Lincoln Steffens was a political journalist. He became famous when he began writing a series about the corruption of American cities, entitled The Shame of Cities. Steffens focused primarily on the political corruption of municipal governments. He began to doubt the effectiveness of reform policies and believed that they were trying to destroy the symptoms of corruption, rather than the causes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay He also suggested that party loyalty is something that should be left in the past and that everyone should be able to vote as individuals rather than as large government-controlled groups. He often referred to the government and those in power who appear to address the issue as “political machines”. These “machines” controlled everything and the common person hardly had any freedom while in power. In The Shame of Cities, Steffens makes an observation, saying, “Because politics is business. Here's what the problem is. That's what the problem is with everything: art, literature, religion, journalism, law, medicine: it's all business, and everything... as you see it. (Steffens 6) He calls politics strictly commercial and insinuates that the men in charge only care about the profit they will make in the long run, rather than what would benefit the public. Steffens, like many other reformers, wanted to change this. Describing the politicians themselves, Steffens said: “The commercial spirit is the spirit of profit, not patriotism; of credit, not of honor; of individual gain, not of national prosperity...". (Steffens 7) Politicians, who view politics itself exclusively as a business, do not consider the well-being of those affected, but rather only the outcome of their “business”. They look at themselves first, putting the result of their activity before the public. As long as they succeed, they are happy. Steffens believes he has found a solution to corruption in government. He believed that if political leaders behaved like “traders,” then the public should respond similarly. Citizens should behave like consumers of “merchants” and demand good governance. By demanding good governance, political "traders" will follow the rule of "supply and demand", and thus provide good governance. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get Custom EssayThe blame, however, does not only lie with political leaders. Steffens said it is also the fault of the people, who allowed leaders to come and “divert our loyalty from the United States to some 'party'; let them run the party and turn our municipal democracies into autocracies and our republican nation into a plutocracy.” (Steffens 11) Steffens' original intent was to inform people about corruption in governments, but his eyes were opened when he realized that people were guilty too. The problem would not have been solved as easily as he had hoped, because citizens would also have had to commit themselves to change just as politicians would have done..