Gordon Rule Essay and Political Success Essay

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Limited the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the President and Congress in the Late 19th Century

In the nineteenth century, the American government saw many Americans worry about the responsiveness, complexity, or size of their democracy. Having this perspective in mind, the American government of the nineteenth century was small and orderly, having a great machine that oversaw the state at night and held in check by the yeoman citizenry. Moreover, the lines of authority were overlapping where the federal structure took measures to ensure that the national government and the states each had their precise and respective orbits. As such, the structures ensured that the federal government remained small and limited. The little system of regulations precluded the emergence of the sprawling regulatory state having a cacophony of interest groups that competed, the bureaucrats were unresponsive, the politicians were ambitious, and citizen-clients. In summary, the idealized image of the nineteenth century reflected on a political system that is not like the contemporary American politics.

Factors that limited the efficiency and effectiveness of the president and Congress during the late nineteenth century

In the nineteenth century, the political institution and public policy of America appeared to be out of control as it was dominated by an alliance that was unholy of career politicians, special interest groups, and government bureaucrats. In such instances, each of the groups pursued their own agenda instead of the broader interests of the public. Therefore, the government was perceived as being impervious to the attempts of the citizens' to ensure more accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency when it comes to the cost and delivery of government services. The governance of the nineteenth century was of smallness and a decentralized government where the political system was an assemblage of weak legislative institutions. As such, they were dominated by a multitude of interests that were powerful and characterized by a limited administrative capacity (Zinn 12). Therefore, the federal system enabled a variety of actors and stakeholders to benefit from existing fragmented and limited institutional and political powers that stood in the way of state builders. For others, the nineteenth century was viewed as the Reconstruction era where state governments were corrupt, and fraud was massive in cities that were controlled by political machines, political payoffs that secured government contracts and the widespread evidence of the corruption that was evident in the government during the Ulysses Grant Administration (Johnson 23). Due to the acts of corruption, a divide was created between the Republican Party into two factions, The Half-Breeds that was led by James Blaine and The Stalwarts led by Roscoe Conkling. The sense of a government that existed in the nineteenth century saw the government intervention in the economy having favoritism that was inevitable, inefficiency, bribery, waste, kickbacks and corruption.

The parties that existed in America had elaborate get-out-the-vote campaign because it was financed by the "spoils system" where the winning party managed to distribute local, national and state government jobs and other government contracts to their loyal supporters. For the large cities, political machines dominated them, and once the candidate was selected, then they should be willing to play along, for example, the Tammany Hall in New York City that was led by Boss Tweed. Here, the Democratic organization of politics was able to cap its orgy of self-rewarding by taking control over the politics of New York City and built an elaborate new city hall. The "Prince of Plasters" was among the loyal members of the Tammany organization who had connections that earned him a tidy $3 million for his construction on the new building. During this period, the Presidential elections were closely contested, and this led to the Congress being marked by political stalemate. The most popular way the opposition took advantage at the polls was the use of mudslinging while for the Republicans, they employed "waving the bloody shirt" tactic. When it came to combating charges of corruption, candidates would be reminded on how the Republican Party saved the nation during the Civil War. As such, the 1870s saw many voters being told of how the Democrats were responsible the bloody upheaval and this attracted many Union veterans to the camp of the Republicans. During presidential elections, the Republicans carried the North consistently, but the South was voted by Democrats. Therefore, the political humiliations faced during the Reconstruction era were still fresh in the minds of many people and thus, this led to the corruption of the Republican organization where many reformers groups defected and gave their support to the Democrats Party (Glaeser and Goldin 54).

In the Gilded Age, political corruption was common and at some point, the Vice President became implicated in various scandals such as the Credit Mobilier.

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In this era, corruption and scandal were evident at all levels of public life and the President's administration was a cesspool of abuse and grant. Bribes were demanded by Treasury Department officers from importers for their goods to be processed in an efficient way. For the Naval Department, contracts were awarded on favoritism basis and not on a competitive bidding. Moreover, the Secretary of War also accepted bribes from interested merchants who wanted to delve in lucrative trading of franchises on Indian lands. Grant's personal secretary also conspired with distillers of whiskey in avoiding excise taxes (Carlson 33).

Nonetheless, the Credit Mobilier scandal was most elaborate and high reaching because of its shady relationship with the Union Pacific Railroad. In this case, the government shielded the firm from investigations conducted by the Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, where an oversight was made that allowed other public officials and Colfax to buy sock using future dividends. As such, these staff members of the government were allowed to purchase the shares freely. At the municipal level, corruption was also present where jobs were distributed to loyal supporters regardless of their ability. Moreover, construction companies and other services firms were awarded contracts to those people who offered the largest bribes. However, the national government was also crippled by general lethargy and the failure of major parties to advance an agenda that is adequate to America's needs of the society that was rapidly changing. Industries in America expanded, the workers wrestled with the new demands of the industrial workplace, industries also devised new structures of business that tamed the market. Furthermore, the record numbers of immigrants was high and cities in America swelled to points of breaking. Here, the national government proved its inability to do much more other than arguing about the increased tariff rates and the forms of currency (Eric 61).

The acts of corruption led to the inadequate living conditions of the poor people in America because of their belief in industrialization and urbanization having an abundance of social problems. This included the expansion of slum cities where callous corporations mistreated the workers in the mid to late 1800s. During this period, angry farmers and owners of small businesses formed the Grange and united with the Populist Party to confront the unfair practices of large companies. As such, the root of the evil that was prevalent in the society was located in the structures of institutions. It also led to increased management-labor conflict that resulted in strikes involving millions of workers. The people of America were tired of having the same old tricks performed by government officials in an attempt to lure them into accepting their wrong way of leading the nation. It is evident that the people of America were tired of the inefficiency and ineffective way of the president and Congress performing their duties to the citizens of America (Waldo 89).

Summary and Conclusions

The factors that were limiting the efficiency and effectiveness of the president and Congress in America during the nineteenth century were numerous. The Congress was practicing corrupt acts that led many organizations and people in a plight because they were not in a position to meet their basic needs. Bribery issues were also rampant among government officials who favored their interests and not those of the people who chose them to power. Favoritism was practiced in many government offices especially when it came to awarding contracts to businesses and organizations. Those individuals who gave these officials hefty sums of bribes would be awarded the contract and this led to failed bureaucracy. As such, the politicians proved that they were over ambitious and wanted to gain or eat a larger piece of the pie than the rest of the people. For the Congress and president, they failed the people of America because they were not able to uphold all the things the country was known for by other nations across the globe. It being a globalized country, it is expected of them to conduct their business in a way that upholds moral ethics and integrity of the people of America. Since it is an industrialized country, it is not expected to behave in ways that undermine their ability to conduct business and other activities in ethical ways. Therefore, having an….....

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