Chapter 2 Democracy and Constitutionalism in the State Constitutional Government in the States All 50 states have constitutions The state constitutions govern governments set government structure and organization distribute powers among branches of the government prescribe the rules by which decisions are made limit the powers of government and protect the rights of citizens Background of Constitutions Limited Government In our political heritage the power of government over the individual is clearly limited with aspects of life governments cannot regulate or interfere with Legal Status State constitutions are the supreme law of the state and only subordinate to the U S Constitution Background of Constitutions Origins of Written Constitutions The Magna Carta in 1215 and colonial charters in the new world Colonial History Royal action institutionalized charters and constitutions by recognizing proprietary rights for companies for established governments and finally for citizens themselves State Constitutions General Information State Constitutions General Information State Constitutions An Overview Bill of Rights Separation of Powers Weak Governors Legislative Powers Local Governments Taxation and Finance Debt Limitation 2014 Pearson Education Inc All rights reserved How to Change a State Constitution Legislative Proposal the most common method an amendment is passed by the legislature and put to the voters in a referendum Popular Initiative citizens can bypass the legislature for a direct vote if they obtain a requisite number of petition signatures Constitutional Convention has lost favor as a method Constitutional Revision Commissions rarely used but effective when attempted State Constitutional Amendments by Legislatures State Constitutional Amendments by Legislatures Democracy in the States Democracy refers to popular participation in government Direct democracy means that the people themselves can initiate and decide policy questions by popular vote Republicanism involves decision making by representatives of the people Direct Democracy Developed in states and communities following a strong populist movement The populist and progressive reform movement introduced a range of devices to bypass political institutions and encourage direct participation supported women s suffrage civil service and restrictive immigration laws were responsible for adoption of the three forms of direct democracy Direct Democracy The three forms of direct democracy are Initiative a percentage of voters using a petition may have a law or amendment placed on the ballot without legislative involvement Referendum electorate must approve legislative decisions before they become law Recall allows voters to remove an elected official before the end of his or her term Initiative and Recall in the States Direct Versus Representative Democracy The U S Constitution does not provide for direct democracy measures but many state constitutions do allow direct voting in popular initiatives and referenda voting Arguments for Direct Democracy Arguments for Representative Democracy The Decline of Representative Government State Votes on Selected Propositions in the 2000s State Votes on Selected Propositions in the 2000s Continued The Texas Constitution Today Notoriously poor document Outdated Over amended 483 amendments U S 27 Super legislation Micromanages Opposite of broadly constructed laws Laws basically straightforward not much room for interp Describe every minute detail esp re local govt Ex general law or home rule cities state taxing rules Easy to amend difficult to overhaul 2 3 legislation and majority vote Tack on laws easily Scrap and start new very hard legislative time crunch Texans don t like change state must really push for change Constitutional History 1 Constitution of Coahuila y Tejas 1827 State within Mexico Mexico had won independence in 1821 1824 constitute themselves as federal republic and called states to make a constitution in 1825 27 TX doesn t mind being apart of MX but only as long as they can let them govern themselves as a state Arguing in 1827 to be its own autonomous state SFA gets angry in return MX tags TX onto Coahuila Chamber of deputies based in Sautillo capital 2 deps come from tx Roman Catholicism religion many taxation policies many policies don t apply to TX anglo settlers 1st major change Santa Ana MX leader and wanted mexico to be unitary state pwr to flow from ctrl location Constitutional History Republic of Texas 1836 Why to declare independence governing doc of Repub of TX Washington on the Brazos where the const was written during the battle of the Alamo Took chunks of US const and just put Republic of TX SLAVERY only reason why they didn t declare independence and auto join US Writing treason March 1836 Dec 1845 Texas State Constitution of 1845 Candidacy election of Polk changes everything platform manifest destiny Election happens start talking about annexing TX Dec 1845 is when TX joins union TX now has governor Slavery is still allowed First public school system is set up Constitutional History Confederate Constitution of 1861 Southern states 11 total secede SC was first TX seceded over objections of Sam Houston Voted to join the union next vote was to remove Houston Basically cut and pasted confederate states in place of united states on the 45 const slavery made institution emancipation of slaves punishable by jail time Federal govt can tell states what to do Civil war was fought over state rights decides militarily what McCulloch vs Maryland decided judicially 40 yrs before TX was spared from damage for the most part only EAST was effected and cotton trade demolished Constitution of 1866 South was punished enough Lincoln assassination effected the idea Johnson South brought back in only thing was new const had to be written with slavery being illegal these banned slavery before the country voted 1866 congressional elections of radical reconstructionists republicans derailed peaceful bringing back in of the South Forbids slavery but this constitution never really went into effect Constitutional History Reconstruction Constitution of 1869 1866 constitution never went into effect radical republicans forced unpopular const on the states Governor with strong exec powers legislature that meets year round judicial is appointed People in TX didn t like the appointed judiciary thing Punished TX and made them apologize for Civil War paid taxes to support Rad Republicans