Chicago Politics

Politics in general terms can be defined as the process by which group of people make decision for the welfare of their community. Each city, state and country has different ways to make the decisions and govern the people. Similarly Chicago has also its own uniqueness in, law and Governance or politics. The mayor is the head of the state in Chicago, as in any other state. The mayor is elected once in four years through general elections. He is the chief executive of the state. The city of Chicago comes under the County seat of Cook country. There are several other departments in Chicago, which are headed by the commissioners. These Commissioners are selected by the mayor. There are more than fifty departments in Chicago that is controlled by the mayor. The major of them are the police, fire, housing, health, finance, consumer affairs and so on. All these departments have the commissioners elected by the Mayor. There are two other officials elected other than mayor. They are the Clerk and the Treasurer. The politics and Government can be divided into two categories namely the executive and the legislative branches. The mayor heads the executive while the legislative will be taken care by the City Council. The City council has about fifty aldermen. These aldermen are elected from each ward through elections. The City Council is responsible for several issues like budget, welfare and so on. Each year, the council passes the budget around the month of November. The council allocates funds for public welfare activities that are to be undertaken by the Government. Looking onto the history of Chicago’s politics, one can see it as a democratic stronghold. The City, in fact has not elected even a single Republican as a mayor, after the year 1927. This simple fact might tell you that this is a Democratic stronghold. The city’s democratic organization is popularly known as the Chicago Democratic Machine. The city has been favoring Democrats, in the presidential elections also. Nowadays though, there has been an intense fight between the parties, but still Democrats have had the last laugh. There are eight persons, chosen as the U. S Representatives from the city. This is a large ratio as only nineteen are chosen as the U. S Representatives from the state of Illinois, out of which eight have a part in the city. The Chicago city hall houses various departments of the state and also the offices of the mayor and other notable dignitaries who are responsible for the welfare of the city and the state. It also convenes the several such official meetings. The politics of the Chicago has been one of the most interesting of its kind. If you would like to know more about the politics of Chicago, then do visit Chicago politics, where you will be able to get a lot of information regarding this.