Civic Corruption in America’s Big Cities
How real-life government corruption creates the environment for Arturo Ui’s onstage rise
Onstage at Lantern Theater Company September 5 through October 13, 2019, Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui dramatizes the rise of fascism on the world stage by setting it among gangsters in Chicago. In both the play and the historic events that inspire it, civic corruption is the opening that malefactors exploit to work their way into positions of power.
In The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, the gangster Ui uses a scandal involving an embezzled city loan to blackmail a prominent official, netting prominence and power for himself along the way. This is inspired by Germany’s Eastern Aid scandal, in which wealthy landowners obtained subsidies from the government for the upkeep of their estates, but spent them on personal luxuries instead. German president Paul von Hindenburg was ensnared in the scandal when these landowners purchased his debt-ridden family estate and gave it back to him as a gift, tying him to the embezzled subsidies. Hitler used this scandal to convince Hindenburg to make him chancellor on the promise of suppressing Hindenburg’s involvement, which in turn led to Hitler’s eventual takeover of the German government.
But this is far from the only example of civic corruption in the last two centuries. Though the play is based on German events, civic corruption was — and is — a widespread problem in American cities.
The Political Machine
The political machine is a hierarchical organization aimed at getting candidates elected to government positions and controlling that city’s political and administrative positions — and netting personal enrichment. The system’s heyday was the 19th century during the rapid rise of American cities, when urban governments often found themselves incapable of keeping up with the exploding population’s needs. Increasing numbers of immigrants, migrants from rural areas, and poor city dwellers required social services cities were ill-equipped to provide. Political machines stepped in, offering services like help with citizenship, food and coal delivery, or housing and employment assistance.
The machines often worked at a hyper-local level, ensuring that neighborhood concerns were addressed — and that votes from that neighborhood could be counted on to elect candidates from the machine. Once elected, machine operatives were often rewarded with government jobs after a successful election, and this administrative control allowed the machine to personally enrich members through inflated salaries and kickbacks in return for political favors. Political machines lost power in the mid-20th century, when governments reformed election procedures and improved their social service offerings.
Tammany Hall
Perhaps the most famous political machine — and the one most synonymous with the system’s corruption — was New York City’s Tammany Hall. It was founded in the 1780s as a social club for the discussion of politics, but by 1800 it was an electoral force, helping Aaron Burr win the vice presidency in that election. For much of the 19th century and into the 20th, Tammany Hall essentially ran New York City’s politics, harnessing the voting power of the working class and immigrants — particularly the large population of Irish immigrants coming over in the mid-1800s.
Like other political machines, Tammany Hall often offered the only social services the poor and immigrant populations were able to obtain, earning their trust and loyalty. But it was also intensely corrupt from its early days, including embezzlement of government funds and intimidation tactics and ballot stuffing at the polls. This corruption was most famously personified in William “Boss” Tweed, the head of the machine in the 1860s. With Tammany men as both the governor of the state and the mayor of the city, Tweed’s corruption and kickback schemes extended into nearly every facet of government. He also named himself and his cronies as the board of audit for the treasury, and began enriching themselves with fake contracts and inflated bills. His financial schemes were finally revealed and he was arrested in 1871, ultimately dying in prison after stealing anywhere from $30 million to $200 million from taxpayers.
Chicago
It was not just the gangsters that made Chicago a good setting for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; the city’s government has long had a notorious reputation for corruption. Chicago is broken up into 50 wards, with each ward represented by an alderman on the city council. Like political machines, this allows for very localized attention to issues — and to very localized bribery and kickbacks.
Since the 1970s, more than 30 city council members have been convicted of corruption. When all Chicago public officials are included, the numbers are more staggering: Between 1976 and 2017, Chicago was responsible for 1,731 federal corruption convictions — the most of any American city. Crimes include extortion, bribery, and improper use of campaign funds.
Pay-to-Play in Pennsylvania
This corruption is also a problem closer to home. In just one example, in 2017 the mayors of Allentown and Reading, Pennsylvania, were both indicted for corruption following a long-running federal investigation. In the pay-to-play schemes of Vaughn Spencer (Reading’s mayor) and Ed Pawlowski (Allentown’s mayor), lucrative government contracts were awarded to donors of their political campaigns. They were both convicted and sentenced to several years in prison; fourteen others, including their shared campaign manager, were convicted or pleaded guilty of various corruption charges including bribery, extortion, conspiracy, and fraud. One of these schemes involved bribing an official to repeal an anti-bribery statute.
These corruption scandals are widespread, and the personal enrichment and power grabs of the officials at their centers are shocking. But just like the political machines — and Arturo Ui’s resistible rise — none of it is possible without votes. Ed Pawlowski was in the middle of running for a fourth term as Allentown’s mayor when he was indicted. He won that election, and didn’t resign until days after he was convicted on 47 of 54 counts of corruption.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is onstage at the Lantern September 5 through October 13, 2019. Visit our website for tickets and information.
