Texas Government

Texas political culture and politics have produced a unique constellation of public policies. Some (not surprisingly a fair number of Texans) have held Texas up as a model for the rest of the country citing its robust record in economic growth compared to the rest of the country. Critics have countered that Texas’ public policies are hopelessly mired in the values of an era that has passed, harm many of its most vulnerable citizens, and cannot be a road map to the state’s future success.

What do you think? Discuss with reference to:

(a) Economic and tax policy.

(b) Social services and welfare.

(c) Energy and environmental policy.

Your Platform, and Party Politics: (you have to take both surveys!)

1. Know yourself.  Take these surveys to identify your political leanings:
   1. http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-party-quiz/ (Political party quiz)
   2. http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/  (Ideology quiz)
   3. Submit screenshots of your results (both surveys). Explain your results.  What do they say about you?

https://www.texasgop.org/platform/

https://www.txdemocrats.org/our-party/texas-democratic-party-platform/

Examine your political values and compare them to the expressed values of both parties.  Do your ideas about the role of government, politics, and policy align with one particular party?

description:

• Assignment must be typed in Times New Roman, 12 point font, following MLA formatting and must be submitted as either word doc or PDF.  No other formats will be graded.  (This includes google docs and pages.  I will not grade them.) 
• An MLA guide and example paper may also be found under “Student Resources” in eCampus. 
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• You must follow the directions for full credit.  This includes uploading it to the assignment per the instructions, proper in-text citations, works cited and page requirements.

An important message on paper citations

There are no minimum number of sources required for assignments.  All assignments must be researched and include sources, but how many you use will depend on the individual student.  If you are given sources through an assignment, they must be cited.  If you use other sources, they must be cited too.  You MUST always properly cite your sources.  Failure to cite sources will result in a 0 for plagiarism for the entire assignment.  I won’t grade a paper without sources and in-text citations.  Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are based on research and not your opinion.  You may certainly include your opinion, but only after you’ve fully researched the topic enough to have formed an educated opinion.  All assignments will require proper documentation.  Citations do not count towards your minimum page count.  They are in addition.

• NOTE: Scholarly academic sources are required for every assignment.  This means using peer-reviewed sources ONLY.  If you have questions about what “peer-reviewed” means, see the writing center at NLC.  Wikipedia is NEVER an acceptable source as it is not peer-reviewed.  DON’T USE IT.