Nos EUA, também, o sistema plutocrático era altamente corrupto.
Mais uns 50 anos, vamos também melhorar...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
Today's selection -- from Chester Alan Arthur by Zachary Karabell.
After the Civil War, graft and corruption became pervasive in American politics at every level. In addition to illegal graft, there was a huge and entirely legal system of patronage, whereby tens of thousands of jobs were given to loyal members of the victorious party in exchange for political contributions or "assessments":
"Cities were kept together by political machines, which were tight-knit organizations that corralled votes, collected a percentage of profits, and kept the peace. The machine was epitomized by Tammany Hall in New York City and its majordomo, William Marcy Tweed, a Democratic boss surrounded by a sea of Republicans. More than any mayor, 'Boss' Tweed ran New York. His men greeted immigrants as they stepped ashore in lower Manhattan, offered them money and liquor, found them work, and in return demanded their allegiance and a tithe. Supported by Irish Catholics, who made up nearly a quarter of New York's population, Tweed held multiple offices, controlled lucrative public works projects (including the early plans for Central Park), chose aldermen, and herded voters to the polls, where they drunkenly anointed the Boss's candidates. Immortalized even in his own day by the rapier pen of Thomas Nast (has there ever been a political cartoonist who did more to define an era?), Tweed was gone by 1872, forced out and prosecuted, but the system kept going. Every city had its machine, and counties did as well. National politics was simply the apex of the pyramid that rested on local bosses and layers of graft.
Political cartoon by Thomas Nast
"It was a system of patronage, first and last. It had been dubbed the spoils system earlier in the nineteenth century, because to the victor of elections went the spoils of patronage -- jobs could be doled out to supporters in return for their vote come Election Day. In the years after the Civil War, the number of government jobs grew, and so did the spoils system. Even the powerful members of the U.S. Senate were part of the patronage game, because they were not directly elected but instead chosen by the state legislatures, which were themselves an outgrowth of local machine politics. Elections were hotly contested not over principle but over the power of appointment that winning conferred. Senators could appoint a variety of officials at both the federal and state levels. Tens of thousands of jobs were at stake, and these jobs paid salaries, usually quite handsome salaries by the standards of the day. In return for being appointed, officials were expected to make monetary contributions to the party, and their contributions then funded the next round of campaigning.
"The contributions were known as assessments. There was nothing secretive or shadowy about them. The assessments were set by party leaders, and letters were sent each year and during each election cycle to all salaried civil servants specifying the amount they were expected to contribute. It was a self-perpetuating cycle. Win an election, appoint bureaucrats, judges, administrators, and then use them to pay for the next election. That is why party organizations were so powerful, and why the presidency, even with its executive powers curtailed, remained a plum position. As chief executive, the president had the ultimate power of patronage. Senators decided who would occupy most of the appointments for federal offices in their states, and governors did the same for state officials. But the president of the United States appointed the postmaster general. The postal service, with a branch in every city, town, and village, comprised nearly half the federal bureaucracy, or nearly thirty thousand employees by the 1870s, all of whom could be fired or hired after each presidential election. The president also chose the secretary of the Treasury, who headed the second largest federal agency, and the one responsible for overseeing the customhouses of major ports such as Boston, Baltimore, and New York.
"Jockeying for these offices was intense. Party seniority played a part, but major appointments were also used to reward friends and to penalize foes. ... Each national election was a patronage contest. Leaders who could most effectively mobilize their networks and raise the most money through assessments tended to emerge victorious, which of course allowed them to consolidate their power and become that much more entrenched."
Chester Alan Arthur: The American Presidents Series: The 21st President, 1881-1885
Author: Zachary Karabell
Publisher: Times Books
Copyright 2004 by Zachary Karabell
Pages 6-9
