Politics U.S.A

1
Politics U.S.A

• Consider What is the job of our politicians?
  What is politics? How did citizens mobilize to
  alter the status quo? Lessons?

2
Ancient Greeks

• The idea is linked with ethos or character
• Aristotle claimed it was a moral enterprise
• How do we view the job? Service?
• Ultimate purpose is patronage and spoils
• How can we overcome disillusionment?
• The Public Good?

3
Politics in the Gilded Age

• Age of Status Quo Laissez Faire
• Get elected and keep power
• Stalwarts v. Half breeds
• Series of weak of executives
• Legislative Initiatives
• Southern Democrats New South
• Impact of Grantism

4
Constituencies and Issues

• Ethnicity Irish, Germans, Blacks
• Religious Affiliation Protestants
• Regionalism Solid South
• Age and Sex Males Only
• The Issues Civil Service Reform
• Tariffs, Greenbacks the economy
• The Bloody Shirts legacy

5
Scandals, Abuses Political Reforms

• Credit Mobilier, Black Friday, Whiskey Ring and
  Incompetency
• Republicans Internal Conflicts
• Tariffs and Greenbacks
• Pendleton Act and Meritocracy
• Corporate Practices and Regulation
• The I.C.C and Anti Trust Legislation
• Popular indignation

6
Machine Politics

• Bossism and the Cities
• Patronage and Spoils
• The Bewildered Immigrants
• Tammany Hall Honest v. Dishonest
• Urban Scene and Services
• State Legislatures and U.S. Senate
• Theodore Roosevelt and Reformers

7
The San Francisco Experience

• Conditions and Terrible 70s
• Labor unrest and Workingmans Party
• 1879 Constitution
• Boss Buckley and the Machine
• 1900 and Union Labor Party
• Boss Ruef and 06 Earthquake
• Fremont Older, the Fed Graft Trials

8
Progressivism

• Assess how the events of the era helped the
  reformers in their efforts to address the abuses.