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Political machine

type of political group dedicated to recruiting voters for a particular candidate, characteristic of large American cities from the 1860s to the 1970s

A political machine in a representative democracy is a political party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or politically created jobs) and might use fraud or physical intimidation against opponents of the organization. Typically, the political machine has strong leadership control over member activity — and the leadership is motivated by greed. The machine's success, or failure, depends upon the ability of the boss or leadership group to win by getting out the vote and/or by various election frauds.

Quotes

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  • ,,, many persons with criminal records, some of whom had been convicted of election frauds, were again and again appointed as precinct election officials. ... Ballot thieves are recruited from the ranks of the pickpockets, card sharks, confidence-game men, and gambling-house operators. These persons have defied the law in other matters and know the sleight-of-hand tricks that are needed to put over ballot-box stuffing, alteration of tally sheets, and ballot erasures.
  • Political bosses and their “machine organizations” operating in large American cities at the turn of the century enjoyed strong support among the poor and immigrants, who returned the favor by voting for the bosses’ preferred candidates. Many immigrants saw bosses and political machines as a means to greater enfranchisement. For immigrants and the poor in many large U.S. cities, the political boss represented a source of patronage jobs. To urban reformers of the early 20th century, the bosses and their organizations personified political corruption. For example, a notable political machine at the turn of the century was the Pendergast machine of Kansas City, Missouri. It was built and led by two brothers, who controlled Kansas City politics for nearly 40 years. It was also famous because an early beneficiaty of the Pendergast machine was Harry S. Truman, who eventually became the nation’s 33rd President.
  • Tweed's power could have been destroyed by an honest Republican machine. But one did not exist. What passed for the New York County Republican Committee was owned, lock, stock, and barrel, by Tweed, who had fifty-nine Republican leaders on his payroll. The Grand Old Party!
  • The questions raised during Japan's difficulties through the 1990s have forced a rethinking of Japan's recent history, and an intense debate about its future course. ...
    ... The starting premise is that the Japanese system was never so superhuman nor so mysterious as it had appeared. It was a smoothly run machine, all right. But it was a political machine—much like New York City's Tammany Hall or Huey Long's apparatus in Louisiana, one that would be quite familiar to students of American history. Japan's machine did, in some respects, manage economic policy with remarkable consensus and efficiency. Yet the costs for holding the system together were huge, in the form of blatant favoritism, monumental amounts of pork, and gold-plated corruption. In many ways, Japan Inc. was a gaudy, inefficient mess.

See also

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