Texas Politics and Public Policy: Yesterday and Today is designed as a supplement for students in Texas government classes at the community college and university levels. Like any good supplement, this volume seeks to provide material that while paralleling the text in important ways, provides access to topics and subject matter that may not be typically covered in the standard text, or that of necessity are covered in an abbreviated or summary matter. Some of our chapters cover themes that would rarely be found in either texts or supplemental readers. As the reader will see below, for example, one chapter addresses different alternative histories, or “what might have been” for the Lone Star State. Other chapters cover important areas of public policy that in many textbooks are relegated to short summaries in a single chapter. We are proud of the second edition of Texas Politics and Public Policy: Yesterday and Today and believe it will be a significant benefit to instructors and students. Below we briefly provide a basic roadmap to the reader and describe the basic contours of the book and the specific chapters.
Texas Politics and Public Policy is organized into five parts:
Let us take each in turn.
The first chapter in Part 1 by Joan Mortensen, “Texas History: Rulers and Revolutionaries,” addresses the origins of Texas and its’ complex history. Many of us are aware of the Six Flags Amusement Park in Arlington, Texas, and the six flags that fly over the park. Many of us may also know in the Capitol Rotunda in Austin, those same six flags appear on the floor. Those flags, of course, each represent the nations that had at one time or another held political control over the geographical area now known as Texas. They include Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, when Texas for a brief period of time was an independent nation, the United States, and the Confederate States of America. But even that brief cataloging of nations does not capture the true complexity and richness of Texas culture. But, what do they represent? Professor Mortensen tells an interesting story about the history of Texas and how those six flags each represents a fascinating window into the history and politics of our state.
The second contribution by Maria Elena Labastida, Adrienne Gathman and Euel Elliott addresses other historical issues, but from a rather different angle. “What If Texas Had Never Joined the Union” draws its inspiration from a rich literature in the alternative history literature. Alternative history is a thriving area of literature and cinema. “What If. . .” addresses the question of what would have happened if Texas had never joined the union, which in fact it did, in, 1845, after some nine years of independence from Mexico. We suggest there are many viable alternative outcomes that could have occurred. Texas independence from Mexico and its’ eventually becoming a state were not necessarily a given. Events could have played out so that Texas never broke away from Mexico, and, even if it had done so, might have remained an independent nation. This chapter explores those possibilities.
Part 2 begins with Tom Tunstall’s chapter, entitled “The Changing Face of Texas: The Demographics and Political Economy of the Lone Star State," explores the broad historical trends in demographics and the shifting balance of economic forces in the state. Tunstall explores the single most important demographic shift in Texas, that being the vast increase in the Hispanic population over the past century, but explores other demographic changes as well, particularly the tectonic shift seen in the last 50 years from Texas as a primarily rural to suburban and urban society. It also goes without saying that Texas, historically known for its cattle ranching and oil and natural gas industry, has developed a highly diverse economic foundation to go along with the aforementioned demographic changes. These changes include biotechnology and telecommunications. Importantly, even within more traditional industries such as oil and natural gas, dramatically new technologies such as the breakthroughs in shale technology such as hydraulic fracturing have reenergized what were thought to be old and declining industries.
Federalism is a fundamental feature of the American political system. More specifically, it describes the division of powers between the national government in Washington, on the one hand, and the individual states, on the other hand. However, there has never been precise agreement as to what constitutes the exact contours of that relationship. This chapter, entitled “Friend, Foe, or Something in Between? Texas, the National Government and Federalism” authored by Euel Elliott, Doug Goodman and Alisha Kim, looks at federalism through the perspective of Texas.
Part 3 covers political participation. There are different ways of participating in the political process. Althought, voting in elections is one way, interest group involvement in politics is another crucial feature of democratic politics. Marcus Sianan and Euel Elliott explore the former in the chapter on elections in Texas, entitled the “Trends in Texas Voting and Elections: Partisan Change in Texas, 1836-2020.” This chapter emphasizes the historical dominance of the Democratic Party and its replacement overtime as the clear majority party by the Republicans. The most recent electoral developments in 2016 and 2020 are also explored.
