ABSTRACT
Most analysts agree that the traditional political culture of the South is the foundation of the Texas political culture, but many see elements of Western individualism as well. Others see a changing Texas political culture driven by the state’s dramatic twentieth-century transition from its poor, rural, agricultural past to its more prosperous, urban, industrial, high-tech, and service economy present. Perhaps, but if the Texas political culture has changed, we would expect to see Texas public policy change as well. In fact, Texas public policy has not responded to the evolution of the state. This suggests that the traditional political culture of Texas’s rural past has shaped its urban present much more than most Texans realize or would like to admit.
