Factors that Led to the Growth of Cities
The period between 1930- 1930 was characterized by mass immigration into the US. This led to the growth of cities due to increased population. The factors that led to this tremendous growth of cities included: increased demand for housing, availability of cheap labor. Increased demand for goods and improvement of infrastructure. Generally, between 1830-1930, 3.5 million and 4.5 immigrants of British and Irish origin respectively entered America. The Catholic and Protestant immigrants that arrived in 1845-1880 were largely driven from their homes by famine. After 1880, there was an improvement in the shipping technology, which saw about 25 million immigrants arriving in the united states to look for jobs. These immigrants were from Italy, Hungary, Russia, Germany, Britain, Czech and even Jews.
Immigration slowed after the first world war because the US government introduced checks to regulate the immigrants entering America. The immigration policy established by the immigrations Act of 1921 and 1924 limited the numbers of people migrating into the US based on their origin. The creation of the Border Patrol also led to the decrease of immigrants because it curbed illegal smuggling of aliens into the country by a big number.
Children and women’s rights; This movement was coordinated by the National Labor Committee to address the exploitation of vulnerable members of the society by using photographs taken by Lewin Hine which showed children working under harsh conditions. This approach saw the implementation and the enactment of a law which stipulated the range of years and of age for working with children in 1910(Anderson 57). Women also were to be limited for the time of working. A 54 workweek for women was introduced and children below 14 years were barred from working. After the nineteen amendments of the constitution women are given the right to vote and also participate in political positions.
Prohibition of alcohol which was supported by the Protestant churches by the formation of Anti Saloon League; resulted in the banning of manufacture firms and the sale of alcohol by the two-thirds of states in 1917. Making government efficient and responsive was aimed at allowing direct participation of the public in political processes, Anderson, E. (1999). A preliminary election to be taken by all members of the party by nomination, a referendum in which proposed law is clearly presented on the ballot for voting. For making government responsive a workman compensation law was formulated under workman’s compensation Act of 1916. This led to compensations due to injuries, deaths and other accidents which resulted from the working conditions.
Impact of Immigration Policies
Redlining: -This is an illegal practice by banks or any other financial institution whereby loans and mortgages are denied to people from certain neighborhoods. Redlining was dominant in the US in the 1930s whereby the Home Owners Loan Corporation drew maps of the neighborhoods to determine which ones were worthy to get mortgage lending (Wacquant 106). During this period, American neighborhoods were color-coded and the ones that had people from different races were outlined in red. This practice was soon adopted by private although it was dropped in 1968 through the Fair Housing Act.
White flight.
This was the dramatic migration of white people from the inner cities to the suburbs. It occurred in the 1970s and the period was marked by high racial tension.
The FHA and VA policies made suburbs exclusive for whites in the following ways:
They ensured that mortgage was only available for the whites.
They mapped the neighborhoods.
There was punishment for whites who condoned having African neighbors.
There were some changes that were introduced for the process of urban renewal to be effective. They included:
Formation of biracial coalitions. With a lot of enmity brewing, this was viewed as the best option to govern the cities. It brought peace and harmony. This policy has taken root in some areas like Colorado which have had both white and black mayors. Economic development. there was an initiative to develop both the white and black neighborhoods equally. This was also accompanied by crime control mechanisms
According to Nancy L. Rosenblum, 2000. In her essay on Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies, she postulates that in the early 19th and 20th Centuries, USA was polarized alongside two faith blocks which borrowed identity from the two ruling parties, the Republican and the Democrat. The Protestant sects were aligned to the Republican while the Catholics were aligned to the Democrats. During this particular era, most whites were Democrats and Africans were Republican thus resulting in the beefed-up divide of ethnocultural politics. It is often asserted that politicians only disclose their religious affiliations during campaigning period, an aspect that is likened to Jefferson, the third president of USA. Party machines in this case, therefore, refer to a group of politics headed by a boss or small stratified autocratic group commanding enough votes and other resources to maintain political and administrative control of city or state. There is free exercise of religion in the United States. During campaigns, the politicians are free to discuss their religious beliefs which may trigger some feelings to the public against voting for the politician.