Another way in which citizens, and even non-citizens can participate in politics is through interest group involvement. There are two common views held by Americans in general, and Texans, about the role of interest groups in politics. On the one hand, they view them as being an important and indeed integral part of the political process. Clearly, the constitution protects the rights of individuals to organize to lobby for some collective aim. On the other hand, there is deep distrust of interest groups and the influence that they are often claimed to possess. The public is concerned about the ability of interest groups to bring large amounts of money to bear in seeking to influence the political process and political outcomes. The chapter by Corey Carr and Iliyan Iliyev, “Chapter 6: Big Groups, Big Money: Interest Groups in Texas” examines the role of interest groups, and in particular, looks at the sometimes colorful history of interest groups in Texas politics.
Part 4 explains Texas political institutions and examines the Texas Constitution, the legislature, the executive bureaucracy and the courts. No reader in Texas politics and public policy would be complete without a chapter on the Texas Constitution. Like so many aspects of Texas, its politics and culture, the Texas constitution is indeed a “little different." This is in large part because of the relative ease with which the Texas Constitution can be amended, the details of which can be easily found in any textbook. Areas of public policy that would, in most states, be addressed through statute or law making, is dealt with through the constitutional amendment route. And, of course, Texas has a vast number of amendments as part of its’ constitution. Ryan Lux’s essay, “Evolution of the Texas Constitution,” offers a brief historical excursion, describing the Texas Constitution of 1876 that is still the basic document under which we live today. But the chapter also provides a lively analysis of constitutional amendments that have been enacted in recent years.
The chapter by Patrick Larue entitled, “Legislation, Legislatures and Executives” examines the dynamics and processes of the Texas legislature and the basics of how a bill becomes law. This chapter does an excellent job in introducing the student to the dominant political institution in the state of Texas while also providing useful case studies.
Paul Battaglio andHolly Miori explore in their chapter, “The Study of Bureaucracy in Texas," the role of the executive including the governor and other elected officials and its interactions with the bureaucracy, or the administrative state as it is often called. Bureaucracies exist at every level of government, from the national government to the states, and all the way to city and county governmental institutions. The Battaglio and Miori chapter calls attention to the powers and influences of the various critical entities of the administrative state in Texas. Texas is unique to many other states due to its decentralized bureaucracy and a large plural executive.
Judicial institutions are a critical feature of democratic government. The court and the judicial system are charged with applying the laws in what is hopefully a fair and impartial manner. Although we tend to think of the court system as it applies to dramatic, high-visibility trials and legal conflicts, the process of day-to-day justice is an essential feature of judicial systems everywhere. Barbra Kirby’s chapter, “Neighborhood Justice: The Role of Justice of the Peace Courts in Texas” explores the organization and structure of the Texas court system and the myriad ways in which it can influence our lives. The author places particular emphasis in her discussion of the Justice of the Peace Courts which are such a fundamental aspect of the Texas judiciary.
Texas Politics and Public Policy: Yesterday and Today devotes several chapters to important public policy issues. The chapter by Evgenia Gorina explores the public financing aspect of public policy here in Texas. For example, Texas is one of only handful of states that have no state personal income tax. The absence of an income tax has often been cited as a reason Texas has seen such substantial job growth for the last several years, but it also creates challenges. Professor Gorina’s chapter, “Other People's Money: Financing Public Goods in Texas” analyses Texas’s fiscal policies at the state level and the difficulties local governments have in the states raising revenue since the state does not provide adequate funding options. Much of the tax burden in Texas has shift to local governments with more regressive property and sales taxes.
The chapter by Robert Lowry, “Reading, Writing, and Wrangling: Education Politics and Policy in Texas” explores the political dynamics behind educational policy making, the fight over school financing, the rise of charter schools, and other areas of contention, including school choice, whereby parents would be able to send their children to any school, public or private, and if the latter receive a voucher for such services. And of course, one of the perennial issues in Texas, and elsewhere, has to do with student academic performance. Ever since the publication in 1983 of A Nation at Risk, Texas and the nation have dealt with the quandary of what to do about the substandard performance of so many students in Texas schools, combined with the reality of increased funding and political engagement. Lowry ably explores the contours of this debate.
