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Chicago-style politics is a byword used by conservative Republican politicians and commentators during the first presidential campaign and the early presidency of Barack Obama to call to mind aspects of public corruption in the recent political history of the American city of Chicago, Illinois, including bribery, patronage, nepotism, and authoritarianism.
The administration of the city under mayor Richard J. Daley is believed to incarnate this style at its worst, several of Daley's subordinates being jailed for corruption. However the most significant systemic trait of Daley's Administration, regarding Chicago-style politics, was its extended reliance on a political machine, which not only served to seize the power but also to exert control and to perpetuate political hegemony. Sociologists have demonstrated that this kind of political organization antedates Daley's mandate and can be traced as far back as 1928, being in fact a long political habitus, whose roots and scope go well beyond the formal political party sphere and affect the social structures at community levels.
The term was employed by conservative Republican politicians and pundits to characterize a supposedly offensive “tough, take-no-prisoners approach to politics”. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-Ohio) during a weekly press briefing, stated that: "Chicago-style politics is shutting the American people out and demonizing their opponents". However, other pundits take issue with this narrow definition of Chicago-style politics. Jacob Weisberg of Slate has accused conservatives of not having a proper historical understanding of Chicago-style politics even while attempting to use it for their own partisan advantage.
See also
Notes
- Granger, Bill. Lords of the Last Machine: The Story of Politics in Chicago. Random House, 1987.
- O’Connor, Len. Clout: Mayor Daley and His City. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, 1984.
- Gosnell, F. Harold. Machine Politics: Chicago Model. University of Chicago Press, 1937, p. 27.
- Guterbock, Thomas. Machine Politics in Transition: Party and Community in Chicago (Studies of Urban Society). University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 33-35, 173.
- MacAskill, Ewen (4 June 2010). "Republicans accuse White House of 'Chicago-style politics'". The Guardian.
- Engber, Daniel (9 Dec 2008). "Why Is Chicago So Corrupt?". Slate Magazine.
- Silva, Mark (23 October 2009). "Obama's Chicago-style politics:' Boehner". Chicago Tribune.
- Weisberg, Jacob (23 July 2012). "Chicago Style". Slate.com.