Movement for Children and Women’s Rights
The reform for alcohol and pubs for barring the manufacture and sale of alcohol despite claims of reactions made by liquor press. Donations are made by the alcohol industry to political parties in its efforts securing favorable policy outcomes. In 1997 Carr Government liberated NSW gambling laws to allow poker machines in pubs and hotels.
The first striking episode is in the 20th century when Americans – in Chicago, lived in an agricultural society that is semi-feudal and revolutionized to practicing urban industrial inequality. At the time when racial tumult got the better of the Southern region – that is in 1963, Chicago and Mississippi had the same political alignment. It was the same time that LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. Chicago delivered five Democrats to the House thereby, dominating the political arena for an extended period. The regions had elements that are archetypal with regards to the New Deal coalition (Fuchs 63). Also, they had a racial hierarchy that is clear – however, that in Mississippi was sustained by private violence and law. Another outstanding issue was the political alignment of the organization in Chicago. In that period, firms were hegemonic and democratic. They practiced politics that had a “sharp racial edge” thereby ensuring that black political forces are marginalized. White citizens of Chicago did not pay much attention to racial utopia because the vigilantes were entrenched on ethnic segregation patterns as well as regulation and law. On the contrary, such a phase represented the last moment when Chicago and Mississippi were ruled by white polities that are stable – with intents and purposes, in the Democratic fold. Five decades after that, Mississippi became known as the reddest state while Chicago was blue at the national level politics (Fuchs 213). The New Deal coalition – earlier known as all-powerful and built on an alliance that is tenuous, completely vanished. The northern and southern constituencies wholly disappeared. Such also accelerated the civil rights movement and struggled in the 1960s (Kare 67).
Analyses – either aggregate-level or individual, show that the cleavage of urban-rural partisan has grown. On the other hand, the current system of representation preferably distills people-in-communities into the legislative seats. The form is residence-based meaning that legislators do not represent economic sectors but age cohorts, geographic constituencies, or other societal cross-sections. In Los Angeles, the representative is associated with looking after particular groups of individuals or built environment. In such a way, suburbanites, urbanites, and ruralists happen to be either represented or af?liated differently leading to the rise of political con?icts. In Los Angeles still, a gap that is approximately 10 percent may be exaggerated to represent 1-0 in a particular constituency. Thus, a winner-take-all scenario occurs. About local institutions that affect national politics, several documents on the same – published four decades ago argue that financial institutions’ disciplining powers and federalism logic does not determine the local outcome’s character. However, it is impossible to deny the predicaments faced by Los Angeles. The forces of urban politics in Los Angeles have the potential of shaping the communities in the city. On the contrary, such will only happen if such effects are organized at levels that are high enough to initiate self-government. Issues like labour law, redistribution, public works projects, regulatory policy, and other market interventions need to be appropriately planned and paid for as well. Such responses are necessary because they have characteristics that are distinctive to urban political positioning. Such positioning gives a city the voice required in national politics using the Democratic Parties (Fuchs 501). The pursuance of such civic positions within the federal legislature is, as well, determine how the city represents itself and also interact with other cities of the polity (Kare 123).
Anderson, E. (1999), Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner city. New York: WW. Norton.
Fuchs, Ester. “Mayors and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago.” The University of Chicago Press Books, 30 Mar. 2018, https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3644218.html.
Karen, Mayor. “Can America’s Great Industrial Cities Pull off a Second Act?” Chicago University-Institute of Politics, 30 Mar. 2018, https://www.politics.uchicago.edu/pages/lavea-brachman-seminar-series.
Wacquant, L. (2002). Scrutinizing the street: Poverty, Morality and the Pitfalls of Urban Ethnography, American Journal of Sociology, 107(6): 1-1532.