Issues of criminal justice are becoming an increasingly important theme both at the national level as well as here in Texas. Historically Texas has adopted a relatively punitive approach to the matters of crime and punishment compared to other states. The chapter by Jennifer LaPrade and John Worrall, “The Ultimate Price: The Evolution of the Death Penalty in Texas” examines the evolution of criminal justice policies in Texas including the historical evolution of the death penalty.
We know that Texas is an interesting case study of a land rich in certain natural resources such as oil and natural gas, and one cannot even begin to tell the story of Texas without talking about how these resources that help drive the modern-day economy have helped shape the Texas of today. But Texas is changing both in terms of the way it produces energy, and, relatedly, in response to environmental concerns. Robert Forbis and James Newman provide important insights into Texas energy and conservation policy in their chapter “Lone Star State-of-Mind: Texas Energy and Environmental Politics.” As the authors note, for example, wind and solar energy are becoming an increasingly important element of the Texas energy mix, and in doing so has implications for greenhouse gas emissions.
Health policy is another area of social policy that engenders intense political conflict. For example, Texas is one of several states that, following passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, refused to expand Medicaid coverage, nor did it provide, as part of the ACA, for a state-based insurance exchange to be established through which individuals who qualified could purchase often-subsidized health insurance. Although the chapter by Richard Scotch and Kara Sutton, entitled ‘The Health of Texas: Health care Policy in a Conservative State,” does not focus exclusively on the implications wrought by the ACA, it does delve into the effect on health care provision of Texas’s conservative approach to health care.
Another important area of public policy involves the contentious issue of immigration. The chapter by Bobby Alexander entitled “Contested Texas Immigration Policy in Economic and Political Context” explores the extremely topical issue of immigration, a topic at the heart of recent presidential election campaign, and a source of political conflict in Texas. Alexander’s chapter looks at immigration from a sociological perspective and examining both the necessity for immigration and immigrants in the Texas economy as well as the strains brought to bear on the state’s finances.
Texas Politics and Public Policy: Yesterday and Today should be an invaluable resource for students and instructors in Texas government, history, and public policy, and will be an invaluable aid in helping us all understand and appreciate the forces that have shaped the Texas of today and that will shape the Texas of tomorrow.
Bobby C. Alexander, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Texas at Dallas. He focuses his research on U.S. immigrants’ religious organizations and ways in which they appropriate opportunities, resources, and networks they make available there to participate more fully in the country’s social institutions and, in the process, integrate into U.S. society. He teaches courses on immigrants and immigration in U.S. society and other courses – U.S. Immigration Policy, Religions in Global Societies, Research Workshop in Applied Sociology, included – that engage students in research on immigrants and advocacy through related policy.
Dr. R. Paul Battaglio, Jr. is Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Battaglio’s research interests include public human resource management, organization theory and behavior, public and nonprofit management, comparative public policy, and research methods. Dr. Battaglio is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Public Personnel Administration and the author of “Public Human Resource Management: Strategies and Practices in the 21st Century,” (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2014). Beginning January 2018, Dr. Battaglio will be the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Public Administration Review.
Euel Elliott is Professor of Political Science, and Public Policy and Political Economy, in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. Professor Elliott also serves as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the School of EPPS.
Robert Forbis is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Tech University. He received Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Utah (2010). Dr. Forbis is a former research affiliate of the Idaho National Laboratory's Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES). He is currently a research affiliate with Texas Tech University's Climate Science Center (CSC) as well as the Department of Interior (DOI) U.S. Geological Survey's National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center's (NCC-WSC) South Central Regional Climate Science Center (SC-CSC). His research interests primarily concern Environmental Politics and Policy with emphasis on the policy nexus of environmental protection and energy development.
Adrienne Gathman is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Dallas and a graduate of Drake University Law School where she received her Juris Doctor Degree. Her research interests include state politics and divided government.
Doug Goodman is a former Professor of Public Administration in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas Dallas. Professor Goodman also served as program head for programs in public and nonprofit management in the School of EPPS.
Evgenia Gorina is an Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research in applied public finance focuses on state and local government fiscal health, revenue structure, and retirement obligation management. She can be reached at egorina@utdallas.edu.
Iliyan R. Iliev is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2014. His research and teaching interests include American Government, Political Parties and Interest Groups, Politics and Business, as well as State and Local Politics. More specifically, his work examines the role of money in the political processes.
