Political machine
|
In this 1899 cartoon from Puck, all New York City politics revolves around boss Richard Croker |
A
political machine is an unofficial system of
political organization based on
patronage, the
spoils system, "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a
representative democracy. Machines sometimes have a boss, and always have a long-term corps of dedicated workers who depend on the patronage generated by government contracts and jobs. Machine politics has existed in many
United States cities, especially between about
1875 and
1950, but continuing in some cases down to the present day. It is also common (under the name
clientelism or
political clientelism) in
Latin America, especially in rural areas. Japan's
Liberal Democratic Party is often cited as another political machine, maintaining power in
suburban and
rural areas through its control of farm bureaus and road construction agencies.
The key to a political machine is patronage: holding public office implies the ability to do favors (and also the ability to profit from
graft). Political machines generally steer away from issues-based politics, favoring a
quid pro quo with certain aspects of a
barter economy or
gift economy: the patron or "
boss" does favors for the constituents, who then vote as they are told to. Sometimes this system of favors is supplemented by threats of violence or harassment toward those who attempt to step outside of it. [
1]
In the United States in the late
19th and early
20th century, it was mainly the larger cities that had machines —
Boston,
Chicago,
Cleveland,
New York City,
Philadelphia, etc. — and each city's machine was run by a "boss," a man who had the allegiance of elected officials and who knew the buttons to push to get things done.
Many machines formed in cities to serve
immigrants to the U.S. in the late nineteenth century; the immigrants were unfamiliar with the sense of civic duty that was part of
American republicanism. They traded votes for jobs and inside favors from judges, policemen, and city inspectors. Some bosses were ruthless in their endeavor to retain power. The main role of the machine staffers was to win elections--usually by turning out large numbers of voters on election day. Occasionally illegal tactics were used in local elections (but rarely in state or presidential elections).
Civic minded citizens, such as the
Mugwumps, denounced the corruption of the political machines. They achieved national civil service reform and worked to move local patronage systems to civil service, By
Theodore Roosevelt's time, the
Progressive Era mobilized millions of civic minded citiens to fight the machines. In the 1930s the
WPA nationalized many of the job benefits machines provided. The
New Deal allowed the machines to recruit for the WPA and
CCC, but when those agencies were abolished in 1943 the machines suddenly lost much of their patronage. In any case the poor immigrants had become assimilated and prosperous and no longer needed the informal or extralegal aides provided by machines. In the 1940s most of the big city machines collapsed, with the notable exception of
Chicago. A local political machine in
Tennessee was forcibly removed in what was known as the
Battle of Athens.
In the 1960s, historians have reevaluated political machines, considering them corrupt but also efficient. If machines were undemocratic, they were at least responsive. If they were corrupt, at least they were able to contain the spending demands of special interests. In
Mayors and Money, a comparison of municipal government in Chicago and New York,
Ester R. Fuchs credited the
Chicago Democratic Machine with giving Mayor
Richard J. Daley the political power to deny
unions contracts that the city could not afford and to make the state assume burdensome costs like
welfare and courts. Describing New York, Fuchs wrote, "New York got reform, but it never got good government."
State Bosses
*
Thomas C. Platt of
New York*
Harry F. Byrd of
Virginia*
Robert M. La Follette, Sr. of
Wisconsin*
Huey P. Long of
Louisiana*
Matthew Quay of
PennsylvaniaCounty Bosses
*
Daniel P. O'Connell of
Albany County,
New York*
Leander Perez of
Plaquemines Parish,
Louisiana*
George Norcross of
Camden County,
New Jersey*
George Parr of
Duval County,
Texas* Since
Richard J. Daley was simultaneously head of the
Cook County Democratic Central Committee for all of his reign as mayor of
Chicago, some might also classify him as a county boss.
City Bosses
*
A.A. Ames of
Minneapolis*
Martin Behrman of
New Orleans*
"Blind Boss" Buckley of
San Francisco*
Edward R. Butler of
St. Louis*
George Cox of
Cincinnati*
Edward H. Crump of
Memphis*
James Michael Curley of
Boston*
Richard J. Daley of
Chicago*
William Flinn of
Pittsburgh*
Frank Hague of
Jersey City*
Tom L. Johnson of
Cleveland, Ohio*
Robert E. McKisson of
Cleveland*
Tom Pendergast of
Kansas City*
Abe Ruef of
San Francisco*
William Tweed of
New York City*
Charles Walker of
Augusta* Some material about the general structure of a clientelist system was drawn from the Spanish-language Wikipedia article
:es:Clientelismo polÃtico, version dating from 21:18, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC).
* Phillip Keefer,
World Bank, 15 May 2005, Policy Research Working Paper no. WPS3594,
Democratization and clientelism: why are young democracies badly governed?* John M. Allswang,
Bosses, Machines, and Urban Voters (1986)
* Erie, Steven P.
Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840â€"1985 (1988).
* Finegold, Kenneth.
Experts and Politicians: Reform Challenges to Machine Politics in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago (1995) on Progressive Era
* Harold F. Gosnell;
Boss Platt and His New York Machine: A Study of the Political Leadership of Thomas C. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Others. (1924)
* Harold F. Gosnell;
Machine Politics: Chicago Model (1937)
* Kaufman, Robert R. "The Patron-Client Concept and Macro-Politics: Prospects and Problems"
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jun., 1974) , pp. 284-308
* Mandelbaum, Seymour J.
Boss Tweed's New York (1965) (ISBN 0471566527)
* Samuel P. Orth;
The Boss and the Machine: A Chronicle of the Politicians and Party Organization (1919), short survey
* M. Ostrogorski;
Democracy and the Party System in the United States (1910)
* William Riordan,
Plunkett of Tammany Hall (1963) 1915 memoir of New York City ward boss
* Scott, James C. "Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change"
American Political Science Review, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Dec., 1969) , pp. 1142-1158
* Stave, Bruce M. and Sondra Astor Stave, eds.,
Urban Bosses, Machines, and Progressive Reformers (1984).
* Stave, Bruce M. , John M. Allswang, Terrence J. McDonald, Jon C. Teaford. "A Reassessment of the Urban Political Boss: An Exchange of Views"
History Teacher, Vol. 21, No. 3 (May, 1988) , pp. 293-312
* Steffens, Lincoln.
The Shame of the Cities (1904) muckraking expose of machines in major cities
* Harold B. Zink;
City Bosses in the United States: A Study of Twenty Municipal Bosses (1930)
*
Bruce Stave, "Urban Bosses and Machine Politics" in The Reader's Companion to American History
