Texas Politics: Federal System, Culture, and Diversity

Vocabulary flashcards covering Texas in the federal system, national vs state powers, types of federalism, cultural regions, and civil rights history in Texas.

Unitary System

A system of government where one central government has ultimate authority and regional or local governments are subordinate to it.

Confederal System

A system of government where member states or regional governments hold all authority and central institutions are subordinate to them.

Federal System

A system first formed at the 1787 Constitutional Convention where governmental power is divided and shared between a national government and state or regional governments.

Delegated Powers

Powers given directly to the national government by the U.S. Constitution, categorized into expressed, implied, and inherent powers.

Reserved Powers

Powers that are reserved specifically to the 50 states under the U.S. Constitution.

Concurrent Powers

Powers existing side by side that are shared by both national and state governments, such as levying taxes, borrowing money, establishing courts, and chartering banks.

National, State, and Concurrent Powers

The constitutional distribution of authority dividing exclusive national powers, shared concurrent powers, and reserved state powers.

Supremacy Clause

A constitutional provision requiring that federal law must be followed whenever a conflict arises between state and national laws.

Tenth Amendment

An amendment stating that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Commerce Clause

A constitutional clause giving Congress the power to regulate international and interstate commerce.

Necessary and Proper Clause

A constitutional provision giving Congress implied powers necessary to execute its delegated duties.

McCulloch v. Maryland

A landmark court decision that expanded the power of Congress and affirmed its authority to create a national bank under the necessary and proper clause.

Dual Federalism

An early view of federalism where national and state governments are each sovereign within their sphere, equal, and maintained in a relationship of tension.

Cooperative Federalism

A model of federalism replacing dual federalism where national and state governments function as mutually complementary parts of a single government mechanism.

Categorical Grants

Specific federal grant-in-aid programs developed during the New Deal era to support designated state policy areas.

Block Grants

The predominant form of federal aid today, offering states funding with broader flexibility in implementation.

Devolution

The practice or concept of transferring power and administrative authority from the federal government back to the states.

Coercive Federalism

A dynamic where the national government directs state policy choices through mandated requirements, such as speed limit laws or legal drinking ages.

Unfunded Mandates

Legal obligations imposed on state governments by the federal government with little or no federal funding provided to fulfill them.

Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Federal healthcare legislation that Texas opposed and opted out of expanding Medicaid due to long-term state budgetary requirements.

U.S. Military Bases in Texas

An indirect federal benefit giving Texas the third largest active-duty military presence in the nation, creating local jobs and economic activity.

Political Culture

The collective political values, beliefs, and expectations of a population regarding government authority, services, and public participation, shaped by history and socialization.

Conservatives

Proponents of a political ideology marked by belief in a limited role for government in taxation, economic regulation, and social services, representing 47% of Texans.

Liberals

Proponents of a political ideology marked by advocacy of using government to improve individual welfare and favoring government economic regulation, representing 22% of Texans.

True Independents

Texans who do not identify in any way with either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, making up about 11% of the state's population.

Cultural Regions of Texas

The nine distinct geographical and cultural sub-regions of Texas that possess unique economic, political, and social characteristics.

East Texas

A rural, biracial cultural region serving as a social extension of the Old South, heavily influenced by Fundamentalist Protestantism and wealth from real estate, banking, and timber.

Gulf Coast

An industrial, shipping, and petrochemical hub ushered in by the 1901 Spindletop oil discovery near Beaumont, anchored by Houston as the energy capital.

Ranchero Culture

A quasi-feudal system in South Texas in which a patron (property owner) offers protection and employment in exchange for worker loyalty and service.

Creoles

The economic, social, and political elite in South Texas ranchero culture who descended from Spanish immigrants.

Mestizos

The first Texas cowboys of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage who provided ranch labor within the ranchero culture.

Far West Texas

A bicultural region featuring a large Mexican American population, strong ties to Mexico, and major social influence from the Roman Catholic Church.

German Hill Country

A socially and politically conservative region north and west of San Antonio settled by German, Czech, Polish, and Norwegian immigrants.

West Texas

A region opened to Anglo American settlement following the defeat of the Comanches in the 1870s, characterized by southern Protestant fundamentalism.

The Panhandle

A region in northernmost Texas supported economically by cotton, grains, and livestock feedlots, sharing culture with northern West Texas.

North Texas

A diverse, cosmopolitan region dominated by the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, anchored by banking, insurance, defense, and multinational corporate headquarters.

Central Texas

A triangular region between Houston, DFW, and San Antonio, centered around Austin as an island of liberalism, higher education, high-tech, and government.

Minnie Fisher Cunningham

A Texas leader and champion for women's suffrage whose efforts helped make Texas one of the first southern states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.

Marital Property Act

A landmark legislative act in Texas that granted women equal rights in insurance, banking, real estate, contracts, and property, serving as the first comprehensive family law in the U.S.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

A landmark Supreme Court ruling in which Herman Sweatt successfully integrated Texas public law schools, challenging the separate-but-equal doctrine.