In Chicago, Republican Mayor Bill Thompson lost his 1931 reelection campaign to Democratic challenger Anton Cermak — and since then, only Democrats have held the office. Cermak was able to defeat Thompson by uniting disparate ethnic communities behind him. Immigrant groups such as Poles, Czechs, Italians, and Germans all backed Cermak, setting the stage for decades worth of ethnic-based urban politics. To hold on to power so effectively, Chicago machine Democrats relied on winning over specific ethnic groups and interest groups that regularly voted for them en-masse.
Chicago’s political systems were designed to facilitate machine politics. According to Columbia University professor Ester Fuchs, Chicago restructured its fiscal policy process in response to the Great Depression to allow for further centralization and mayoral control. Strong Democratic party bosses masterfully dominated local government in Chicago using the political systems they divised.
While the days of political patronage are long gone, vestiges of urban machine politics endured. Barack Obama, a Chicago politician himself, built a national political coalition using the same strategies as big city mayors. Under Obama, the party transitioned to become more racially and ethnically diverse, college-educated, and ideologically progressive. In recent elections, Democratic political strategy has primarily relied on appeals to Black, Hispanic, working-class, and union voters. These strategies worked for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but failed in 2024.
Kamala Harris’s losses among traditionally Democratic constituencies such as urban residents, union members, and voters of color (particularly Latinos) is part of a greater trend: America’s formerly strong subcultural pluralism is breaking down.
Forty-three percent of Latino voters supported Donald Trump in last month’s election, which may have been an inevitable rite of passage. Democrats will never be able to build an enduring political coalition by only winning over loyal ethnic outgroups — eventually, subcultural groups will assimilate and cease voting as a united front.
Chicago’s European ethnic groups that supported Cermak’s mayoral campaign no longer vote as monoliths — the political assimilation of Italian Americans, for example, simply occurred long before that of Latinos. To stop playing obsolete ethnic politics, democratic reform is needed in America’s cities. Since urban machine politics was built around ethnic voting blocs, its accompanying political systems must be redesigned to function without the existence of strong subcultural pluralism.
Chicago’s local government was intended to be effective under the leadership of a strong mayor elected by winning over ethnic blocs, as it was for decades. Now, the presence of a politically weak mayor has sent the city into a fiscal crisis — uncertainty surrounding the city’s ability to pass a balanced budget has already led S&P to warn it may downgrade Chicago’s bond rating, which is already lower than any other major American city. While the City Council was once a rubber stamp for the mayoral agenda, it unanimously rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed property tax increase by a 50-0 vote last month. The city’s present spectacle of dysfunction is a direct consequence of antiquated political systems and policy processes.
Machine politics presented a centralized approach to policymaking — powerful mayors like Richard J. Daley would more or less be successful in implementing their agendas. Being elected mayor was a mandate. With the absence of unified ethnic blocs as a reliable base of support, that is no longer the case. Reform must streamline the policy process while still acknowledging how urban political culture has evolved.
Citizens’ assemblies — randomly-selected groups of people chosen to participate in deliberations surrounding a public policy decision — could be a potential solution. By addressing urban issues through deliberative processes like citizens’ assemblies, policy creation can rely on diverse voices even in the absence of unified blocs serving as proxies for individuals. Not only would citizens’ assemblies function amidst declining subcultural pluralism, they can also bolster the legitimacy of policy decisions and increase trust in government.
Other Chicago-specific reforms, like ending aldermanic prerogative, adopting a city charter, requiring fair legislative maps, and reducing the size of the City Council also could make government more efficient and politics more democratic.
Deliberate measures, however, would aid policymaking in any city. In anticipation of the coming Trump administration, Democrats need to demonstrate their ability to govern. Without significant democratic reform in cities, dysfunction will persist and the Democratic Party will continue to appear unable to meet the needs of their constituents.
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
