Monday, June 4, 2007
Constitution -- Question 8
Answer if your last name starts with the letters T-Z. Many attempts were made to modernize the 1895 constitution, which was cluttered with hundreds of amendments. Nothing substantial happened until the 1970s, when a series of amendments were proposed by the legislature and ratified by voters and then re-ratified by the legislature. (In South Caroline the amendment process is three steps with the legislature taking two of the steps -- that should tell you something about power in this state!) The details of these changes did little to change the overall balance of power that leans in the direction of the legislative branch, though the governor was given the possibility of a second term in office (3 of the 5 since 1981 have been re-elected). Here is your question. Despite all the changes made by amendments, the most important changes were not by amendment. Where did the most significant changes come from and what were they? One final comment from me here: we will have more to say about cabinet government and home rule (both mentioned at the end of the reading) later in the course .
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2 comments:
Ok, I have waited long enough to see if anyone would answer this rather easy question (depite the long comment surrounding the question).
Most significant changes came from actions taken by the national government, in part because the state was unwilling to make changes expanding equality and opportunity on its own. These changes include ending the poll tax, literacy tests, allowing women and 18 year olds to vote, reapportioning legislative districts so that each voter had equal power (for example, you could no longer give a small county just as much power in the state senate as a large population county). Much of this came in the form of US Supreme Court rulings.
One other example not in the reading is the ending of the constitutional prohibition against mixed racial marriages. Long after the state was not allowed to enforce this prohibition (again, because of a Supreme Court ruling), the state finally got around to taking this out of the Constitution in 1998.
During the 20th century significant changes were made to South Carolina’s constitutional system. Perhaps the most significant came, not from internal revisions, but as a result of outside forces, in particular the United States Constitution and federal laws. Some very important changes took place. Women were given the right to vote through the 19th Amendment, poll taxes were made illegal for states, literacy tests were made illegal, and 18-year olds were given the right to vote through the 26th Amendment.
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