The Political Machine

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
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
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