Essay Progressive: Progressivism and Institutional Political Reform

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Unifying Themes

- Three basic attitudes behind progressive movements:

- Anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban growth

- Emphasized social cohesion and common bonds to understand modern society

- Against social Darwinism

- Felt citizens needed to intervene to improve social conditions

- Progressives offered a combination of social justice and social control

Women Spearhead Reform

- Many middle class women supported the settlement house movement

- Reformers such as Jane Addams and Florence Kelley promoted female education

The Urban Machine

- Women had to work outside existing political institutions

- City politics had become a closed and corrupt system

- Machine politics - well organised, dominant political parties catering to specific voters

- Viewed their work as a business, served people who needed assistance

- “Honest Graft” - Making money from inside information on public improvements

- Timothy “Big Tim” Sullivan - embodied the machine politics style

- Gained votes by helping pass reforming legislature, eg. child labour laws, etc

Political Progressives and Urban Reform

- Political progressivism originated in the cities to challenge machine politics

- Governments hardly seemed capable of providing basic essential services

- “Good Government Movement” - led by the National Municipal League

- Fought to make city management a non-partisan process, like a large corporation

- Progressive politicans focused on changing policies, not the political structure

Progressive in the Statehouse

- “Wisconsin Idea” - The application of academic scholarship and theory to public needs

- Adopted by many states

- Western progressives displayed the greatest enthusiasm for institutional political reform

- The Initiative - allowed direct vote on an issue raised by petition

- The Referendum - allowed voters to decide on bills referred to them by the legislature

- These and other measures intentionally weakened political parties

- Southern populism = biracial policies - Southern progressivism = whites only

- Southern progressives supported black disfranchisement as a reform

- “Grandfather clauses” - uneducated whites could vote if their grandfather was able to

- Southern progressives pushed for fully segregated public areas

New Journalism: Muckraking

- Jacob Riis - How the Other Half Lives - first real exposé detailing poor living conditions

- Journals such as McClure’s began uncovering the bad side of American life

- Journalists included Lincoln Steffen (The Shame of the Cities) and Ida Tarbell (History of the Standard Oil Company)

- Exposure Journalism, as it was called, paid handsomely

- President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “muckrakers” for these journalists

Intellectual Trends Promoting Reform

- Intellectual thinkers began challenging several core American ideas - this led to reforms

- L. F. Ward - Dynamic Sociology - said applying Soc. Darwinism to society was wrong

- Legal, educational and industrial reformers began speaking out against their fields

- Lochner v. New York - Judge Holmes ruled that a 10-hour day for bankers was wrong

- Holmes affected a new group of lawyers known as the “social jurisprudence”

- Edward A. Ross - Social Control - became a key phrase in progressive thought

- Argued that society needed an elite with the best interests of society at heart

Unifying Themes

- Three basic attitudes behind progressive movements:

- Anger over the excesses of industrial capitalism and urban growth

- Emphasized social cohesion and common bonds to understand modern society

- Against social Darwinism

- Felt citizens needed to intervene to improve social conditions

- Progressives offered a combination of social justice and social control

Women Spearhead Reform

- Many middle class women supported the
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