What Is The Role Of Party Machines In Politics

‘Despite several attempts to regulate campaign finance, money increasingly dominates the U.S. Electoral process and is the main factor contributing to a candidates success’ Discuss (30 marks)

The political machine is very powerful in the city and because of how powerful it is that urban United States was able to develop so much and increase in power in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. A political machine is system of political organization based on patronage, the spoils system, and political ties. Sometimes political machines have a boss and sometimes they may not have a boss, and always have a corps of workers who depend on the patronage given by government contracts and jobs. Machine politics has existed in many United States cities for a long time now, but are still in effect in some areas.

In recent elections on the congressional level as well as for President we see the growing influences of interest groups in the form of PAC’s and Super PAC’s to back candidates. Super PAC’s can spend an unrestricted amount money to support a certain problems or candidate but cannot donate directly to the campaigns. PAC’s work with campaigns directly reallocating donations to candidates and parties.

In a court case in 2010, Speechnow.org v. Federal Election Commission, the ability to spend virtually limitless money on an election was given under first amendment protection. With this ruling, Political Action Committees, or super PACs, have become tremendously influential when it comes to elections. Unlike regular PACs, these super PACs cannot directly donate any raised money directly to this political candidate. While these parties can not directly donate this raised money, and must be independent of the candidate they support or oppose, there is a huge debate of the unclear line involved with who can be a part of these super PACs. For example, Obama had his Republican challenger and former aides of his office supporting his super PAC.

After the Federalist Party ended in the early 1800s, only one political party existed for a period of time. However, political parties once again began to emerge and become critical to political atmosphere of the country. One party, for example, was the Working Man’s Party, which emerged in 1829 and believed, “that we are, & of right ought to be entitled to equal means to obtain moral happiness,” (Doc E). The Working Man’s Party represented a specific group of people - the laborers of New York. As certain grievances and conflicts regarding certain groups of people were addressed, more Americans began to actively participate in the elections. In addition, ,more political parties began to emerge and run for office, greatly changing the ways in which people participated in elections. Moreover, political parties were crucial to the preservation of the union. Martin Van Buren writes, “The country has once flourished under a party thus constituted and may again [...] Party attachment in former times furnished a complete antidote for sectional prejudices by producing counteracting feelings,” (Doc C). The development of new political parties allows different groups to be represented that might not otherwise have a voice in politics, which creates more political involvement, and therefore more voter

US parties are often described as organisationally weak because they are essentially ‘broad coalitions’. For example they contain moderates like McCain republican) and Obama democrat), while also having a more conservative wing. Therefore stronger party organisation would give parties a narrower appeal and potentially alienate large ‘voting blocs’ or proportions of the electorate. This is a reason why it is argued that having ‘organisationally weak’ parties is a necessity in the US political system. It has therefore been argued that symptoms of weak organisation e.g issue centred or candidate-centered election campaigns are deliberate as parties attempt to gain a maximum

The next presidential election will be one like no one has ever seen before in terms of campaign funding and expenses. Even now, the GOP Presidential Primary races are already showing signs of how money will not be an object for their presidential candidate. The seemingly limitless budget exists for these candidates thanks to the so-called Super PACs (Political Action Committees). These Super PACs are allowed to come up with independent financing for the presidential campaign, sans any budgetary ceilings. The inner workings of such a committee has left a bad taste in the mouths of the voters even though very little is known about the actual history and reasons for the existence of the Super PACS. This paper will delve into the committee's

While there is a limit to the amount an individual, group, or corporation can give directly to a political candidate, there is no limit to the amount of money one can give to a super PAC. These super PACs work closely with a candidate’s campaign and pay for many of the candidate’s expenses. Super PACs spend a lot of money on expensive television advertisements to endorse their candidate and degrade their candidate’s opponents. While candidates often have to disclose their direct campaign contributions, super PACS do not. Super PACs are able to keep the sources of most of their funds hidden from the public. Some Senators and Representatives have been working on passing legislation to remove the cap on individuals’ direct campaign contributions. This would allow candidates to campaign without super PACs, making the sources of campaign funding more clear (Price

The American dream states that anyone can do anything if they set their mind to it and work hard because America is the land of opportunity. This message did not prove true for the two men in the films we watched. For Jeff Smith and Cory Booker, political dynasties prevented either man from getting an equal opportunity to run for public office. These political machines have powers beyond that one a single man running in an election and these powers can shift elections in someone's favor, effectively chipping away and the foundations of democracy. Political Machines are political power structures who hold enormous power through their commandment of support.

