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3.6: Key Terms and Concepts

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    Amendment Process. The prescribed manner by which a constitution can be changed. It involves supermajorities by both chambers of the legislature and a simple majority vote by the electorate.

    Black Codes. Laws passed immediately after the end of the Civil War intended to govern the conduct of African Americans.

    Common Law. Originating in Britain, the body of decisions made by judges over several centuries. These form the form the basis of British law in the same way that Castilian Law forms the basis of Spanish Law.

    Consent. The idea that a government's power is only justified and lawful when consented to by the people.

    Frontier Justice. An informal system of punishment in an area that lacks a formal system of law and order.

    Grange. An agricultural organization founded in 1867 to represent the interests of the agrarian sector. They were especially influential in the drafting of the 1876 Texas Constitution.

    Jacksonian democracy. An era of democracy beginning with the presidency of Andrew Jackson. While it retained racial restrictions and the right to own slaves, it promoted the expansion of participation to non-elites, and the design of governing systems that were more readily controlled by the electorate.

    Judicial Review. A process by which executive and legislative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. It I an essential component of checks and balances.

    Plural Executive. An constitutional executive apparatus where power is divided into a variety of offices. The purpose is to limit executive power. In Texas these include the lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, and secretary of state, in addition to the governor

    Radical Republicans. A faction of the Republican Party after the Civil War that sought to punish southern states for the war, and impose racial equality upon them.

    Reconstruction. the period from 1865 to 1877 that attempted to transform southern states prior to their readmission to the union.

    Republican Government. Also known as indirect democracy. It is a type of democracy founded on the principle that elected persons representing a group of people, should pass laws as opposed to direct democracy where people rule themselves.

    Slavery. The state where someone is forbidden to quit their service for another person, and is treated as property.

    Suffrage. The right to vote, also referred to as franchise. A right fully granted to states until the 15th Amendment.

    This page titled 3.6: Key Terms and Concepts is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Andrew Teas, Kevin Jefferies, Mark W. Shomaker, Penny L. Watson, and Terry Gilmour (panOpen) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.