The Politics of Local Administration
Politics have had an invasive presence in local administration since local governments formed. Local administrations can differ greatly in size and scope, yet they are all affected by regional political attitudes and state policies. Politics played a much greater role in previous eras, with the pinnacle being the era of “machine politics” that dominated local administration throughout the 19th century. A series of reform movements that began in the 1880s would curb this trend and set a path towards the modern state of local administration, which focuses less on politics and more on providing public services. This paper will focus on the ideals of the reform movement, the modern influence of politics in local administration, and the structures of various forms of local administrations and the role of political influence within each. The reform movement began as a means to de-politicize the highly political machine model of administration in the 19th century. The rise of political machines was made possible through the widespread use of material and financial incentives to capture the vote and gain influence within the city. Major political schemes involved personal favors rather than plans and ideologies in order to capture interest. Politicians capitalized on private industry to gain and share profits from public works. While this model did contribute to the individual fortunes of local administrators of the time, there were a growing number of opponents who fought against the greed and corruption within local administrations. The progressive reformers exposed many political machines for their unsavory approaches to public management and helped changed the way local administrations function in the future (England, 64-65). The mindset of the Progressive Era reformers set the tone for much of modern local administration in regards to the influence of politics and ideological norms. The primary goal of the reformers was to eliminate corruption from local