Welcome to Philadelphia and to your first orientation to its politics. The third statement you see on this slide is not our city’s newest marketing slogan, but it is true nonetheless. Politics in this city isn’t just about getting public work done; it’s also Greek tragedy, soap opera, and “no holds barred” contests all wrapped up into one not-so-neat package.
But the goal of this orientation isn’t to turn you all into jaded cynics, for even the slimiest politicians still desire to serve the public interest -- I think. Anyway, I don’t want you to lose your starry-eyed idealism. I just want you to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into, how Philly’s political culture came to be so, and what you can do to negotiate it for your own good and for the good of our city.
Daniel Elazar defines political culture as “the particular pattern of orientation to political action in which each political system is imbedded.” The table you see here is derived from Elazar’s book, American Federalism, in which he describes three types of political culture, how they differ, and how they were derived.
In places like Minnesota and Massachusetts, you might find a moralistic political culture, one in which campaigns are about issues, politics are about seeking the public good, and everyone should participate. Meanwhile, in places like the South, you’ll find a traditionalistic political culture, in which everything is about preserving the status quo and the elites run the show.
In contrast, Philadelphia operates in an undeniably individualistic political culture, and that means that the expectation, both among the players and the spectators, is that politics is a dirty sport, best left to the pros and their deal-making. Politicians seek office not to take action on issues but to have access to power, with which to fulfill and propagate the agenda of their political parties. The party is everything in an individual political culture, as it is in Philadelphia, for politics is a business and parties the way to coordinate the relationships, transactions, and resources needed to succeed in the business.
How did Philadelphia become such a political individualistic culture? Well, how far back do you want me to go in answering this question? If you look at (relatively) recent history, you’ll find the R’s held power for the first half of the 20th century and the D’s for the second half. In both cases, individualistic behavior reigned in all its glory: partisan loyalty, deal-making, and blatant corruption, all in the name of professional politics. The changes in leadership from one party to another came when the abuses became too sensational for even a tolerant general public to bear; and the players never complained that the other side was dirty and they weren’t, just that the other side was in power and they weren’t.
Going further back, I would refer to de Tocqueville, who, upon visiting the US in the 1830’s, noted how much more individualistic Americans were than Europeans. And he would know a thing or two about individualism, being a countryman of Descartes, the first modern skeptic. Americans, to de Tocqueville, were extremely Cartesian, for they never accepted anything that could be doubted, but took it upon themselves to understand it for themselves.
One of our own Founding Fathers, James Madison, saw factions as necessary evils, since the alternative, curbing liberty, was even more abhorrent to him. He also preferred republics to democracies because they could be bigger; but they necessitated the electing of officials who would represent large groups of people. So now you can see where the individualist’s emphasis on political parties and professional politicians partly came from.
Going even further back, the first settlers in the mid-Atlantic, while diverse in religion and culture, shared a desire for individual opportunity, both for pursuing economic gain as well as practicing private religion. Government to them wasn’t for meddling in their affairs but for taking care of the marketplace so that they could freely conduct those affairs: be efficient, encourage private commerce, and otherwise get out of our way and we’ll stay out of yours.
We’ve gone back a few hundred years, so this political culture isn’t going away anytime soon. So if you plan to make a difference around here, you best understand how to navigate this culture. May I make four suggestions on how to survive, and even thrive, in Philly politics:
1. Issues vs. politics. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not about the issues in Philly, it’s about the politics. But if you don’t talk about issues at all, that’s not going to get you too far either. So you’ll have to learn to play both games, equally adept at spinning topics and taking positions with the media as you are at building alliances and cutting deals with the politicians.
2. Individual freedom vs. communal protection. Though he knew personal preferences led to divisive factions, Madison preferred this to curbing individual liberties. This summer’s anti-corruption trial is a move in the right direction, but you can go too far with this and handcuff politicians too much. How do you protect citizens from corrupt politicians but still give room for those politicians to do the deal-making they’re so used to? Easier said than done, but at least now you know there is a middle ground and that it’s where you want to be.
3. Get out of our way vs. help us go further. Sometimes residents and businesses send you this mixed signal: don’t meddle in our affairs, except when meddling will help us out. In deciding when to act and when to react, don’t forget that in this town, like all places with individualistic political cultures, new programs are never borne of a politician’s bright idea to improve society; rather, they are an appeasing of overwhelming public need and a form of currency for rewarding political allies or voting blocs who helped you.
4. Stay out of trouble. Did you ever watch Survivor or Apprentice and wonder why a more talented player got voted out? Pardon the pun, but sometimes cunning “trumps” brains. If you know the game, you play on; if you don’t, you get fired. Like those reality TV shows, Philly politics is all about alliances and deals, and may the best player win. Just be careful, because unlike those reality TV shows, there are external rules that govern how people in the public sector are to behave. Cross one of those lines, and you could go to jail.
Let me pick up on that last point as we close. I’m sure you’ve seen how every workplace has its own unique culture: an unwritten and implicit set of rules that govern behavior within an organization. Well, now you know a little bit about the unwritten and implicit set of rules that govern politics in Philadelphia.
Just remember that there also exists a written and explicit set of rules that govern public service. It’s called the law. Some of our most prominent politicians forget which set of rules is most important from time to time, and as a result they do some time.
You don’t want to do time. But you also don’t want to be oblivious to the political culture -- that second, assumed set of rules -- that dictates how things work in Philadelphia. Your challenge is to figure out how to play simultaneously by the first set of rules -- to be clean -- and by the second set of rules -- to be productive.
In describing Philadelphia’s political culture to you, I am neither condoning it nor condemning it. My hope is that by better understanding what it is, you’ll be better equipped to stay out of trouble, to interpret what’s going on and know how to respond, and ultimately to make a difference. Best of luck.
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