Political boss

This corruption is usually tied to patronage: the exchange of jobs, lucrative contracts and other political favors for votes, campaign contributions and sometimes outright bribes.

In Spanish America, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal political bosses called caciques hold power in many places,[1] while in Italy they are often referred to as ras.

In the Southern United States, charismatic populist politicians like Huey Long commanded large networks of supporters.

With a few exceptions in the Southwest, such as Phoenix, most large cities of 100,000 or more in the early 20th century had machine organizations, and usually claimed one or more local bosses, most of whom were Democrats.

[9] An October 2020 article in The Bulwark argued that Donald Trump's appeal to white working-class voters in the 2016 United States presidential election was driven by the same kind of paternalistic and localist mentality that was exploited by the Democratic political bosses of the early 20th century.

Boss Tweed was portrayed by Philip Bosco in the 1986 TV movie Liberty, and by Jim Broadbent as a major supporting character in the 2002 film Gangs of New York.