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Political Machine and Urban Politics
Political machines came about as a result of the poor living conditions amongst the newly immigrated citizens of the cities; this occurred at the beginning of the 1900s. Those immigrants were mostly Irish and had come to the US in search of a better life. What they found was the exact opposite of this.
They lived in poverty and were heavily discriminated against. A different category of politicians took control of this situation and promised the immigrants material rewards if they supported them. That strategy proved to be effective because male suffrage had been extended to naturalized citizens.
The decision led to the birth of political machines which constituted of a party leader who was almost always the mayor, he was then followed by a ward leader who was in charge of precinct captains. These politicians formed deep relationships with voters through social and economic platforms.
They gave them jobs and attended their social functions. At that time, the political machines seemed to be working. When the immigrant populations contributed greatly towards a politicians’ win, then their ward leaders would have a greater number of jobs to distribute to the voters. In other words, they were rewarded for their loyalty through these administrative positions.
Precinct captains would be eligible for promotions if they formed coalitions which external neighborhoods. The political machines therefore assimilated immigrants into society while the immigrants gave the politicians votes. Usually, it was the voters who determined who would become a precinct captain by voting.
The political machines started getting complacent when they became really powerful. Corruption permeated them and they no longer delivered on the promises that had led to their creation i.e. social mobility. Furthermore, these machines were dominated by immigrants of Irish origin despite the fact that other ethnic groups like the Jews and the Italians were also represented in these cities.
The political machines started becoming outdated because it was focusing its efforts on large businesses alone while forgetting the low income earners who had contributed to their success in the first place. In fact, most rewards would be directed to middle class immigrants rather than low class immigrants.
Economic mobility started becoming increasingly limited as these political machines were perceived as being too bureaucratic. They were too focused on that ethnic groups and could not advance the needs of other members of the population. Consequently, they started losing their support.
At that same time, the government started instated social-economic reforms through trade unions and health risk insurance. As if this was not enough, cities became too congested because of a great influx of immigrants. Older immigrants like the Irish started leaving the cities for rural communities and thus eliminated the bulk of supporters of the political machines.
These patronages that had led to their success eventually contributed towards political machinery collapse because the social and economic conditions that fueled the political machines no longer existed.
The National Origins Act and Role of Prohibition in Urban Politics
In the 1920s, greater anti immigration sentiment began growing as more citizens started arguing for a racially pure society. This escalated into the 1924 National Origins Act. Experiences between the 1870 and 1918 led to this act. Trade unions advocated for the act because they believed that immigrants contributed towards low wage conditions.
They were rendering the natives uncompetitive for those jobs thus creating fear in some of them. Industrialization therefore played a crucial role in the passage of the National origins act because Anglo Saxon Americans believed there was a real threat to their well being.
This resurgence in nativism in the cities contributed to legislation that restricted immigrant entry. Growing anti Semitism also contributed towards the passage of these laws. Many felt that Jews were a threat to their economic survival. The nation was controlled by Anglo Saxons through railroads, public utilities and other sectors of the economy.
They needed to maintain their exclusive status by controlling the population of Anglo Saxons. This was the reason why they passed the national origins act. Also, some of them stated that immigrants from eastern and south Europe came to the country when they were already in desperate conditions so most of them could not contribute towards the building of the American economy.
Also, these proponents of the Act claimed that those immigrants were not assimilating successfully into the American culture so they were compromising American identity. The act stated that eastern and southern Europeans could not enter the country if certain limits had been reached; entry of Asians was severely limited. Its effect was that the great numbers of European immigrants who had entered the country previously were severely limited.
While these restrictions minimized the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, they did not reduce the number of immigrants from the western hemisphere. Therefore, immigration numbers in general remained high. They continued well into the economic depression.
These immigrants would reside in cities and their population continued to grow. Meeting their needs became an important priority in city politics as they represented a substantial portion of the urban population. As these populations started increasing, greater resentment towards the immigrants occurred during the great depression.
Immigrants from the western hemisphere were widely responsible for these occurrences because they represented the greatest portion. At the time, the reform movement took shape in these cities because city politics needed to be ceased from the immigrant populations which were perceived as corrupting.
Mass media became a platform for causing change in city politics by bringing control to those who were born in America. Reformers wanted to eliminate the ‘corruption’ of the political institutions that had taken place owing to immigrant domination of city populations and they did. Party controls were minimized and business institutions were dramatically altered.
Work Cited
Judd, Dennis & Swanstrom, Todd. City politics. NY: Longman publishers, 2011
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