Making Modern Florida

Making Modern Florida PDF Author: Mary E. Adkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813062853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Adkins portrays a major turning point in the development of modern Florida and has done a great job of bringing to life so many of the people who achieved this massive rewrite of our constitution."--Talbot D'Alemberte, former president of the American Bar Association and author of The Florida State Constitution "Deftly captures the story of the politics and powerful personalities who created a more modern government structure for Florida."--Neil Skene, former editor and president of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Mid-twentieth-century Florida was a state in flux. Changes exemplified by rapidly burgeoning cities and suburbs, the growth of the Kennedy Space Center during the space race, and the impending construction of Walt Disney World overwhelmed the outdated 1885 constitution. A small group of rural legislators known as the "Pork Chop Gang" controlled the state and thwarted several attempts to modernize the constitution. Through court-imposed redistribution of legislators and the hard work of state leaders, however, the executive branch was reorganized and the constitution was modernized. In Making Modern Florida, Mary Adkins goes behind the scenes to examine the history and impact of the 1966-68 revision of the Florida state constitution. With storytelling flair, Adkins uses interviews and detailed analysis of speeches and transcripts to vividly capture the moves, gambits, and backroom moments necessary to create and introduce a new state constitution. This carefully researched account brings to light the constitutional debates and political processes in the growth to maturity of what is now the nation's third largest state.

Making Modern Florida

Making Modern Florida PDF Author: Mary E. Adkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813062853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Adkins portrays a major turning point in the development of modern Florida and has done a great job of bringing to life so many of the people who achieved this massive rewrite of our constitution."--Talbot D'Alemberte, former president of the American Bar Association and author of The Florida State Constitution "Deftly captures the story of the politics and powerful personalities who created a more modern government structure for Florida."--Neil Skene, former editor and president of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Mid-twentieth-century Florida was a state in flux. Changes exemplified by rapidly burgeoning cities and suburbs, the growth of the Kennedy Space Center during the space race, and the impending construction of Walt Disney World overwhelmed the outdated 1885 constitution. A small group of rural legislators known as the "Pork Chop Gang" controlled the state and thwarted several attempts to modernize the constitution. Through court-imposed redistribution of legislators and the hard work of state leaders, however, the executive branch was reorganized and the constitution was modernized. In Making Modern Florida, Mary Adkins goes behind the scenes to examine the history and impact of the 1966-68 revision of the Florida state constitution. With storytelling flair, Adkins uses interviews and detailed analysis of speeches and transcripts to vividly capture the moves, gambits, and backroom moments necessary to create and introduce a new state constitution. This carefully researched account brings to light the constitutional debates and political processes in the growth to maturity of what is now the nation's third largest state.

Government Information Locator Service

Government Information Locator Service PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Information storage and retrieval systems
Languages : en
Pages : 2

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Book Description


The Failure of Term Limits in Florida

The Failure of Term Limits in Florida PDF Author: Kathryn A. DePalo
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813055105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
In 1992, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state’s Constitution creating eight-year term limits for legislators—making Florida the second-largest state, after California, to implement such a law. Eight years later, sixty-eight term-limited senators and representatives were forced to retire, and the state saw the highest number of freshman legislators since the first legislative session in 1845. Proponents view term limits as part of a battle against the rising political class and argue that limits will foster a more honest and creative body with ideal “citizen” legislators. However, in this comprehensive twenty-year study, the first of its kind to examine the effects of term limits in Florida, Kathryn DePalo shows nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, these limits created a more powerful governor, legislative staffers, and lobbyists. Because incumbency is now certain, leadership races—especially for Speaker—are sometimes completed before members have even cast a single vote. Furthermore, legislators rarely leave public office; they simply return to local offices, where they continue to exert influence. The Failure of Term Limits in Florida is a tour de force examination of the unintended and surprising consequences of the new incumbency advantage in the Sunshine State.

Government and Politics in Florida

Government and Politics in Florida PDF Author: J. Edwin Benton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813031705
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
For more than fifteen years, Government and Politics in Florida has been the only book to offer authoritative information on the operations of government and nuances of politics in the Sunshine State. Published in two editions (1991 and 1998) under the editorship of Robert Huckshorn, the book has consistently featured contributions by Florida's most well-known and respected political scientists. Now edited by Edwin Benton, the third edition retains all of the chapters from the previous edition--though all have been revised and many rewritten by new authors. There are also entirely new chapters on the critical policy areas of education, public welfare, and health care, and one on intergovernmental relations. A chapter in the second edition on public opinion and interest groups has been divided into two chapters, one focusing on political culture and political attitudes, the other focusing on interest groups. A final, concluding chapter ties together the volume and speculates about the future of government and politics in Florida. From executive branch to legislature, from the court system to political parties, there is no other book that serves as a better introductory text for courses on Florida government.

Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents, and Survivors

Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents, and Survivors PDF Author: The US Department of Veterans Affairs
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510744266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
An official, up-to-date government manual that covers everything from VA life insurance to survivor benefits. Veterans of the United States armed forces may be eligible for a broad range of benefits and services provided by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). If you’re looking for information on these benefits and services, look no further than the newest edition of Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents, and Survivors. The VA operates the nation’s largest health-care system, with more than 1,700 care sites available across the country. These sites include hospitals, community clinics, readjustment counseling centers, and more. In this book, those who have honorably served in the active military, naval, or air service will learn about the services offered at these sites, basic eligibility for health care, and more. Helpful topics described in depth throughout these pages for veterans, their dependents, and their survivors include: Vocational rehabilitation and employment VA pensions Home loan guaranty Burial and memorial benefits Transition assistance Dependents and survivors health care and benefits Military medals and records And more

Finding Florida

Finding Florida PDF Author: T. D. Allman
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802120768
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
Offers a comprehensive look at the history of the state of Florida, from its discovery, exploration, and settlement through its becoming a state, to notable events in the early twenty-first century.

How Florida Happened

How Florida Happened PDF Author: Buddy MacKay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
A political biography of Kenneth "Buddy" MacKay who served as a Florida legislator, member of Congress, and lieutenant governor to the late Lawton Chiles.

Florida's Minority Trailblazers

Florida's Minority Trailblazers PDF Author: Susan A. MacManus
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813062938
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This collection examines the motivation and stories of minority leaders elected to political office in Florida by employing standard interview questions and material from biographies, newspaper articles and academic studies.

Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams

Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams PDF Author: Gary R Mormino
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813047048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
Florida is a story of astonishing growth, a state swelling from 500,000 residents at the outset of the 20th century to some 16 million at the end. As recently as mid-century, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Florida was the smallest state in the South. At the dawn of the millennium, it is the fourth largest in the country, a megastate that was among those introducing new words into the American vernacular: space coast, climate control, growth management, retirement community, theme park, edge cities, shopping mall, boomburbs, beach renourishment, Interstate, and Internet. Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams attempts to understand the firestorm of change that erupted into modern Florida by examining the great social, cultural, and economic forces driving its transformation. Gary Mormino ranges far and wide across the landscape and boundaries of a place that is at once America's southernmost state and the northernmost outpost of the Caribbean. From the capital, Tallahassee--a day's walk from the Georgia border--to Miami--a city distant but tantalizingly close to Cuba and Haiti--Mormino traces the themes of Florida's transformation: the echoes of old Dixie and a vanishing Florida; land booms and tourist empires; revolutions in agriculture, technology, and demographics; the seductions of the beach and the dynamics of a graying population; and the enduring but changing meanings of a dreamstate. Beneath the iconography of popular culture is revealed a complex and complicated social framework that reflects a dizzying passage from New Spain to Old South, New South to Sunbelt.

Reubin O'D. Askew and the Golden Age of Florida Politics

Reubin O'D. Askew and the Golden Age of Florida Politics PDF Author: Martin A. Dyckman
Publisher: Florida Government and Politic
ISBN: 9780813068947
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Inside the reinvention of Florida politics Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction Reubin Askew was swept into the governor's office in 1970 as part of a remarkable wave of progressive politics and legislative reform in Florida. A man of uncompromising principle and independence, he was elected primarily on a platform of tax reform. In the years that followed, Askew led a group of politicians from both parties who sought--and achieved--judicial reform, redistricting, busing and desegregation, the end of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, the Sunshine Amendment, and much more. This period was truly a golden age of Florida politics, and Martin Dyckman's narrative is well written, fast paced, and reads like a novel. Dyckman also reveals how the return of special interests, the rise of partisan politics, unlimited campaign spending, term limits, gerrymandering, and more have eroded the achievements of the Golden Age in subsequent decades.