Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Globalization and political impact
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Globalization and political impact
New York City, being a natural port, has drawn to its shore waves of immigration throughout its existence. Largely in part to growing ethnic populations, utilizing ethnic solidarity as a platform to mobilize a political system has been common. This tactic was most prevalent during the late nineteenth century and later on during the 1960s in the form of machine politics. Machine politics as a system relied heavily upon voter loyalty through the distribution of petty material goods and services or patronage (Merton 101). This political system has often been rendered as faulty and a direct cause of two financial crises in New York City history. During the prevalence of machine politics, “to many middle and upper-class Americans, the cities seemed …show more content…
Additionally, the petty favors and patronage they provided was thinly spread amongst their beneficiaries to maximize voter support and loyalty. According to some urban scholars such as Steven Erie, this system did little to provide a real basis for social upward mobility for its immigrant constituents. Eventually, the gross mismanagement of limited governmental funding coupled with the persistent demands of a growing immobilized immigrant population left this system vulnerable to being solely accountable for the financial crises which occurred in New York City. Despite its overall contrary portrayal, machine politics gained power because it provided a …show more content…
There are several contextual events which heavily influenced the transformation of New York City’s political system. Many social forces such as “migration of capital, jobs, people . . . [and] technological changes” also heavily contributed to the fiscal crisis during the 1970s (Tabb 324). The exodus of jobs and higher skilled workers coupled with the presence of a large unemployed population in New York City created a declining tax base. Additionally, the general devolution of the federal government interest in local politics and the general shift in considering the urban fiscal crisis as more an individual problem rather than a systemic problem, also mean less funding from the federal government to help balance the city’s budget. During this process, however, the degradation of power and authority was relayed from the federal to state. Cities still remained responsible for the balancing their budget without having much authority (Eisinger 309). With a growing impetus to create a fiscal balance and increased globalization, cities have more heavily relied on the business community to provide
In the twentieth century, governmental agencies and private developers acting together cleared out the central city to make room for the federal government. The government was able to do this through its unique economic and legislative relationship to the city, and through a heightened symbolic architectural and verbal language which supported its valorization. The symbolic language and the government's dominance in the local economy are mutually supportive. Symbolism removes ownership of the city from local residents and makes it national. It also masks the federal government's failure to prove economically beneficial to all sections of the city and to all its races and classes, as a 'trickle down' theory of dominant economies argues. Because of the government's importance in the local economy, its symbolic self-representation goes unchallenged.
The events of 7 June 1969 were but one of many moments in the history of New York City's Puerto Rican community that gave rise to and lent support for the Young Lords Party.[4] Indeed over the course of the next five years this ethnic group of radical intellectuals would help bring attention to the plight of the Puerto Rican community in New York City. This essay explores the history of the late twentieth century Puerto Rican migrants in New York City through an examination of the Young Lords Party (1969 to 1974). In doing so, it examines several significant topics, including the growth of the Puerto Rican population in New York City; the unique challenges this ethnic group faced, and the origins, growth and decline of the Young Lords Party.
Gerald Benjamin and Stephen P. Rappaport, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science Vol. 31, No. 3, Governing New York State: The Rockefeller Years (May, 1974), pp. 200-213
Dumenil, Lynn, ed. "New York City." The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2012. Oxford Reference. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
Largely in part to growing ethnic populations, utilizing ethnic solidarity as a platform to mobilize a political system has been common. This tactic was most prevalent during the late nineteenth century and later on during the 1960s in the form of machine politics. Machine politics as a system, relied heavily upon voter loyalty through the distribution of petty material goods and services or patronage (Merton 101). This political system has often been rendered as faulty and a direct usher to two financial crises in New York City history. During the prevalence of machine politics, “to many middle and upper-class Americans, the cities seemed to be in the hands of criminals who plundered the public purse for personal gain” (Judd and Swanstrom 68). Besides the mismanagement of public funding for private agendas, another major complaint of why this political system led to more than one fiscal crisis in New York, was the fact that machine politicians rarely were elected based on merit but rather garnered support through providing patronage. Additionally, the petty favors and patronage they provided was thinly spread amongst their beneficiaries to maximize voter support and loyalty. According to some urban scholars such as Steven Erie, this system did little to provide a real basis for social upward mobility for its immigrant constituents. Eventually the gross mismanagement
The political machine was supported by continuing immigration from 1800 to 1920, when more than eighteen million European immigrants flooded into the Untied States in search of economic opportunity and political and religious freedom. At first they came from Northern and Central Europe and then largely from Eastern and Southern Europe. (New Colossus , Pg. 1) New York alone reported that by June 30, 1899 immigrant arrivals from the Russian Empire were around 90,787. Arrivals, from the same year, from all countries of persons of German race were 29,682 and Hebrew arrivals were 60,764. (Changing the Character of Immigration, Pg. 1) Unfortunately, with such a large influx in population during a short amount of time and other variables such as immigrants being unable to speak English, inadequate affordable urban housing, and insufficient jobs a large amount of immigrants ended up in growing slums without the feeling of security or knowledge of how to find help, if there was any, from an unrepresentative government. These factors transformed incoming immigrants into easy prey for patronage from the political machine and sustained it by giving their votes. In the 1930’s mass immigration had stopped and representative government had begun, leading to a decline in patronage needed by then integrated immigrants and a decline in votes for the machine.
