The Michael Madigan indictment is evidence of the turn against patronage

IS IT CORRUPT to recommend somebody for a job? That is the core of the case made on March 2nd by the United States attorney’s office in Chicago, which charged Michael Madigan, until last year the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, with racketeering. Before he quit last year Mr Madigan was the longest-serving speaker in any statehouse in American history, having held the role for 36 years, from 1983 to 2021. His power in Springfield, the state capital, was legendary. Going by the nickname “the velvet hammer”, he could make and break careers. “He was the most powerful figure in Illinois,” says Dick Simpson, a political scientist at the University of Illinois in Chicago.