There were many factors that led to the rise of political machines in American cities in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. One of the major factors that led to the rise of political machines was the rise of immigrant populations who sought to gain and increase their influence in the political realm and served as a powerful political tool for political machines. Political machines worked to enfranchise these voters through a system of patronage, and bribes and would bring them out on election days to support politicians who paid political bosses or awarded government privileges to. Positive aspects of this system were that it gave some increased level of representation of immigrant populations and worked to enfranchise these new political groups. However, these machines led to a high level of corruption and hurt the meritocracy of government institutions at the time.
Social contract theory basically says that all individuals are born equal, and provided a god given right to consent to be governed. American Government is based of this
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke said that we are selfish, individualistic, and constantly at war with each other, therefore we need to be controlled.
Government is defined as the legitimate use of force to control human behavior within territorial boundaries, here comes in Hobbes and Locke.
Hobbes takes the part about controlling human behavior. While Locke takes the part of legitimate use of force, since force is not legitimate unless there is consent of the people.
There are basically 3 goals of the government: 1) Maintain Order by protecting life and property. 2) Providing public goods, those which are typically not provided by the public sector, such as roads and education. 3) Promote Equality be it political, opportunist or outcome equality.
