Political Machines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Political Machines - Essay Example Therefore, the basis of political machines is on people who have dissimilar and varying interests. Theodore observes that the different people share a common link despite their fear and ignorance. Theodore perceives that the sole purpose of political machines were to develop American cities equally. This move aimed at promoting urban democracy (Lowi 84-85). Theodore allude that new machines replaced old ones. This essay rejects the arguments of Theodore Lowi. The new and old political machines display similarities signifying that nothing has changed in the governance of American cities. To start with, although some cities such as New York have experienced some reforms in their mode of governance, there are no considerable changes in others cities such as Chicago. For instance, Theodore asserts that Chicago maintained a strong hold of old political machines in the year 1967. This is opposite to the case of New York, which embraced new wave of political reforms. In the year 1967, Chicago reaffirmed and consolidated its old ways of doing political unlike New York, which ushered in political transformation (Lowi 85). This depicts that old machines is still in existence and did not disappear as Theodore claimed. The power of political machine still prevails in Chicago and there is no prediction of its disappearance. Second, new political machines depict many commonalities with the old ones. Methods of employment to senior positions resemble the old way of recruitment. This new method picks those candidates who have experience in their careers. This succeeds the dubious way of selecting candidates to the political seats. According to Theodore’s essay, the so-called reforms have painted politics as a dirt game. This is a perpetuation of the old political machines, which embraced such mode of electing people to occupy top ranks. Big cities such as New York have poor governance despite the fact that there is competent management team (Lowi 85-86).