Reform Democrats in the United States are members of the
Democratic Party who are opposed to the Democratic
political machine
In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...
s of their respective cities,
counties
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
, or
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
s, or to analogous machine politics at a national level. Reform Democrats are generally associated with the
good government
Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for the ...
traditions that arose out of the
progressive movement of the early 20th century, and are usually, but not always, on the
left wing of the Democratic Party. The lines between anti-machine Reform Democrats and pro-machine Regular Democrats are not always clear: often, once reformers achieve office, they take advantage of
patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...
to establish a machine in their own right. An example of this is the rise of the "Reform machine" of
Jim Brennan in the wake of his triumph over the more traditional machine of
Meade Esposito in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
New York, in the 1980s.
Reform Democrats were contrasted with machine-affiliated regular Democrats.
[John Kifner]
Reform Democrat to Face Sargent in Massachusetts
''New York Times'' (Sept. 11, 1974). Noted Reform Democrats included Massachusetts's
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...
,
[ and New York's John J. B. Shea and Arnold Fein. Although the term has somewhat fallen out of use since the 1970s, it still has some currency in Greater New York area, such as the Hudson County Reform Democratic Organization in ]New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
.Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, which toppled Carmine DeSapio and the might of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...
.
References
Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)
Tammany Hall
{{US-poli-stub