Urban politic relationship with Urban medical services
Through the history of the urban politic in the US, how does it help with the urban health system, what are the impacts which cause by the development of urban politics to the development of urban medical services?
Urban Politics & Urban Health
The development history of urban
health system with urban politics
SOCIAL POLICY AND CITY POLITICS: TUBERCULOSIS REPORTING IN NEW YORK,
1889-1900(Daniel Fox, 1975)
“The public health innovators faced a difficult political challenge. They had to
create sufficient support for compulsory notification within the city to prevent
the State legislature from restricting the powers of the Board of Health.”(Fox)
This statement made people understand why the city politics was strongly
related to city public health.
Plunkitt’s Wisdom of Running
Political Machines
George W. Plunkitt
American politician from New York State, who served in both houses of the
New York State Legislature. He was a leader of the Tammany Hall political
organization. He was very good at running political machines even made great
impact to the theory of the machine politics.
George Washington
Plunkitt (November 17,
1842 – November 19,
1924)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Legislature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
Definition of Political Machine
Political machine, in U.S. politics, a party organization, headed by a single boss
or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and
administrative control of a city, county, or state.
Tammany Hall is an excellent example of a Political machine which was lead by
Plunkitt during the late 19th century.
https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States
Honest Graft VS. Dishonest Graft
Honest grafts are actions that taking legally by the politicians to make profit
for themselves while they were in power.
Dishonest grafts are taking illegal actions or even crimes to get profit which
might create great damage to the city.
The Curse of Civil Service Reform
Plunkitt believed that the Civil Service test for those individuals which would like to
put their patriotism into their work would made those people feel disappointed.
(Example: the Battle of the San Juan Hill)
Patriotism matters a lot to the workers’ attitude to their jobs. However, in order to
reduce the possibility of making wrong decisions while in power or elections, the
party need their workers to be as higher educated as they can. Patriotism could not
handle the real political problems.
Reformers VS. Politician
Reformers: Morning Glories which the show would not last for a long time since
usually they were not well trained in doing political works.
Politician: Start their career when they are teenagers and learn about politics.
Through the political training year after year, they would always be prepared and
aimed on the most important points of the game.
Competition VS. Cooperate
As a member of Democratic, Plunkitt also got jobs from Republican, most of the
time he tended to cooperate with the Republican in the political stuff since he
believed that “The politicians have got to stand together this way or there wouldn’t
be any political parties in a short time. Civil service would gobble up everything,
politicians would be on the bum, the republic would fall”. He only fought against the
republican leader during the election time, they were good friends that had different
political opinions.
Danger of Dressing Suits
Plunkitt believed that there are two taboos for a politician to do: dressing suits
physically and dressing suits mentally.
Conclusion