Experts and Politicians: Reform Challenges to Machine Politics in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago

Kenneth Finegold

Princeton University Press, Feb 13, 1995 - History - 264 pages

During the Progressive Era, reform candidates in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago challenged the status quo--with strikingly different results: brief triumph in New York, sustained success in Cleveland, and utter failure in Chicago. Kenneth Finegold seeks to explain this phenomenon by analyzing the support for reform in these cities, especially the role of an emerging class of urban policy professionals in each campaign. His work offers a new way of looking at urban reform opposition to machine politics.


Drawing on original research and quantitative analysis of electoral data, Finegold identifies three distinct patterns of support for reform candidates: traditional reformers drew support from native-stock elites; municipal populists found support among stock immigrant groups and segments of the working class; and progressive candidates won the backing of coalitions made up of traditional reform and municipal populist voters. The success of these reform efforts, Finegold shows, depended on the different ways in which experts were incorporated into city politics. This book demonstrates the significance of expertise as a potential source of change in American politics and policy, and of each city's electoral and administrative organizations as mediating institutions within a national system of urban political economies.

Contents

• Machine Politics and Reform Politics: 3
• Incorporating Experts: 15
• NEW YORK FROM TRADITIONAL REFORM TO PROGRESSIVISM: 33
• Seth Low and Traditional Reform: 35
• Hearst McClellan and Gaynor Municipal Populism and the Tammany Response: 45
• John Purroy Mitchel and the Politics of Municipal Research: 54
• CLEVELAND FROM MUNICIPAL POPULISM TO PROGRESSIVISM: 69
• McKissonism and the Muny: 73
• Tom Johnson Municipal Populism in Power: 82
• Newton Bakers Progressive Coalition: 101
• CHICAGO THE FAILURE OF PROGRESSIVISM: 119
• Carter Harrison versus Reform: 123
• Edward Dunne Municipal Populism and Party Factionalism: 138
• Busse Merriam and the Bureau of Public Efficiency: 151
• CONCLUSIONS: 169
• Progressivism Electoral Change and Public Policy: 171
• Appendix: 185
• Notes: 189
• Bibliography: 229
• Index: 253

About the author

Kenneth Finegold is Associate Professor of Government at Eastern Washington University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Experts and Politicians: Reform Challenges to Machine Politics in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago; Volume 45 of Princeton Studies in American Politics, ISSN 1549-1307; Volume 45 of Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives
• Author: Kenneth Finegold
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1995
• ISBN: 0691037345, 9780691037349
• Length: 264 pages
• Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / United States / 20th Century; History / World; Political Science / American Government / Local; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism; Political Science / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections; Political Science / Political Process / General