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To Robert La Follette, political party machines and special interests held undue power in government and posed a continual threat to democracy. He believed that the individual citizen was the primary force in government and that each person had a right and responsibility to have a voice in governance. In a speech at the University of Chicago in 1897, La Follette describes the perils of political machines that prey on the indifference of individual citizens.Citation
La Follette, Robert. "Peril in the machine: R.M. La Follette's Oration." Chicago Times Herald. (23 February 1897).