POLS 207 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Party System, Chage And Aska, John Tower
Document Summary
Political group of individuals who organize to: win elections, operate government, determine public policy. Different from an interest group, which does the following: does not seek to operate the government, nor put forth candidates, focuses on issues, political parties tend to blue issue positions. Interest groups just want to influence those wanting to run the government. [1836] prior to joining union texas had no political parties: many people moved to texas to get away from politics, during that time, politics were dominated by sam houston. [1845] entered union as slave state: nationally democrats were for slavery, whigs/republicans were against slavery, texas was sympathetic to democrats. [1866] end of civil war political parties became more important: republican administration of abraham lincoln. Freed slaves: economy and social institutions disrupted, most texans became democrat. [1875] party affiliation reinforced by reactions to reconstruction: texas tried to subvert acts of congress, congress responds by imposing military rule, must rewrite state constitution, governor e. j.