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Bringing the Bosses Back in: The Irish Political Machines and Urban Policy Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Steven P. Erie
Steven P. Erie
Affiliation:
Department ot Political ScienceUniversity of California, San Diego
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Extract

Recently historians have ventured a multifaceted critique of boss rule, suggesting that the very existence of the political machine has been exaggerated, that machines did not materially affect patterns of political mobilization, had only a limited role in the making of public policy, and (contrary to pluralist theory) did little to improve the welfare of the ethnic working class. For these revisionists the boss was really a bit player in the era when he allegedly held center stage. As Terrence McDonald argued the case in the last installment of this annual, “ethnicity, patronage, and the machine” represent unduly narrow ways of viewing urban political development. According to Jon Teaford and David Thelan, urban political history needs to replace the party boss and his ethnic clientele with interest groups—business, labor, taxpayers, and consumers of municipal services—and their impact on local policies concerning economic development, taxation, and service delivery. In their view, the study of public policy making must take precedence over the allocation of party patronage.

Type
Research Notes
Information
Studies in American Political Development , Volume 4 , Spring 1990 , pp. 269 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

I would like to thank Vanessa Cunningham, Harold Brackman, Amy Bridges, Victor Magagna, and the anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this essay.

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