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The American System of Government

not clear how much the parties as parties influence what takes place and how much individual leaders or groups of leaders set the agenda apart from the party apparatus. The recent shift in ideology in Washington can be traced to a change in the political party in the leadership position, showing clearly that political parties have a role beyond that they serve in elections and that they remain an important power center in spite of public disaffection with the two main parties.

Political parties operate in different ways at different levels of government, however. The party political machines referred to by Harold Gosnell were once much more powerful than they are today, though Chicago remains a bastion of the Democratic Party and may be the closest thing to the old-style political machine that still exists in this country. The machine had both its good points and its bad points. On the one hand, the machine tended to restrict participation to those who were members of the ruling political party and so reduced the voices being heard and the talents being tapped. On the other hand, as Gosnell points out, the machine offered continuity and security to the public:

The stability of the machine was reassuring to various groups that no upsetting innovations would be tried in local government. Ward leaders in particular showed an amazingly low turnover, considering the stresses and strains that accompanied the economic crisis. Business men, journalists, underworld leaders, bankers, and labor chiefs knew that they could count upon the local machine to do business in the old way in spite of changes that had taken place in the role of the national government (Gosnell 158).

The economic crisis to which Gosnell refers is the Depression, but what he says about the sense of continuity and stability applied to the power of the political machines at other times as well. From what he says, it is also clear that the different factions in...

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The American System of Government. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:31, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1703664.html