX has economic opportunities because of trade and oil boom Political Consequences of these trends o 1970s 2000s Change from Democratic dominated to Republican dominated state o older Texans supported Democratic Party more o new people that migrated into TX were more aligned with the Republican party bring in different party loyalty o TX government grows because of a growth in spending which is driven simply by increased numbers of people need more roads more teachers more police etc as population grows o in other words TX needs a bigger government to deal with a bigger population Minority Groups and Role in Political System Demographic Trend 2 Increasingly larger percentage of population is minority o Asian American Hispanic American Anglo Americans Participation grows from minority growth for two reasons o 1 A lifting of restrictions on minority participation o 2 An increase in minority groups Beyond their size minority groups have taken a greater role in the political system o removal of restrictions o increased population of minorities in certain areas increased local political activity HISPANICS o greatest growing group in TX o from 2000 2010 over half the state population growth came from Hispanics o from last half century 1960s 15 Hispanics 2000 30 Hispanics 2010 38 Hispanics o continued Hispanic immigration because of proximity to Mexico o Hispanics have a larger family size and higher birth rates o 1990s Hispanics are winning state wide offices attorney general supreme court seats even US senators etc o projected to make up the majority of the population by 2030 o speculation that when the Hispanic population becomes the majority the dominating party will change to Democratic because Hispanics are mostly Democratic o to some extent full Hispanic influence impact has been limited by low participation levels voting rate percentage of those who can vote that do vote Hispanics have lowest voting turn out rate across the US of all racial ethnic groups o Hispanic concentration greatest near border counties many have 50 98 population local governments in these areas will have more Hispanic participation AFRICAN AMERICANS o 1960s to today about 12 of TX population relatively stable has not really grown over the last century o but their impact on state politics has grown o barriers were removed over the last half century o won some state wide offices ASIAN AMERICANS o smallest portion of state population o 1980s 1 o 1990s 2 o today 4 5 o trend is growing but rather small o Asian Americans are typically concentrated in certain areas like Houston so have more representation there in the local government Demographic Trends Overall Growth Minority Growth ECONOMIC TRENDS Period of Change For most of its history the Texas economy was tied to the land o 1 Cotton Farming dominated the 1820s 1860s o 2 Cattle became important economically after the Civil War o 3 Oil became the dominate economic activity after its discovery in East TX in early 20 th century When oil prices were high the industry was doing well new jobs made TX a great place to work but then in the early 1980s oil prices fall o economy falls with the drop in oil prices which forces diversification of state s economy ONLY in the last 30 40 years has TX s state economy diversified beyond the land dominance of cotton cattle and oil ONLY in the last 30 40 years has TX s state economy become less dependent on the land Since the 1980s there has been a significant restructuring of the state economy WHY o NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement o increased trade between Mexico and TX as well as US and Canada o opening of US MEXICO border will spur and diversify the economy o other main area of diversification is in the high tech industry Austin Dallas Houston Dell Texas Instruments high technology will offer new jobs and opportunities Change from state dominated by land to state more diversified due to NAFTA trade with Mexico and high tech businesses 6 Economic Regions Border Plains Metroplex East TX Gulf Coast Central Corridor 1 East Texas a traditionally dominated by agriculture timber and oil b timber remains the most important today c diversification in this area has mainly come in the form of manufacturing 2 Plains Region a agriculture ranching cattle feed b area has seem some limited diversification 3 Gulf Coast a manufacturing petro chemical industry shipping fishing already fairly diverse b increased manufacturing and high tech opportunities c organized labor unions which is generally limited in TX politics but this region the Gulf Coast has the highest concentration of organized labor in the state 4 Metroplex a financial center of the state large banking center b manufacturing high tech Texas Instruments Aerospace Industry c most diversified region of the state economically Metroplex d Metroplex has most diversified economy in the state 5 Central Corridor a College Station is in the corridor b two large universities impact the area which helps bring jobs to the region c military bases in this region also important to the economy 6 Border a NAFTA citrus fruit fairly diversified
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