The Rise and Development of Urban Political Machines

Abstract

The accepted wisdom about the rise of urban political machines leans heavily on sociologist Robert K. Merton's functional analysis of machine politics. Merton contended that centralized machine organizations appeared in American cities because local government, organized on the principle of separation of powers, proved too weak and fragmented to meet the "latent" needs of urban society. This argument has found its way into many, if not most, analyses of American bossism and political machines since Merton first posited it in the 1940s. This article evaluates Merton's thesis against comprehensive and comparative historical evidence.