Political machine

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. ^*

Political machines in the United States

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.

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."

Today, such smaller communities as Parma, Ohio, Freeport, New York, and especially communities in the Deep South, where small-town machine politics are relatively common, also feature what might be classified as political machines, although these organizations do not have the power and influence of the larger boss networks listed in this article.

Notable "Bosses" and their political machines

State Bosses

County 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

City Bosses

External links

Bruce Stave, "Urban Bosses and Machine Politics" in The Reader's Companion to American History]

References

Some material about the general structure of a clientelist system was drawn from the Spanish-language Wikipedia article es:Clientelismo político, version dating from 21:18, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC).
Phillip Keefer, World Bank, 15 May 2005, Policy Research Working Paper no. WPS3594, Democratization and clientelismcitizens: why are young democracies badly governed?

Corruption

Klientelismus | Clientelismo político | Clientélisme | Cliëntelisme

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