1. Introduction to Texas History and Politics
Chapter 1
Introduction to Texas History and Politics

2. Upon completing this chapter, you will be able to…
Demonstrate knowledge of the history, economics, demographics, and political culture of Texas.

3. The Myths of Texas’ Political Culture
Americans have developed a national myth of origin derived from their colonial and revolutionary experiences.
Texans have also developed their own myth of origin rooted in the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto and the era of the Republic

5. Political Myths
Stories used to describe the past providing a common historical or cultural experience
Pervasive in literature, symbols, rituals and popular culture
The relevance of the myth depends, in part, on the degree to which it approximates the events it is describing, its pervasiveness in literature, symbols, rituals and popular culture as well as its ability to affirm the values, customs and beliefs of Texans.

6. The Battle of the Alamo, Percy Moran, 1912

7. Texas’ Political Myths
Texas mythology includes the traditions associated with the frontier and life on it which reinforce the strong individualistic and conservative tendencies among many segments of this state
Cowboys
The Texas Rangers
The dominant mythology has been defined by an “Anglo” majority, but with the expanded numbers of Hispanics and African Americans some redefining is likely in the future.

8. Political Culture
Political culture is defined as a set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments about the scope and role of government
Provides order and meaning
Assumptions and rules that govern behavior of its members
Beliefs about the proper role of government, about its relationship to its citizens and about who should govern
Daniel Elazar provides a framework by which to analyze political culture in the United States.

9. Daniel Elazar’s Framework of Political Culture
Daniel Elazar identified political culture as one reason that different states enact different policies to deal with similar problems.
Elazar identified three political cultures
Individualistic
Moralistic
Traditionalistic
According to Elazar, Texas’ political culture is a combination of Traditionalism and Individualism.
The traditionalistic aspects of state politics are exemplified by the long history of one-party dominance in state politics, the low level of voter turnout, and social and economic conservatism. 
The individualistic nature of state politics can be seen in the support for private business, opposition to big government, and faith in individual initiative.

10. Individualistic Political Culture
The individualistic subculture relies on the marketplace.
Government's role is limited, primarily to keep the marketplace functioning.
Bureaucracy is viewed negatively because it hinders patronage.
Political competition is partisan.
Elections are oriented toward gaining office and do not deal with issues.
Politicians' motives for running for office are based on material self-interests and to advance themselves professionally.
Corruption is tolerated because politics IS dirty.
View originated in Middle Atlantic states, settled by German and English groups.
Migrated to lower Midwest, Missouri, and western states.
"Government should never get in the way!"

11. Moralistic Political Culture
Opposite of individualistic emphasizing the ‘commonwealth’
Government advances the public interest and is a positive force in the lives of citizens.
Bureaucracy is viewed favorably as a way to achieve the public good.
Politics revolves around issues.
Politicians run for office to advance issues.
Corruption is not tolerated because government service is seen as public service.
It is a citizen's duty to participate in politics.
View was brought to the United States by the Puritans who settled in New England.
Transported across the upper Great Lakes into the Midwest to the Northwest.
Values reinforced by waves of Scandinavian and northern European groups.

12. Traditionalistic Political Culture
Middle ground between individualistic and moralistic.
Government is maintain the existing social and economic hierarchy.
Ambivalent attitude toward the marketplace and the common good.
Bureaucracy is viewed with suspicion because it interferes with personal relationships
Politics is competition between rival factions within the elite rather than between class-based parties.
Politicians come from society's elite.
Politicians have a family obligation to govern.
Ordinary citizens are not expected to participate in politics or even to vote.
View was brought to the United States by people who settled the southern colonies.
Built a plantation-centered agricultural system.
Descendants moved westward through the southern and southwestern states.

