Origins of Machine Politics - Term Paper

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In the following passages she makes a quality argument. Those bosses, Bridges writes (123), were "militant" and "hard-fisted," and certainly "tough." Some of these emerging bosses (Joel Barker in Pittsburgh; Joel Sutherland in Philadelphia; and Henry Winter Davis in Baltimore) built their organizations (and got lots of votes) by reaching out to the "gangs and fire companies" of "the dangerous classes." After all, votes are votes, no matter how grimy the person is who pulls the lever for the professional "boss" and his organization. In fact, the political boss in America during that time "...deliberately relinquishes social honor," Bridges quotes noted sociologist Max Weber as saying (123).

The bosses (153) were "disciplined" who knew enough to accommodate both "the dangerous classes' and the "respectable element.'" the "primary requisite" for good jobs was not skill, but rather "political loyalty." Think about that for a moment; if a boss has enough power to ensure jobs for his political constituents no matter how unskilled they might be, that is the perfect foundation for machine politics. Still, though the boss had enormous power, and helped fuel machine politics' potency, the boss was "an elusive figure, sometimes denounced as a demagogue, rogue, or thief" (153) and also seen as a "Robin Hood, defender of the immigrant, and cultural symbol of the political triumph of the common man," Bridges continued.

Bridges makes a successful argument when she points out on page 158 that machine politics really took hold in the U.S. "...when the cities lost their last resemblance to the eighteenth-century municipality and acquired the central elements of the nineteenth century urban political order." So, how did this happen, specifically? The author says there were two "momentous developments" which transformed the American political economy. One of those developments was the coming of industrialization, which reshaped ways in which "...people got, spent, and labored" and was a kind of "social revolution," Bridges explains.

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The second development has previously been reviewed in this paper, the "white manhood suffrage" which gave enormous power to the emerging political machine.

The intent of Bridges' book is clearly to show that the rise of the big city boss, and the political machine that was part of that power base, was fueled not only by the growing industrial work sector (and the working class that was created by industrialization), but by the boss's ability to take advantage of the fall of deferential local politics (the elite and socially powerful).

The sources that Bridges uses in her publication are books (on politics, economics, history, sociology and culture), scholarly articles (on the same topics as books); New York City newspapers; pamphlets (on unions, corporations, political parties and immigration); and government documents. These are all secondary sources.

Amy Bridges' biography in the University of California at San Diego Web (where she teaches) site reflects that Bridges wrote a second book after a City in the Republic, Antebellum New York and the Origins of Machine Politics called Morning Glories, Municipal Reform in the Southwest, which was a political history of "seven large southwestern cities from 1900 to 1990." In that second book, she highlights municipal reformers who "enjoyed their greatest triumphs in the governance of the largest cities of the southwest." It was honored by the American Political Science Association as "the best book about city politics published in 1997."

Bridges received a B.A. In 1970 from the University of Chicago, and her Masters Degree in Political Sociology in 1971 at the London School of Economics, and City University of New York, according to the UCSD Web site. She received her doctorate in Political Science at the University of Chicago in 1980. She taught at Harvard University, Stanford University, and is presently Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of History at UCSD......

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