ABSTRACT
Eleventh Ward alderman Michael Bilandic was a Croatian American who served as Mayor Daley's own Eleventh Ward alderman in the city council. He knew little about politics, which he had always left to Daley. Mayor Bilandic was a caretaker mayor trying to keep Daley's empire together and cope with social, economic, and political changes that Daley had contained, but he was unable to pull it off. The Bilandic council divided more or less along the same dimensions as the Daley council: machine control versus citizen participation, racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, and good government reform. A silent revolution from machine politics and a growth machine regime was taking place below the surface of politics as usual. The Bilandic interlude gave way to a different regime, but the Chicago City Council stayed pivotal to the changes. The Bilandic council came to an end with the elections of 1979.
