Weaknesses and Criticisms of the Constitution of the Texas Constitution of 1876

The United States Constitution was framed so that there would be balance among the three main branches of the United States. These three main branches are the executive branch, the judiciary and the legislative branch. The Texas state constitution on the other hand would is the longest constitution with the most amendments out of all 52 states, mainly because the people, who are in the position to change these constitutions, usually change it to favor, their social groups.


The first problem with the Texas state constitution is the length of the document. The United States constitution is 6500 words and 27 amendments, and yet this document governs the entire nation. Mean while the Texas State Constitution has 98,000 words and 467 amendments since November 2009, and I strongly believe that it will still increase. The amendments keep increasing because of the state power. The method of amending the constitution favors certain parties and the legislator lobby with more money. Long constitution arises because citizens are not bothered to learn their right in law but they just vote for it. Once citizen hit a certain age like say ‘35’, the government, knowing the citizens would not be pay attention to what is being written keeps adding more and more to favor themselves.

A second problem even more alarming, is the length is the detail of the constitution. Excessive details should be left to lesser statutory laws which would be passed by a legislature that would be later signed by the government. An example of a detailed part of the Texas Constitution is: “college student loan req, public financial institution, admin of water bond, water bond sales, parks administration, building commission req, municipal retirement systems, road construction, tax rates….” And so on, and so forth.

Finally there is the problem of the fragmented executive branch. The Governor, does not have control over other state authorities, instead, he shares authority with them. It is also the same issue at the county level.