Party Games

by Summers, Mark Wahlgren

• ISBN13: 9780807855379
• ISBN10: 0807855375
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

Much of late-nineteenth-century American politics was parade and pageant. Voters crowded the polls, and their votes made a real difference on policy. In "Party Games, Mark Wahlgren Summers tells the full story and admires much of the political carnival, but he adds a cautionary note about the dark recesses: vote-buying, election-rigging, blackguarding, news suppression, and violence. Summers also points out that hardball politics and third-party challenges helped make the parties more responsive. Ballyhoo did not replace government action. In order to maintain power, major parties not only rigged the system but also gave dissidents part of what they wanted. The persistence of a two-party system, Summers concludes, resulted from its adaptability, as well as its ruthlessness. Even the reform of political abuses was shaped to fit the needs of the real owners of the political system--the politicians themselves.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Dog That Didn't Bark at Night	ix
I. Our Friend the Enemy
1. A Typical Year	3	(16)
2. What Else Could He Have Put into H--l?	19	(14)
3. Politics Is Only War without the Bayonets	33	(22)
4. The Demon Lovers	55	(18)
II. Party Tricks
5. The Press of Public Business	73	(18)
6. The Best Majority Money Can Buy	91	(16)
7. An Eye on the Maine Chance	107	(18)
8. Anything, Lord, but Milwaukee! Malapportionment and Gerrymandering	125	(16)
III. Policy-The Golden Rule?
9. Purse'n'All Influence	141	(20)
10. The (Round) House of Legislation	161	(14)
11. Class Warfare, Mainstream-Party Style	175	(20)
IV. Rounding off the Two and a Half Party System
12. The Treason of the Ineffectuals	195	(16)
13. A Little Knight Music	211	(18)
14. The Fix Is In	229	(22)
15. Dishing the Pops	251	(26)
Coda: Parties to a Conspiracy	277	(6)
Notes	283	(38)
Bibliography	321	(24)
Index	345