15. Ethnic and Racial Composition of Texas 1860-2010

16. The People of Texas: Native Americans
Three small Native American groups
Alabama-Coushatta
Tigua
Kickapoo
Population is less than one-half of 1 percent of the state’s total population
In the early nineteenth century, as the eastern population expanded, conflicts ensued, and most of the Native American population was eventually eliminated or displaced to other states.
In recent years, Native American tribes have been in conflict with the Texas government over federal and state laws dealing with gambling casinos on tribal reservations.
Tejas (Texas) reflects and refers to the Native American tribes living in Texas.
Tejas means allies or friends.
Tejas is the geographic area that became known as the word Texas.

17. The People of Texas: Hispanics
Prior to the Texas Revolution, Texas was part of Mexico. Although the territory was sparsely populated, the Hispanic population was the dominant group. Both Spain and Mexico regarded Texas as a buffer between Mexico and the westward-expanding United States.
The rapid migration of Anglo populations from the United States in the 1820s quickly reduced the Hispanic population to a small minority of the area’s total population.
By 1887, the Hispanic population had declined to approximately 4% of the state’s population.
In 1930, it was 12% and was concentrated in the border counties from Brownsville to El Paso.
By 1970, the Hispanic population reached 18% of the state’s population, and in 1990 it had reached 25% due largely to immigration from Mexico and other Latin American countries and higher birth rates among Hispanic women.
By 2040, Hispanics are expected to comprise over 50% of Texas’ population

18. The People of Texas: African Americans
The African American political experience in Texas must be understood, in part, from the perspective of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
African Americans were brought to the state as slaves, emancipated with the termination of the Civil War but subjected to economic and political discrimination for much of the state’s history.
During the Civil War, African Americans comprised 30% of the state’s population, but this proportion has declined significantly, stabilizing at approximately 12% today but with uneven distributions across the state
The African American population is concentrated in the eastern counties of the state and in the large urban areas like Houston and Dallas

19. The People of Texas: Anglos
Anglos are the dominant population in Texas, but the term Anglo, which is not an official census designation, refers to people of different ethnic and national origins.
In the formative period of the state, the Anglo population that settled in Texas originated in the states of the upper and lower South.
These migration patterns explain, in part, the predominance of the individualistic and traditionalistic subcultures in Texas.
Anglos accounted for only 53% of Texas’s population by the year and 45.3%  in 2010 and will continue to decline as a proportion of the state’s overall population.
Depicts an aging population with below-replacement rate fertility patterns
Stability, in large part, is the result of in-migration of Anglos from other states.

20. The People of Texas: Asian Americans
During the 1980s the Asian American population of Texas grew from .8 % to 1.9 % of the state’s population. 
By 2010, this group had grown to 3.8 % of the population and was projected to increase to 4.2 % by 2020.
This rapid growth is a result of changes in national immigration policies and the dislocation of Asians by war and political turmoil, and it matches the growth of the Asian population at the national level.

21. Race & Ethnicity: Implications
More than forty years ago, V. O. Key, a Texan scholar of American politics, concluded that Texas politics was moving from issues of race to issues of class and economics, 
Key argued that voters in Texas “divide along class lines in accord with their class interests as related to liberal and conservative candidates.”
Race and ethnicity are implicit in many contemporary political and policy issues.  
Many state and local elections show evidence of polarized voting along ethnic lines.
Race and ethnicity also emerge in jury selection, employment patterns, and contracts with state and local governments.
Admissions policies of Texas colleges and universities
Affirmative action/discrimination produces new policy
In part, Key was correct that unabashed racial bigotry and public demagoguery are no longer acceptable, but he was much too optimistic. If the state divides on economic issues, this division often puts the majority of Anglos on one side and the majority minorities on the other.

22. The Size and Geography of Texas
Texas is BIG:  261,231 square miles.
If it were a country it would be the 40th largest~
Texas’s size, geographic diversity, and population distributions shape the politics of the state.  
Historically, the size of the state, coupled with crude communication and transportation, resulted in sharp regional differences.
These factors contributed to the economic diversity of the state.
While some local political machines have developed in Texas, these variables have thwarted the development of statewide political machines such as those that emerged in Louisiana and Virginia.
Candidates in statewide campaigns spend millions of dollars to communicate with and mobilize Texas voters.

