Chapter 1: The Political Culture, People, and Economy of Texas

Political Culture

A shared set of values, attitudes, and behaviors about the government and its function.

Traditionalistic Individualistic political culture

Belief that the government should be run by political elites and emphasize traditional values combined with the limited role of the government in economic affairs, giving individuals freedom to pursue their own interests.

One Party Dominance

In this case, Texas being dominated by conservative Republicans for the last 20 years.

Provincialism

A narrow view of the world that is associated with tradition, rural values, and a limited government.

Individualistic Subculture

Limited government intervention that serves for the people to preserve existing social hierarchies and values.

Traditionalism

The want of keeping things the same.

Daniel Elvizar

Developed the political subcultures in the United States.

Privatization of Public Property

Texas gave publicx land away to private individuals for them to cultivate and develop.

Gulf Coastal Plains

The Houston-Galveston area that is characterized by timber production, cotton farming, ports of international trade, oilfields, and vegtable production.

Interior Lowlands

Divides Fort Worth from Dallas that is characterized by an agricultural economy with higher elevation and flat plains and green enregy industries.

Great Plains

North and west around Midland and Odessa, is dominated by ranching and petroleum production but faces water resource challenges with the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Basin and Range Province

Texas’s western most region with mountain ranges and is dominated by cross-border cultural, economic, and population exchanges. This region trades with Mexico and has resources such as mineral deposits, farming, and oil and gas resources.

Cotton & Cattle

One of Texas’s three major waves that generated a big boom during the early to mid 1800s but came with consequences. These consequences included many Texans carrying social dependency through sharecropping, tenant farming, and the crop lein system, which later contributed the the Grange and Populist movements.

Oil

Discovered 1894 but did not have a big boom until the early 1900s. It quickly overtook cotton and cattle industries and forced changes in transportation, industrialization, and urbanization.

Texas Railroad Commission

Originally created to regulate railroads in Texas but not used to regulate the oil and gas industry.

Technology

Texas saw a big boom in technology during the 1990s and currently ranks second in the nation in manufacturing.

NAFTA

Trade agreement with United States, Canada, and Mexico that gradually set to eliminate tariffs and trade barriers but never truly came to it because of concerns regarding immigration and terrorism which made it get replaced by USMCA.

USMCA

Changes in NAFTA that included provisions to protect American workers from low wagers, increase IP protections, and opened up the Canadian dairy and timber markets.

Who are texans?

Texas population has dramatically increased and become more urban and diverse with growing numbers of hispanics, blacks, and asians.

Urbanization

People moving from rural areas to more urban ones. 9/10s of Texans live in urban areas.

Empresario

Individual who promotes, organizes, or helps finance a particular indevor.

White Primary

Primary in which only white people could vote.

Poll Tax

State tax imposed as a requirement for voting.

__ Texans are functionally illiterate

1/3

__ dropout rate in Texas high schools

40%

__ of the _ grduates go to get a higher education

50%, 60%

Of those graduates only __ pass college and get a degree

15%

Majority of Texas education budget goes to _____

zero level classes

Education has increased in price by __

300%

Texas growth rate has never been below __

10%

__ of the top ten cities are in Texas

3

__ of Texas population live in _ of counties

80%, 20%

__ growth in Texas is because of hispanics

95%

All of US is growing in Hispanic people by __ times more

2.5

Unification Point

When family size levels out because things get more expensive and people do not want kids.