Summer Book Section Illinois provides key resource in study of 'tradition of patronage'
Anne Freedman. Patronage: An American Tradition. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1994. Pp. 217 with notes and index. $19.95 (paper). In a short but substantial study, Anne Freedman ably contributes to our general understanding of political patronage in the United States. She draws heavily though not entirely on Illinois practices of the last half-century, reflecting the author's familiarity with her home territory (Freedman is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University in Chicago). Yet many of us living elsewhere would also concentrate on Illinois, including Chicago and Cook County, when studying persistent twentieth-century patronage politics and now the legal challenges to such politics as well. Indeed, in my home state of Wisconsin we have long associated Illinois with corrupting patronage practices that we believed were largely absent north of the state line. Cherishing Wisconsin institutions, despite recent deviations from older standards, I find no fault with Freedman's adverse judgment of patronage practices. Her conclusions are tempered, realistic and well-balanced, complementing the book's scholarly description and analysis. The author defines her subject as job patronage appointments to government jobs as a reward for political support as distinguished from preferments in the form of contracts and other favors to political supporters (particularly financial contributors). Freedman takes note of the latter's growing size and significance, and of an accompanying capacity for corruption on a scale at least as great as that of the old job-based machines. For these government preferments, enjoyed by lawyers, bankers and other business persons, she even uses the term "pinstripe patronage" that is familiar in Illinois though probably employed elsewhere, too. The term has not yet appeared in the political dictionaries, including William Satire's 1993 edition, but a usage so apt and colorful is likely to become standard as the preferments it describes become more familiar and more consequential. Good reasons remain, however, for a book concentrating on job patronage. Not only is it of major historical importance, but also it has not been fully ended by recent adverse judicial decisions. Policy- making positions, legally available for political appointments, may increase in number, and for many ostensibly civil service career positions, in Illinois and elsewhere, restrictions on partisan favoritism can still be evaded by more subtle and less overt means than in the old days. As Freedman shows, politicians have learned to avoid leaving paper trails. Another kind of justification for this book is its strikingly effective account of the judicial battle against job patronage. Especially impressive is the story of Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990), in which the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated politically based hiring (not merely politically based firing as it had before) for nonpolicy-making jobs. Freedman provides much more than the majority and dissenting opinions of the justices that are familiar to readers of court opinions. Her description reflects an intimate knowledge and grasp of the issues. She tells us about the actual discrimination against which the successful plaintiffs brought suit, and also about the lawyer who represented them. Freedman provides similarly interesting background information on the important Shakman case in which the federal judiciary limited Chicago patronage practices. I know of no other scholarly work that gives so full an account of the personalities and the politics, as well as the judicial considerations, in the leading Illinois patronage cases. On this score, the book should become a standard source. However much the work's strength lies in its research on Illinois, other places receive attention too. Indeed, an entire chapter over one-fifth of the book is devoted to the Republican organization in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Brief references to several other organizations appear elsewhere in the book, and the longest chapter is entitled "The State of Patronage: Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois." Only a small portion of that chapter, however, is devoted to Indiana and Wisconsin (along with Michigan and Minnesota) before proceeding to richer details on Illinois. Even brief mention of other states in the region serves the purpose of providing a comparative context in which the traditions of Illinois, like Indiana's, are distinguished from those of the upper midwestern states. Among the important differences is that job patronage in Illinois and Indiana has been facilitated by the declaration of party preference at primary elections, even without advance party enrollment of voters as in New York; job applicants can thus be identified by party as they cannot be in the truly open primaries of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. In this as in other respects, Freedman's description illuminates American political practices. Lean D. Epstein, Hilldale professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a past president of the American Political Science Association and the author of numerous books and articles on American and comparative parties and politics.
We hope you like the selection of books in this issue. Coordinating this effort was Dr. Judith Everson, our book reviews/humanities editor, with the assistance of Charles Swearingen, who served as our graduate assistant this past year. 25/July 1994/Illinois Issues
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