The Republican Party dominated state politics in the interests of the land owners and mill operators from before the Civil War. Then in 1935, in a coup known as the Bloodless Revolution, the Democratic Party wrested control in the name of the Catholic majority and has dominated state politics ever since. While the party machine may be a pale shadow of the type that existed in the early part of the last century, it still plays a role. You don't find the healthy checks and balances that you find in a two-party system. State and city politics are inexorably intertwined in a state so small, and when extensive building and development, as is happening in downtown Providence, brings business interests together with politics, it can be fertile ground for corruption.
Developers are rude, crude capitalists, and there's a lot of opportunity for graft.
Wheeling and dealing, it's the nature of development. It's open to various monies being passed under the table. In the old days you used to feel lucky to get a job through the party machine. Nowadays it's getting a permit or cable TV contract. That may place them above the hurly-burly of party politics, but it also introduces the possibility of mixing business with politics, with dubious results, he said.