Bauer and Hibbing (1989) take issue with Jacobson’s (1987) argument. They conclude that there has been an increase in the likelihood of incumbents winning “big” in the next election. Most incumbents lose to the redistricting factor or exogenous/personal scandals—such as Watergate. Moreover, they find a decrease the level of seat competition, which might explain the vanishing marginals. Considering, the decline of party organizations as a mechanism to select candidates for office and become “in-service” to candidates, offices that were once competitive are not longer to be sustained in a candidate-centered environment (King 1987, Mayhew 1974; Fiorina 2002). Candidates produce their personal brand to appear to voters.

Political machines were common to see after the development of a mass electorate and industrialization. During the mid-19th century, all males were able to vote and there were a multitude of jobs available due to the industrial revolution that occurred in the mid-1700’s until the mid-1800’s, this is when most boss systems arose. Many U.S. citizens considered themselves a body of voters before they would consider themselves laborers. With this mindset, they were able to build exponentially large and strong political machines which were held together by the use of bribing jobs and patronage.

There were 3 components to the political machines: the county committee, the ward or precinct leaders and the party loyalists. The county committee members were those that held the top offices in the county political party. People like Thomas J Pendergast from Kansas City, James Michael Curley in Boston and Richard J Daley from Chicago. At this level they controlled the party’s nominations, the money and the votes. Much of their power came from the people that they got elected that owed them favors for the votes.

Amidst the late 19th century, the rise of political machines tantalized the longing, from many, for a post-Civil War reconstruction which would have been punctuated by an ethical, aiding government. The aforementioned political machines were small networks which offered services to voters in exchange for economic or political gains. While these groups aided many groups, including immigrants, many political machines fell victim to corruption. The reason being, once the candidates from said machine came into office, these men would use their political standing for personal gain. For instance in the case of the Tweed Ring Scandal, William Tweed, the boss of the Democratic political machine, headed a group of politicians who sought to defraud New York. The provided excerpt, which outlines one scheme which was orchestrated by Mr. Tweed, reads “One scheme, the construction of the New York County Courthouse, involved extravagant graft. The project cost taxpayers $13 million, while

In Misery by Stephen King, Paul Shelton (main character) is driving in his car, and gets very distracted from the memory of the sounds he is hearing. Paul shelton is confused from the sound which is creating a conflict when writing his book series. While he is writing the story he’s stretching out words to emphasize the story more and drag the reader in more. In the novel Stephen King (Paul Shelton) is writing “Fayunnnn red everrrrrythinggg umberrrrr whunnnn,” In the story he says that wherever he’s going he always hears that sound and or reminds himself about the sound. Paul Shelton also writes “ Umber whunnnn yerrrrnnn umber whunnnn fayunnnn.” Paul is writing that he keeps on getting the halogenation of the sounds and it is getting him

After the Citizen United vs. the FEC Supreme Court ruling, in favor of Citizens United, political campaigns have the ability to raise much greater funds through organizations called super PACs. According to Michael Beckel a political reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, “Officially known as “independent expenditure-only committees”— and unofficially dubbed “super PACs”—these political action committees are able to raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals, corporations, unions, and other organizations” (Beckel 655). On top of the ability to raise unlimited funds, the individuals donating are not required to disclose their names. This could lead to some serious corruption. Super PACs can run as much advertisement either for or against a political candidate, seriously swaying the way citizen’s vote and view a candidate. In fact “super PACs are allowed to use 100 percent of the funds they raise to influence elections” (Beckel 656). No one expected this Supreme Court ruling to have an impact so fast. As stated in an article published by The Nation, “The total number of TV ads for House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in 2010 was 2,870,000. This was a 250 percent increase over the number of TV ads