Party Machines and Immigrants
The objective of this study is to discuss party machines and immigration from the 19th Century and the methods used to manipulate immigrant votes as reported in the work of Swanstrom (2012) entitled "City Politics" in Chapter 3. Swanstrom writes that the imagery in the "smoke-filled rooms in the back of taverns" as fat politicians who smoked the cigars and passed out "buckets of coal to poor widows" as they made deals has a "sacred place in the lore of American politics." (p.49) While the politician was very committed to those who were loyal to his party at the same time those politicians were self-centered and highly dishonest. The entire syst5em was very much corrupt. Swamstrom writes that the "urban machines were organizations held together by a combination of ethnic identity and partisan loyalty." (p.50) But there were also reported as "hierarchical and disciplined, often controlled by single leader, a 'boss', or a tightly organized clique that shared power." (p.50) This was a democratic system because they worked hard toward mobilization of voters while at the same time preserving "a high degree of independence from outside influences through an internal system of command, coordination and control." (p.50)
Boss rule is reported to have been at its strongest in the 1920s and in 1932 when Franklin D. Roosevelt became president 10 of the largest 30 cities in America were...
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