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U.S. History EOC Assessment Videos 64 videos
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AP U.S. History 1.4 Period 6: 1865-1898 221 Views
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The rise of "political machines" in urban centers resulted in all of the following except what? And no, even though "Rise of the Political Machines" does sound like it should be a Michael Bay movie, it's not. But maybe he should get on that...could be a summer blockbuster.
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by political machines,
- 00:07
gadgets with a bias.
- 00:10
All right, take a look at this excerpt.
- 00:11
The Populist Party.... [ mumbles ]
Full Transcript
- 00:15
[ mumbling continues ]
- 00:18
And the question: The rise of
- 00:20
"political machines" in urban centers resulted in
- 00:24
all of the following except... what?
- 00:27
And here are your potential answers.
- 00:29
[ buzz ]
- 00:32
[ mumbles ]
- 00:33
All right, so just what were these "political machines"?
- 00:36
Put them in quotes there, like that.
- 00:38
All right, well basically a political machine was a network of favors.
- 00:42
Residents voted for candidates in exchange
- 00:44
for jobs and contracts.
- 00:46
So if your guy ended up winning, well, so did you.
- 00:49
Let's see which of these answers wasn't a result of that
- 00:52
old-school sociopolitical network.
- 00:56
All right, did the rise of political machines in urban centers result in
- 01:00
A - increased infrastructure and social services
- 01:03
available to residents? Oh, you bet.
- 01:05
Cities were filthy back then, but once political machines
- 01:08
came on the scene, it became much easier to get public
- 01:11
works projects going, since candidates
- 01:14
handed out contracts to friends.
- 01:16
Would the prevalence of political machines have led to B -
- 01:19
historically high rates of voter turnout?
- 01:22
Well, if you knew you'd be able to get a job or a favor done
- 01:25
simply by showing up to vote,
- 01:27
you'd be pretty eager to get to the polls, right?
- 01:30
Yeah. This "I help you, you help me" system also
- 01:33
played a big part in increasing loyalty to political parties,
- 01:37
which means B and C can't be it, either.
- 01:40
So it leaves us with D -
- 01:41
decreased corruption and patronage.
- 01:44
Well this system of exchange between elected officials
- 01:47
and their constituents referred to as
- 01:49
"patronage" led to extensive government corruption,
- 01:52
because party loyalty was valued more highly than
- 01:55
merit or expertise.
- 01:57
So the correct answer is D.
- 01:58
With all that grease in the wheels, it's no wonder politicians
- 02:02
were - and are - so slimy.
- 02:04
[ eating sounds ]
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