Politics in Cities

Cities have powerfully influenced the growth of American democracy and its political expression. Both formal city politics (party organizations, issues, elections, and legislation) and informal urban politics (assertions of privilege, power, protest, autonomy, or identity played out on public streets and in public discourse) have clarified the central tensions in American democracy between diversity and unity, liberty and order. In the mid-19th century, diverse ethnic and social groups melded competitive party politics, assertive public ceremonies and displays, and the availability of urban space to create in cities a lively, contentious pluralistic democracy. Class, ethnic, and racial antipathy also produced repression, conflict, disorder, and violence, prompting a parallel urge for harmony, centralized order and authority, and a shared civic interest—themes which emerged prominently during the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. Politics in cities continued these patterns thereafter.

This internal dynamic of politics in cities was framed by three critical overlapping periods in the institutional development of cities within the system of American politics and governance. First, between the Civil War and 1900, as cities grew in size, population, and economic importance, they struggled against the limitations of divided government. During this period, disciplined political organizations sometimes substantial enough to be called machines rose to prominence in many cities. In the second period, between 1900 and the 1940s, cities achieved administrative autonomy through home rule and internal consolidation and became dominant factors in state and national politics, by the end of the period as a powerful arm of the Democratic party. Cities also began to forge significant connections with the national government during the Great Depression and World War II. Finally, in the second half of the 20th century, the political influence of cities declined in the face of suburban growth and economic rivalry, urban population loss and nonvoting, physical decay and racial disorder, and federal programs which fostered direct connections between city residents and the national government and upon which cities became financially dependent. Cities seeking revival in the late 20th century sought to navigate between a politics of diversity that celebrated the values of heterogeneity in urban populations and an emphasis on shared civic identity intended to knit together the fragmented neighborhoods and diverse social groups residing in great cities.