Alisha Kim is a Research Assistant and Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy and Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. She completed her undergraduate and masters studies at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include domestic and international interstate interactions and natural resource cooperation and conflict.
Dr. Barbara Kirby received her Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University. She practiced law for over 20 years, primarily as in-house counsel for the finance division of Xerox Corporation. After leaving the practice of law, Barbara obtained her PhD in Political Science from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she focused on the study of legal institutions. Dr. Kirby is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Paralegal Studies at Texas Wesleyan University, where she teaches a variety of courses including Legal Ethics and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Maria Elena Labastida de Tovar is a researcher and professor at the School Economics and Business, Anáhuac University, Mexico City, Mexico. She has authored or co-authored numerous papers addressing issues of public policy and political economy.
Jennifer LaPrade is a doctoral student in the Department of Criminology at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her research interests include corrections, crimes against women, and law and courts.
Patrick F. Larue is a Visiting Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. His research interests are in comparative institutions, political violence and terrorism, and methods. He currently teaches courses on State and Local politics, American Government, and research-specific courses, and actively participates in local politics in the North Texas region.
Robert Lowry is Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. He teaches courses on American public policy and state and local government and politics. His research interests include state fiscal policies, the political economy of higher education, and political and civic organizations.
Ryan Lux is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas - Dallas. He received his Ph.D. from UT Dallas in 2019. His research focuses on federalism and intergovernmental relations, state and local politics, and political science pedagogy. He teaches courses on a wide variety of American institutions as well as comparative politics.
Holly Hull Miori is a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Affairs in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research focuses on trends in philanthropy including millennial philanthropy, faith-based fundraising, family foundations, and conscious capitalism. She has a master’s in theological studies from Brite Divinity School at TCU and a Master’s in Public Affairs from UT Dallas.
Joan Mortensen has a Ph.D. in East Asian history from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She has taught humanities and East Asian history classes at the University of Texas at Dallas for over twenty years. She lives in Lucas, Texas and is an avid, amateur Texas historian.
James Newman is Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Southeast Missouri State University and teaches courses in state and local government, research methods and public policy. He has published book chapters discussing the influence of political culture and devolution in water allocation agreements among states. James Newman has a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State University.
Richard K. Scotch is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Scotch’s research interests include social policy reform and social movements in disability, health care, education, and human services.
Marcus Sianan is a doctoral student in political science at the University of Texas at Dallas. He expects to finish his degree in 2022.
Kara Sutton is a Research Associate and Lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas where she teaches courses on applied data analysis and social stratification. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Economy and currently serves as managing director of a policy research firm in Dallas.
Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. is the senior research director at the Institute for Economic Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has published peer-reviewed research, written op-ed articles for the Wall Street Journal, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere and has given a TED Talk on rural community development. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy, and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
John L. Worrall is Professor of Criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has published articles and book chapters on a variety of topics ranging from legal issues in policing to crime measurement. He is also the author of several books, including the popular Crime Control in America: What Works? (4th ed., Pearson). He currently serves as editor of the journal Police Quarterly.
I. The Early Years and "What If..."
1 Texas History: Rulers and Revolutionaries
2 What if Texas Had Never Joined the Union
II. Changing Faces and Changing Rules: Texas' Demographic and Political Evolution Within a Federal System
3 The Changing Face of Texas: The Demographics and Political Economy of the Lone Star State
4 Friend, Foe, or Something in Between? Texas, the National Government and Federalism
III. Political Participation
5 Trends in Texas Voting and Elections: Partisan Change in Texas, 1836-2020
6 Big Groups, Big Money: Interest Groups in Texas
IV. Political Instiutions in Texas
7 Evolution of the Texas Constitution
8 Legislation, Legislatures and Executives
9 The Study of Bureaucracy in Texas
10 The Texas Court System, Justice of the Peace Courts, and Non-Lawyer Judges
V. Public Policymaking in Texas
11 Financing Public Goods in Texas
12 Reading, Writing, and Wrangling: Education Politics and Policy in Texas
13 Criminal Justice in Texas: An Overview and Examination of the Death Penalty
14 Lone Star State-of-Mind: Texas Energy and Environmental Politics
15 The Health of Teas: Health Care Policy in a Conservative State
16 Contested Terrain: Texas Immigration POlicy in Economic and Political Context