24. Texas’ Economy
After significant growth rates in the 1970s and early 80s, only Texas was subjected to a series of economic reversals that produced fundamental changes in the state’s economy because of the significant decrease in the importance of oil and gas to the state’s economy.
There was a disastrous pattern of bank and savings and loan failures with consequences for real estate and capital investment and economic problems in Mexico had a disastrous effect on the economies of many of the border counties and cities.
The Texas economy has had its ups and downs, but it is now in much better shape than it was in the 1980s. 

26. Queen of Waco gusher. Spindletop, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and vicinity
Queen of Waco gusher. Spindletop, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and vicinity. Texas oil industry ca

27. Texas’ Economic Regions
One way to make sense of the regional differences in the Texas economy is to break the state into twelve economic regions.
Agriculture is huge in the High Plains Region
The South Texas Border Region which includes some of the poorest counties in the state and nation
The Upper East Texas Region’s predominant industries are agriculture, timber, and food processing but has a significantly lower growth rate, along with a considerably older average population than the rest of the state
All regions are all different in terms of economic recovery, growth, and development.

28. Texas’ Economy The “Great Recession” of 2008 arrived in Texas by 2009.
The state’s economy is undergoing diversification, and the future growth will be in the service industries with little growth in many of the traditional sectors.
New high-tech industries are taking on more importance in this economic transformation.
The state’s economy has been profoundly affected by the global economy with increased dependence on commerce and trade, factors that shall become even more profound with continued use of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The rise of the oil and gas industry has again produced a windfall for Texas’ economy but this has been short-lived

29. Urban vs. Rural Texas
Despite the land mass and the illusion that large parts of the population reside in small towns or on a ranch, over 83% of Texans live in the urbanized areas of the state.
This trend results from higher birth rates among minority populations,
Three of the ten largest cities in the United States are in Texas, and like urban areas throughout the country, minorities increasingly populate Texas’s largest cities.
Population density refers to the number of people per square mile in a specific political jurisdiction. The greater number of people living in close proximity, the greater the number of problems that emerge
Residents in the urban areas encounter problems that cut across political jurisdictions, and local governments sometimes find it difficult to resolve them.
Urban migration patterns, and "white flight" from the cities.

30. Texas’ Largest Cities

31. Urban vs. Rural Texas: Implications
State government and its subdivisions are now forced to deal with the increased demands for public goods and services that an urbanized population requires, and these demands and expectations contribute to policy conflicts over priorities and budgets. This competition is present at the local as well as state levels!

32. Challenges of the 21st Century
Problems for an increasingly urbanized state
Population growth
Transformation of the economy
Increasing demands for services from the government
New Generations Must address:
The role of government in our society
Relationship of people to the government
Responsiveness of government

36. Money and Poverty
There is a wide disparity in the distribution of income among Texans, and this disparity contributes to some of the political conflicts confronting state and local governments.  
The poorest county in America is in Texas
Significant numbers of Texans live below the poverty line and disproportionately, the poor are minorities,  single heads of households, children, and the elderly.
Poverty in Texas is likely to worsen; without significant changes in educational levels and expanded economic opportunities, it is possible that more than 20%of the state’s households will live below the poverty level by 2030.

37. Money and Poverty: Geography

38. Money and Poverty: Race/Ethnicity

39. Poverty and “Indoor Plumbing”

40. Education and Economic Security
Public and secondary education has dominated much of the policy discussions 
Education will be a primary factor in determining whether Texas can successfully compete in a new global economy. 
Education not only helps determine a person’s employment and income potential but also affects his or her participation in politics.
Over the next decade, a large proportion of the new jobs created in Texas will be in service industries, and these jobs will require a higher level of education. 
Few African Americans and even fewer Hispanics complete high school. 
Minorities are less likely than Anglos are to attend or complete college
Texas faces a crisis in public education, and the state’s ability to resolve it will directly affect the financial well-being of many Texans.

41. Educational Attainment: Race/Ethnicity

42. Dr. Steve Murdock Explains “The Texas Challenge”