The term
political machine dates back to the 19th century in the United States, where such organizations have existed in some municipalities and states since the 18th century. , 19th-century political boss of New York City In the late 19th century, large cities in the United States—
Boston,
Chicago,
Cleveland,
Kansas City,
New York City,
Philadelphia,
St. Louis,
Memphis—were accused of using political machines. During this time "cities experienced rapid growth under inefficient government". This system of political control—known as "
bossism"—emerged particularly in the
Gilded Age. A single powerful figure (the boss) was at the center and was bound together to a complex organization of lesser figures (the political machine) by reciprocity in promoting financial and social self-interest. One of the most infamous of these political machines was
Tammany Hall, the
Democratic Party machine that played a major role in controlling
New York City and New York politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. From 1872, Tammany had an Irish "boss". However, Tammany Hall also served as an engine for
graft and political corruption, perhaps most notoriously under
William M. "Boss" Tweed in the mid-19th century.
Lord Bryce describes these political bosses saying: When asked if he was a boss,
James Pendergast said simply,
Theodore Roosevelt, before he became president in 1901, was deeply involved in New York City politics. He explains how the machine worked:
Voting strategy Many machines formed in cities to serve immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19th century who viewed machines as a vehicle for political
enfranchisement. Machine workers helped win elections by turning out large numbers of voters on election day. It was in the machine's interests to only maintain a minimally winning amount of support. Once they were in the majority and could count on a win, there was less need to recruit new members, as this only meant a thinner spread of the patronage rewards to be spread among the party members. As such, later-arriving immigrants, such as Jews, Italians, and other immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe between the 1880s and 1910s, saw fewer rewards from the machine system than the well-established Irish. At the same time, the machines' staunchest opponents were members of the middle class, who were shocked at the malfeasance and did not need the financial help. The corruption of
urban politics in the United States was denounced by private citizens. They achieved national and state civil-service reform and worked to replace local patronage systems with
civil service. By
Theodore Roosevelt's time, the
Progressive Era mobilized millions of private citizens to vote against the machines.
1930s to 1970s In the 1930s,
James A. Farley was the chief dispenser of the Democratic Party's patronage system through the
Post Office and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) which eventually nationalized many of the job benefits machines provided. The
New Deal allowed machines to recruit for the WPA and
Civilian Conservation Corps, making Farley's machine the most powerful. All patronage was screened through Farley, including presidential appointments. The
New Deal machine fell apart after he left the administration over
the third term issue in 1940. Those agencies were, for the most part, abolished in 1943, and the machines suddenly lost much of their patronage. The formerly poor immigrants who had benefited under Farley's national machine had become assimilated and prosperous, and no longer needed the informal or extralegal aides provided by machines. A local political machine in
Tennessee in the 1930s and 1940s was forcibly removed in what was known as the
1946 Battle of Athens. Smaller communities such as
Parma, Ohio, in the post–Cold War era under Prosecutor Bill Mason's "Good Old Boys" and especially communities in the Deep South, where small-town machine politics are relatively common, also feature what might be classified as political machines, although these organizations do not have the power and influence of the larger boss networks listed in this article. For example, the "
Cracker Party" was a Democratic Party political machine that dominated city politics in
Augusta, Georgia, for over half of the 20th century. Political machines also thrive on Native American reservations, where tribal sovereignty is used as a shield against federal and state laws against the practice. In the 1960s and 1970s,
Edward Costikyan,
Ed Koch,
Eleanor Roosevelt, and other reformers worked to do away with Tammany Hall of
New York County. To a lesser degree, the Democratic Party machines in Kings, Bronx, and Queens counties continued until the end of the 1980s.
Historical machines •
New Deal coalition, United States 1930s–1960s •
The Byrd Organization, Virginia •
Tammany Hall •
Santa Fe Ring ==In Japan==