Question

Explain the importance of politics and politicians to the people that lived in the cities???

Help please what does this mean..?

Answer 1

Taking a wild guess, I wonder if you are being asked to explain "machine" politics, which dominated much of the late 19th and early to mid 20th century politicsi in the United States. In a typical big city "machine" a poor to middle-class resident trades his vote for local services, e.g. having his street repaved or lighting fixed, better police and fire protection, quick approval of business licenses or a generous attitude on the part of local inspectors, possibly even a city job for himself or a relative.

Since the machine can deliver votes en masse, without a candidate needing to persuade each individual voter, its support can determine who wins an election, and that, in turn, allows the machine to deliver on its promises to residents, because the machine controls local government through controlling who gets elected. Sometimes someone in local government actually runs the machine. For example, the famous "Daley machine" ran Chicago for decades, and the head was the mayor himself. At other times, the machine is run by someone not in government at all, such as the Prendergast machine that ran Kansas City in the 1950s.

Since state and Federal government are also important to local affairs, machines also got involved in state and federal politics. They could deliver large masses of votes from the cities, and in return, their candidates were expected to favor the cities, and local city government, in what they did in office. Two of the more famous machine politicians of the 20th century are Harry Truman, who became Senator through the efforts of the Prendergast machine, and John Kennedy, who became President through the efforts of the Daley machine.