The Kingmakers of Fresh Pond Road.: Ethnic-Political Brokers in an Italian American Community

The essay presents an analysis of the political activities of a group of ethnic-political brokers showing how the mediate between constituents and politicians in an Italian American community of New York City, acting as the modern version of a political machine. They do have, however, a peculiarity. In fact in the early 2000s, when Italian citizens abroad were granted the right to vote for the Italian parliament, this group became a "dual-nation political machine", supporting both an Italian-American candidate to the NYS Senate in Albany, and an Italian candidate to the Italian Senate in Rome.