A poor immigrant is living in New York City's Lower East Side around the turn of the 20th century. Their husband suddenly becomes ill, and his health rapidly gets worse. They have no money for medical help but know who to contact. They contact the 'boss' of the local Democratic political machine. The 'boss' shows up and helps get the husband to the hospital. They say they have no money, and he replies, 'Don't worry about it. Just remember this on election day.' And they do, they vote for whichever Democratic candidate the 'boss' tells them to vote for. To make a long story short, this is how the political machine worked in the big cities of the late-19th and early 20th centuries in America. The machine controlled a system of party loyalists,
“It was if there was a social moat that divided these two New Yorks.” This quote from the movie The Central Park Five, explains the divide between the poor part of New York, such as Harlem, and the upper class areas. This divide was caused by an economic crisis that changed the social dynamics of the city. This change allowed for consequences such as the injustice of the Central Park Five and the causes of this injustice can be explained by three different theoretical perspectives: the Structural Functionalist Perspective, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective.
In the "Gilded Age" immigrants from all over the world became part of America's working nation in hopes of finding a new and better life for themselves and their families. As more and more new families moved to America with high hopes, more and more people fell victims to the organized society, politics, and institutions better described as, the system. The system was like a jungle, implying that only the strong survived and the weak perished. Bosses always picked the biggest and strongest from a throng of people desperate for work, and if you were big and strong, you were more likely to get the job then if you were small and weak. Packing town was also a Jungle in the sense that the people with more authority or political power acted as predators and preyed on the working people, taking their money unfairly because of the their lack of knowledge on the pitfalls of the New World and their inability to speak and understand the universal language adequately. The unjust and corrupt system kept workers from speaking out when they felt they had been wronged and punished them when they did. As a result of the system, men women and even children were overworked, underpaid and taken advantage of. Working immigrants weren't any better off in American then they were in their homeland, as they soon discovered. Dreams that any people had of America were washed away by the corrupt ways of the system.
Martin, Milton, and New York. The Empire State: a history of New York. Cornell Univ Pr, 2001. Print (pg433)
In 1980 the city was in a near brink of bankruptcy. With his stringent character and “we will not give in” ideology he was able to combat the city from entering bankruptcy, but this resolution did not come easily. The process that he supported for stabilizing the city’s budget was to attain loan money from the federal government. The New York City residents however, did not support this tactic, because in his proposal to the federal government he stated that he would jobs and payroll. In addition, the labor force began to participate in strikes to display their outrage to the mayor Koch’s proposal. Impressively with Koch’s ingenuity, he was able to attain a loan of 1.5 millions from the federal
The power elite theory argues that “big business” and other behind-the-scenes notables effectively control local arena (Levine, 2015). In urban areas people tend to vote for more elite candidates. Power elite theory views urban politics as extremely undemocratic. Upper class rules what cities do, and the class function of birth, ownership, wealth, old money families, etc. Political and civil leaders beholden to upper class. Single, homogeneous power-elite rules city. They have influence over multiple policy spheres, more so in national politics, since there are no vehicles to represent lower status claims (e.g. parties) (Dr. Taylor).
It is safe to say that all cities want to secure their financial freedom and flexibility. It is not only the goal of most United States cities, but also of United States citizens. Economic growth and prosperity signify health and abundance for a city, therefore bringing status and power. “An advantageous economic position,” as Peterson puts it, “means a competitive edge . . . relative to other localities” (Peterson, 22). It is believed that with a healthy economy, and more importantly, a growing economy, comes the need for jobs and production. Further, when cities pursue economic development and stake their claim in the market they can “produce a good that can be sold in an external market, labor and capital [will] flow into the city to help
Theory and Society , Vol. 39, No. 3/4, Special Issue in Memory of Charles Tilly (1929–2008): Cities, States, Trust, and Rule (May 2010) , pp. 343-360
New York City was a hub for immigrants and it still is today. About one-third of the city’s total population of 8 million is foreign born (nyc.gov, 2014). About 800 different languages are spoken in New York (nyiac.org, 2014). The city served as the historic port of entry for southern and eastern European immigrants such as the Russian Jewish, Italians, Germans and Irish (Foner, 2007). The newest wave of immigrants is no longer predominantly Europeans as the city has continued to attract a significant number of people from all parts of the world such as Asians, Latin Americans and Africans (Fon...