Ruth Locke Roettinger Papers
Collection — Box: 1
Identifier: SCU-SCPC-RLR
Eighteen items document Roettinger’s service on the Committee. Included is the Committee’s April 14, 1950, report to the General Assembly, news clippings regarding the report, and a letter from Roettinger dated April 3, 2001, commenting on her service on the Committee.
Her letter notes:
It was evident from the beginning that no revisions of affairs would be recommended. But we met and talked agreeably for two years and when the 14 members filed their report I filed a dissenting opinion.
Her minority report (pp. 50-59) states the revisions…
…do not touch the fundamental problems of government in South Carolina. These are the absence of adequate executive power where it properly belongs, and the possession of power elsewhere in the government without sufficient responsibility…. South Carolina has a government dominated by legislators. Certainly a strong and effective Legislature is desirable. But the pattern of American government is to have the Legislature limited to legislative functions, and balanced by a strong and effective executive and both of them kept in line by an alert judiciary. South Carolina does not have such a government.
Many of Dr. Roettinger’s observations were brought up again during the administration of Governor Carroll Campbell and the restructuring of South Carolina government in 1993.
Her letter notes:
It was evident from the beginning that no revisions of affairs would be recommended. But we met and talked agreeably for two years and when the 14 members filed their report I filed a dissenting opinion.
Her minority report (pp. 50-59) states the revisions…
…do not touch the fundamental problems of government in South Carolina. These are the absence of adequate executive power where it properly belongs, and the possession of power elsewhere in the government without sufficient responsibility…. South Carolina has a government dominated by legislators. Certainly a strong and effective Legislature is desirable. But the pattern of American government is to have the Legislature limited to legislative functions, and balanced by a strong and effective executive and both of them kept in line by an alert judiciary. South Carolina does not have such a government.
Many of Dr. Roettinger’s observations were brought up again during the administration of Governor Carroll Campbell and the restructuring of South Carolina government in 1993.
Dates
- 1948-1951 & 2001
Creator
- Roettinger, Ruth Locke (Person)
Access
Library Use Only
Extent
18 items
Abstract
Ruth Locke Roettinger was a professor of government at Winthrop College in 1949, when a Committee to Study [the] Existing State Constitution was established to study South Carolina's 1895 Constitution and recommend necessary changes. Roettinger was appointed to the committee by Governor Strom Thurmond, and she served as its secretary.
Biographical Note
Ruth Locke Roettinger was a professor of government at Winthrop College in 1949, when a Committee to Study [the] Existing State Constitution was established to study South Carolina’s 1895 Constitution and recommend necessary changes. Roettinger was appointed to the committee by Governor Strom Thurmond, and she served as its secretary.
Provenance
Donated by Dr. Ruth L. Roettinger
Copyright
Copyright of the Ruth L. Roettinger Papers has been transferred to the University of South Carolina
Processing Information
N/A
Creator
- Roettinger, Ruth Locke (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the South Carolina Political Collections Repository
Contact:
Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library
1322 Greene St.
University of South Carolina
Columbia SC 29208 USA
803-777-0577
scpc@mailbox.sc.edu
Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library
1322 Greene St.
University of South Carolina
Columbia SC 29208 USA
803-777-0577
scpc@mailbox.sc.edu
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