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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Texas Constitution

Decent Essays

The creation of the Texas constitution took many tries and many years to get the current version we have. Just like the United States Constitution, the current Texas constitution has many strengths along with many weaknesses. A constitution is supposed to be brief, give general principles, create a government framework, and give authority to specific institutions. Although the Texas Constitution has some positives, it is almost the complete opposite of what a constitution should be. Although there are many weaknesses to the Texas constitution, there are also strengths present, for it has been governing a state for almost 150 years. Just like the United States Constitution, the Texas government has three branches and a system of checks and balances to ensure that no branch becomes too powerful. Each branch must give consent to the other two on any issue, and this is a positive because it ensures that the branches will stay equal and no branch will run away and take the state out of a democracy. Another positive is that the government …show more content…

The Texas Constitution is definitely not this. It is 93,000 words with 483 amendments, and this number is continually growing. With this many words, it is obvious that the document goes into detail and is restrictive to the changing state. For example, instead of allowing the salary of members of the senate to grow with the economy, it is set at $7,200 per year. Back in the years that the constitution was written, this was an acceptable salary, if not a large one. But due to the restrictions in the Constitution, the state is not able to adapt to change as it should be able to. Salaries are not the only changes that are being hindered by the constitution. Texas started out as a rural frontier, but now it is an urban state. The current constitution is counterproductive to the current condition of the state, which causes the numerous amendments being added to

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