boss

Examples of boss in the following topics:

• City Government and the "Bosses"

  • Each city's machine lived under a hierarchical system with a "boss" who held the allegiance of local business leaders, elected officials and their appointees, and who knew the proverbial buttons to push to get things done.
  • "Boss" Tweed in the mid-nineteenth century .
  • Under "Boss" Tweed's dominance, the city expanded into the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge was begun, land was set aside for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, orphanages and almshouses were constructed, and social services—both directly provided by the state and indirectly funded by state appropriations to private charities—expanded to unprecedented levels.

• Urban Politics

  • Machines sometimes have a political boss, often rely on patronage, the spoils system, "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy.
  • Long led by William Tweed, he was better known as Boss Tweed.
  • There is one great central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieutenants; these communicate with the different district bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist.
  • The district boss in turn has a number of half- subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and come into contact with the common healers.
  • This political cartoon from 1899 shows all people from all walks of life revolving around a political boss, Richard "Boss" Croker.

• Democracy

  • Progressives sought to enable the citizenry to rule more directly and circumvent political bosses.
  • About 16 states began using primary elections to reduce the power of bosses and machines.
  • The main motivation was to reduce the power of political bosses who controlled the senate seats by virtue of their control of state legislatures.

• The Retreat from Progressivism

  • Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political machines and bosses.
  • Many (but not all) Progressives supported prohibition in order to destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons.

• The Election of 1952

  • However, most party bosses (including Truman) strongly disliked Kefauver.
  • Instead, with Truman taking the lead, the party bosses eventually settled on Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for the nomination.

• The Progressive Era

  • The movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses.
  • Many progressives supported prohibition in the United States in order to destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons.

• Efficiency

  • City governments were reorganized to reduce the power of local ward bosses, and to increase the powers of the city council.
  • La Folette in Wisconsin, and others, worked to clean up state and local governments by passing laws to weaken the power of machine politicians and political bosses.

• Politics in the Gilded Age

  • Perhaps the largest example of a political machine from this time period is Tammany Hall in New York City, led by Boss Tweed.
  • A Group of Vultures WaitiCartoon denouncing the corruption of New York's Boss Tweed and other Tammany Hall figures, drawn in 1871 by Thomas Nast and published in Harper's Weekly.

• The Gastonia Strike of 1929

  • Some of her better known works are "A Mill Mother's Song," "Chief Aderholt," and "The Big Fat Boss and the Workers."

• The Transcontinental Railroads

  • Most of these Chinese workers were represented by a Chinese "boss" who translated, collected salaries for his crew, kept discipline and relayed orders from an American general supervisor.