Gilded Age Parties
A third party from the countryside
- Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People's (Populist) Party, which called for a stronger governmental role in regulating the American economic system.
- The demand is specific: a stronger governmental role in regulating — the direct answer to 6.12's laissez-faire position.
- 6.2's falling prices and railroad dependence are the instability meant, so the party is 6.2's grievance in political form.
The Populist demand was for...
The direct answer to 6.12's laissez-faire position.
What the major parties argued about
- The major political parties appealed to lingering divisions from the Civil War and contended over tariffs and currency issues, even as reformers argued that economic greed and self-interest had corrupted all levels of government.
- Three elements: Civil War divisions as an appeal, tariffs and currency as the issues, and a corruption critique running alongside.
- Lingering divisions from the Civil War is why the parties could differ sharply without differing much on industrial policy.
Select both issues the major parties contended over.
Neither proposed regulating industry — hence the Populists.
Machines supplied what government did not
- In an urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed, political machines thrived, in part by providing immigrants and the poor with social services.
- In part by providing... social services — the CED explains why machines had support, rather than only condemning them.
- So the machine is a response to the same absence 6.11's Social Gospel and 6.9's settlement houses addressed.
The Populists, the major parties, or the machines?
Sort each element of Gilded Age politics.
The major parties appealed to...
Which is why they could differ sharply without differing much on industry.
The CED explains why machines had support rather than only condemning them. They thrived in part by providing immigrants and the poor with social services — the same absence that settlement houses and the Social Gospel addressed, answered by a different kind of organisation.
The CED explains machine support by noting they...
The same absence settlement houses addressed.
Similarities and differences
- The objective asks for the similarities and differences between the political parties during the Gilded Age.
- Similarity: both major parties appealed to war-era loyalties and neither proposed regulating industry — which is why the Populists formed outside them.
- Difference: they contended over tariffs and currency, which were real issues with regional consequences.
The corruption critique belongs in the answer as a ____ voice.
Not as one party's position.
Writing a party comparison
- Compare the two major parties on one basis, then explain what the Populists added that neither offered.
- The corruption critique belongs in the answer as a third voice, not as one party's position.
- End on the machine: where parties did not deliver services, an organisation that did could command loyalty.
An organisation that finds a man a job, pays for a funeral and fixes a street has earned a vote more concretely than a party that argues about currency. Whether the trade is good is a separate question from why it happened.
Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People's (Populist) Party, which called for a stronger governmental role in regulating the American economic system. The major political parties appealed to lingering divisions from the Civil War and contended over tariffs and currency issues, even as reformers argued that economic greed and self-interest had corrupted all levels of government, and political machines thrived, in part by providing immigrants and the poor with social services.