A good way to develop a solid foundation on which to anchor discussions of the Texas political system and the structure, functions, and outputs of our state government is by looking more closely at our state’s constitutions. Eight constitutions have governed Texas. The most recently adopted, the Texas Constitution of 1876, and its over 500 amendments remain the fundamental law for the state of Texas to date. The Texas Constitution of 1876 is, in many ways, the product of a history of distrust of government and a political culture that emphasizes individualism, limited government, and popular sovereignty.
” . . . constitutions invariably reflect history and culture, and state constitutions are no exception. In Texas, history is reflected not only in the content of the constitution, but in the number of constitutions under which the state has been governed.” – Dallas Learning Cloud, Texas Constitutional History
Texas has had a total of eight constitutions, which reflect the socio-political dynamics impacting the state as:
- a territory of Mexico (1824, 1827)
- an independent republic (1836)
- a state in the United States of America (1845)
- a member of the Confederate States of America (1861)
- an occupied military district under Radical Reconstruction (1866, 1869)
- a state in the United States of America [again] (1876)