Urban Politics

After the Civil War the domination of the "political machine" over the affairs of government in the urban cities of the north became an undisputed fact of local politics. Their power flowed from creating a form of government that sought to perpetuate the position of its leaders by engaging in a bartering process with voters. The political machine existed during a time of mass migration to our urban centers from both immigrants and those in search of work. It played upon the ethnic composition of the new electorate, and their focus on obtaining basic necessities such as work, housing and food. Likewise, political machines acted as a facilitator toward businesses who chose to support them. If a business provided financial contributions and control over jobs which would be used as patronage, in return the business would receive contracts, licenses, and municipal approvals which were difficult to obtain from the fragmented governmental authorities which existed during the period. Political machines tended to ignore ideology and instead, focused on the circumstances of their electorate, creating a patronage system that dispensed material benefits, available by virtue of their success at the polls, in exchange for votes.

This acquisition of power by local political machines came at the expense of the more educated and more well to do social elite who had previously controlled the social structures of society. As noted by the sociologist, Robert K. Merton in The Latent Functions of the Machine, A Sociologists View, political machines flourished because they satisfied the desires of a citizenry that were "not legitimately satisfied in the same fashion by the legitimate social structure." Their response to the political machine, which represented their own attempt at reclaiming control over government, was to advocate for a new form of government based on the "public interest." The movement to reform government and remove the system of brokering that dominated the political machine was not only composed of the old social elite. As the historian, Samuel Hay, observed, the reform movement reflected a class based struggle. He noted that few workers, white-collar employees or small business owners were involved in the movement to unseat the political machine. Instead, he found it to be driven by a motivated and growing upper class of professionals, owners of large businesses and the management of evolving mega-corporations. Their desire, stated Hay, was to change government and take power away from the lower and middle class segments of society. They sought to design a system for decision making which was more centralized and capable of control, as opposed to political machines which promoted government with a decentralized system which was to amorphous to be reigned in.

The reformers espoused a philosophy that government should seek to serve the "public interest," with the best personnel, including an experienced manager, administering the technical affairs of local government, in an atmosphere devoid of politics, and utilizing methods of scientific management. While what the "public interest" represented may have been a somewhat amorphous concept, it represented the goals and ideological achievements which government was to seek to obtain on behalf of its citizenry. In all other respects, the reformers sought to operate local government like a business, hiring the most competent personnel, with experienced management, making decisions that were based on a system of logical choices, and hence, more predictable. In short, reformers sought to de-emphasize the power of politically elected officials, such as a mayor, in favor of those more experienced in administering the day to day affairs of government.

While the reform movement did not become an overnight success, with the evolving changes in the make-up of the citizenry, their education, their economic status and their diminishing ethnic identification, the influence of the political machine began to wane. As the nation moved into the twentieth century, there was less immigration into the United States and fewer in the electorate who viewed ethnic identification as an overriding criterion in their voting decisions. Furthermore, the population was becoming more socially mobile, more educated, and more financially secure. They were no longer dependent on the political machine for their jobs and housing, and even those less fortunate who required such assistance, could now turn to the government which had instituted a myriad of welfare programs which were absent in the nineteenth century. The message of the reformers to this newly evolving electorate was an appealing one, and the methodology by which the movement achieved its objective of displacing the political machine could now be imposed.

To reformers, popularly elected officials and their patronage based appointees lacked the skill, training and professionalism to properly manage the affairs of local government. In addition, they opined, administrators who were trained in the fields of accounting, budgeting, engineering, and personnel management were needed to properly operate a city. Accordingly, the reform movement promoted, and with the support of nonpartisan organizations and the electorate, succeeded in having adopted, a merit based civil service system where the most qualified applicants were awarded jobs. Likewise, reformers sought to put decision-making in areas such as such as urban planning in the hands of professionals and non-political actors. With the institution of such a system governing the hiring, appointment