Party Machines and Immigrants For more than a century, party machines dominated the political process in many parts of the United States where William "Boss" Tweed and his Tammany Hall henchmen and their ilk controlled the outcomes of elections in many major American cities by manipulating the immigrant vote. Although these political figures were eventually displaced by other politicians, they left a legacy of corruption, back-scratching and double-dealings that persists to

Political Party Machines and Immigration in 19th Century America After a bitterly contested Revolution ended in the liberation of England's former colonies, the fledgling American nation embarked on the precarious path towards a style of democratic governance that had never been enacted on so large a scale. While the latter part of the 18th century was defined by political idealism, as exemplified by contributions made by our nation's Founding Fathers, the

Political Machines: Politics as a Tammany Vocation When Max Weber made a speech on politics as a vocation he defined the political machine as a creation of the modern, pluralistic democratic state. A political machine, unlike a purely charismatic individual leader, was a functional bureaucracy attempted, however imperfectly to serve the popular interest through the use of an institutional framework. A quick-voiced opponent of political corruption might protest the use of

So who is an American and what an America can or cannot do are questions which are critical to the issue of legalizing immigrants. Does being an American mean you cannot show allegiance to any other country? The images of people raising and waving Mexican flag had enraged many but it need not have. It should be accepted that people who come from different countries would forever hold in their

However, she later concedes that this also meant that government leaders were Anglo and affluent, and drawn from the wealthier and more socially respectable spheres of society (125). Nonpartisan cities often had significantly lower turnout than partisan cities, without party machines to mobilize the masses. Non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters were hardly neutral in their composition. They too were largely White and middle-class in membership and

For that reason alone, it is imperative that illegal immigrants entering the United States who are apprehended and found to be infectious receive treatment before deportation. However, this question of the health risks posed by illegal immigration has only served to heighten the tensions in the border communities, and cause Americans to be more cognizant of the ethnicity of the illegal immigrants. In Review So far, in review, the key issues