Chapter 2 - The Texas Constitution

Question 1

Constitution

Answer 1

The legal structure of a government, which establishes its power and authority as well as the limits on that power

Question 2

Separation of powers

Answer 2

The division of governmental power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making

Question 3

Checks and balances

Answer 3

The constitutional idea that overlapping power is given todifferent branches of government to limit the concentration of power in any one branch

Question 4

Tyranny

Answer 4

According to James Madison, the concentration of power in any one branch of government

Question 5

Federalism

Answer 5

A system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution, between a central government and regional governments

Question 6

Supremacy clause

Answer 6

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the Constitution and laws passed by the national government and all treaties are the supreme law of the land and superior to all laws adopted by any state or any subdivision

Question 7

Necessary and proper clause

Answer 7

Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution; it provides Congress with the authority to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out its powers

Question 8

Unicameral

Answer 8

Comprising one body or house, as in a one-house legislature

Question 9

Bicameral

Answer 9

Having a legislative assembly composed of two chambers or houses

Question 10

Confederacy

Answer 10

The Confederate States of America, those southern states that seceded from the United States in late 1860 and 1861 and argued that the power of the states was more important than the power of the central government

Question 11

Radical republicans

Answer 11

A block of Republicans in the U.S. Congress who pushed through the adoption of black suffrage as well as an extended period of military occupation of the South following the Civil War

Question 12

Grange

Answer 12

A militant farmers’ movement of the late nineteenth century that fought for improved
conditions for farmers

Question 13

Limited government

Answer 13

A principle of constitutional government; a government whose powers are defined and limited by a constitution

Question 14

Article 1

Answer 14

Bill of Rights

Question 15

Republican government

Answer 15

A representative democracy, a system of government in which power is derived from the people

Question 16

Article 2

Answer 16

The Powers of Government

Question 17

Article 3

Answer 17

Legislative Department

Question 18

Article 4

Answer 18

Executive Department

Question 19

Plural executive

Answer 19

An executive branch in which power is fragmented because the election of statewide officeholders is independent of the election of the governor

Question 20

Article 5

Answer 20

Judicial Department

Question 21

Article 6

Answer 21

Suffrage

Question 22

Article 7

Answer 22

Education

Question 23

Article 8

Answer 23

Taxation and Revenue

Question 24

Article 15

Answer 24

Impeachment

Question 25

Impeachment

Answer 25

Under the Texas Constitution, the formal charge by the House of Representatives that leads to trial in the Senate and possible removal of a state official

Question 26

Article 16

Answer 26

General Provisions

Question 27

Article 17

Answer 27

Amending the Constitution

Question 28

Sharpstown and the Failed Constitutional Reforms of 1974

Answer 28

A drive to rewrite the Texas Constitution grew out of a major stock fraud that broke in the early 1970s, involving the Sharpstown State Bank and the National Bankers Life Insurance Corporation

Question 29

The 1999 Ratliff-Junell Proposal

Answer 29

For the first time since the unsuccessful effort to revise the constitution in the mid-1970s, state senator Bill Ratliff and state representative Rob Junell, both powerhouses in the state legislature, proposed a new constitution for Texas in 1999