Machine Politics

(noun)

In U.S. politics, a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state.

Related Terms

Examples of Machine Politics in the following topics:

  • Urban Politics

    • During the Gilded Age, politics were characterized by the "political machines."
    • Political machines routinely used fraud and bribery to further their ends.
    • Benefits and problems both resulted from the rule of political machines.
    • The modern era of politics was dominated by machine politics in many ways.
    • Machine politics persisted in Chicago after the decline of similar machines in other large American cities.

  • City Government and the "Bosses"

    • Parties set up citywide political machines that brought together public officials and business leaders in a system of patronage and support.
    • Louis, etc.) were accused of using political machines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    • Many political machines formed in cities to serve immigrants to the U.S. in the late nineteenth century who viewed machines as a vehicle for political enfranchisement.
    • At the same time, most political machines' staunchest opponents were members of the established class (nativist Protestants).
    • Evaluate the significance of the political machine in nineteenth century America

  • Civil Service Reform

    • The Stalwarts, a faction of the Republican Party in the late 19th century, opposed civil service reform and favored machine politics.
    • Senators of both parties were accustomed to being consulted about political appointments and turned against Hayes.
    • It also made it illegal to fire or demote government employees for political reasons.
    • However, the law would also prove to be a major political liability for Arthur.
    • The law offended machine politicians within the Republican Party and did not prove to be enough for the party's reformers; hence, Arthur lost popularity within the Republican Party and was unable to win the party's Presidential nomination at the 1884 Republican National Convention.

  • Politics in the Gilded Age

    • To take advantage of the new economic opportunity, both parties built so-called "political machines" to manage elections, reward supporters, and pay off potential opponents.
    • Large cities became dominated by political machines, in which constituents supported a candidate in exchange for anticipated patronage.
    • Perhaps the largest example of a political machine from this time period is Tammany Hall in New York City, led by Boss Tweed.
    • These groups, furthermore, had distinctive moral perspectives and political needs.
    • There was a sense that government enabled political machines to intervene in the economy and the resulting favoritism, bribery, inefficiency, waste, and corruption had negative consequences.

  • Middle-Class Reformers

    • After 1900 the Progressive Era brought political and social reforms, such as new roles for education and a higher status for women.
    • After 1900, the Progressive Era brought political and social reforms, such as new roles for education and a higher status for women, as well as modernizing many areas of government and society.
    • The progressives worked through new middle class organizations to fight against the corruption and behind-the-scenes power of entrenched state party organizations and big city machines.
    • The hammering impact of Progressive Era writers bolstered aims of certain sectors of the population, especially a middle class caught between political machines and big corporations, to take political action.

  • Simple Machines

    • A simple machine is a device that changes the direction of a force or augments a force; simple machines fall into six categories.
    • Usually, the term "simple machine" is referring to one of the six classical simple machines, defined by Renaissance scientists.
    • When a device with a specific movement, called a mechanism, is joined with others to form a machine, these machines can be broken down into elementary movements.
    • Simple machines which do not experience frictional losses are called ideal machines.
    • Table of simple mechanisms, from Chambers' Cyclopedia, 1728. [1] Simple machines provide a "vocabulary" for understanding more complex machines.

  • Manufacturing

    • The "American System" featured semi-skilled labor using machine tools and jigs to make standardized, identical, interchangeable parts, which could be assembled with a minimum of time and skill.
    • Interchangeability of parts was finally achieved by combining a number of innovations and improvements in machining operations and machine tools, which were developed primarily for making textile machinery .
    • These innovations included the invention of new machine tools and jigs (in both cases, for guiding the cutting tool), fixtures for holding the work in the proper position, and blocks and gauges to check the accuracy of the finished parts.
    • Furthermore, Hamilton and the Federalists believed that the characteristics of the successful industrialists--self-reliance, autonomy, innovation, and entrepreneurship--were the bedrock of values on which they sought to model the national political system.
    • According to Hamilton, the commercial classes created a class of talented, industrious, and virtuous men who could be trusted to wield federal political power.

  • Vending Machines

    • A vending machine can dispense a wide variety of merchandise when the consumer inserts money into it.
    • A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine .
    • The most common form of vending machine, the snack machine, often uses a metal coil which rotates to release an ordered product.
    • The main example of a vending machine giving access to all merchandise after paying for one item is a newspaper vending machine (also called vending box) found mainly in the U.S. and Canada.
    • This is a Best Buy Express vending machine at an airport terminal, stocked with electronics.

  • The Importance of Organization

    • William Carlos Williams once said that a poem is a "machine made of words. " A sad poem is a machine that manufactures melancholy; a funny poem is a machine that produces laughs.
    • Poetry doesn't have a monopoly on this quality--a well-crafted speech can also be a machine made of words.
    • How should a public speaker go about building a "machine made of words"?
    • Machines only work when their component parts are assembled properly.
    • For example, let's say you are preparing a speech to solicit money for political dissidents in Chechnya, and you want to motivate your listeners by shocking them.

  • Early Farm Policy

    • New inventions such as the steel plowshare (needed to break tough Midwestern soil), the reaper (a machine that harvests grain), and the combine (a machine that cuts, threshes, and cleans grain) allowed farms to increase productivity.
    • The first political advocacy group for farmers, the Grange, was formed in 1867.
    • Political agitation by farmers produced some results.
    • However, when farm groups tried to shape the nation's political agenda by backing renowned orator and Democrat William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896, their candidate lost.