The Ethnic Landscape Brokerage and Machine politics Transition to Function Based Power

Irish Jews Italians Poles

The ethnic network: Is it an ethnic trap? Arrival in Urban America  Journey to America  Famine  Beginning in 1840’s  Religion as community development  Politics viewed as a business venture

 Arrived after the Civil War  Competition with the Irish  Political relevance of Italian social structure (compadrasco)  Political ramifications of an ethnic business class  Organized crime & the melting pot

Recent conflict with Afro- Americans Philadelphia: Jewish Quarter  Migration – Central & Eastern Europe  Strong ideological bias Liberalism Socialism Anti-machine reformism  More middle class

 Arrived beginning in 1870’s  Especially numerous in Great Lake cities  Ethnic communities cohesive & strong  Late arrival placed them at bottom of ethnic totem pole  Disdain of intellectual class diminished their influence until closing decades of twentieth century

 Relationship of Ethnic Politics, Brokerage and Machine Politics  Significance of Ethnic Politics, Brokerage and Machine Politics Today  The Bias of Ethnic and Machine Politics

 Variation in the Midwest  More job oriented  Greater attention to issues  Examples  Chicago – Mayor Richard Daley  Kansas City – Pendergast Machine Kansas City: Midwest Urban Center

 Nature of Brokerage Politics  Ethnicity predominates  Leader of ethnic group acts a middleman  Nature of Machine Politics  Behind the scene bosses in control  Weak elected officials  Patronage central  Examples  Tammany Hall Model (Manhattan)  Republican machine in Philadelphia

 Impact of the frontier  Progressive Movement

 Ethnicity continues to trump party identification  Concern over Afro-American influence has blurred ethnic politics`

 Conservative bias  Bias against minority groups  Bias against systematic social policy making

 Organized labor  Church  Raises question as to whether new minority groups can develop ethnic institutions that contribute to upward mobility