The Strengths and Weaknesses o
Machine politics had numerous strengths among which were the high levels of political participation it encouraged. It also satisfied important social needs that official government institutions could not fulfill due to the decentralized structure of government provided for by the Constitution. Effective party bosses were able organize and centralize fragmented power in order to satisfy the needs of different groups in their community. It humanized and personalized assistance to the needy by directly appealing to individual concerns instead of to broader public interests. It replaced what was perceived by immigrants to be the cold, bureaucratic dispensation of limited aid following upon detailed investigations of legal claims to aid of the client…” with the more personal techniques employed by the precinct captain who “asks no questions, exacts no compliance with legal rules of eligibility and does not snoop into private affairs.”(Urban Politics A Reader, 104) Politicians of the machine were seen as “just one of us” and the machine politics became a system of patronage and personal ties. This was the case especially for immigrants, who faced discrimination and had limited opportunities for upward mobility. Machines provided immig
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Stephen Erie, Samuel Hays, Politics Reader, Constitution Effective, , machine politics, Irish Eventually, reform politics, lower class, patronage system, party bosses, political power, upward mobility, machine politics system, machine politicians, social mobility, system representation,
Approximate Word count = 1250
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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