today we're looking at political reform of the Progressive Era hello welcome to the Daily bell ringer please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the questions down in the description also don't forget to check out daily Bell ringer.com where you'll find more resources that go with many of the bell ringer videos the Progressive Era which took place from the late 19th century to the early 20th century was a time period of significant social and political change in the United States one of the key aspects of this era was the push for government reform
during this time various activists and leaders worked tirelessly for changes within government to give more power to the people promoting fairness transparency and accountability within government reform or change occurred at every level of government from local state and National institutions in 1900 a massive hurricane struck the city of Galveston Texas Killing over 8,000 people in response to the disaster Galveston established a five-person commission of experts in different areas of city government such as Public Safety or sewer repair to help rebuild the city the commission worked so well that the city permanently adopted the system other
cities around the country began to adopt what became known as the Galveston plan as part of this new plan many cities hired city managers who would operate cities as businesses which improved efficiency with within City governments this also contributed to limiting the power of political machines and bosses that had come to dominate local governments in the late 1800s speaking of political machines throughout the late 1800s the machines had controlled who was running for political offices in many state and local elections handpicking only the candidates that help the machines maintain power but in Wisconsin reformed Governor
Robert lafallet was able to Institute Direct primary elections in which the citizens were able to vote on who would be candidates for office in upcoming elections instead of the political machines deciding by 1916 all but four states had adopted some form of direct primaries to choose candidates as the American people were gaining more political influence Progressive leaders pushed for other ways in which more power could be given to American voters in order to keep elected officials more accountable many local and State governments began to adopt policies that gave the people more power and leverage within
government the initiative gave people the ability to propose new laws by collecting enough signatures from citizens on a petition if they acquired enough support from citizens then the proposed law would be directly voted on by the voters in the next election now citizens did not necessarily have to wait for elected lawmakers to propose new laws furthermore referendums allowed voters to approve or reject laws that had been passed by legislators and then lastly recalls gave voters the ability to remove government officials from office before the end of their terms if the official was not meeting the
voters expectations Beyond state and local elections during the Progressive Era American voters gained significant power in federal or national elections as well the US Constitution in Article 1 Section 3 had given the power to elect Senators to the US Senate only to the elected state legislator and not directly to the voters in other words only representatives in the state government could vote on who would be the Senators for their state the people could hold elections to advise state representatives on who to choose but in the end the state legislatures had the power progressive reformers sought
to change this believing that direct election of senators by the people would enhance democracy reduce corruption and make Senators more accountable to the people in 1912 the proposed amendment was introduced to Congress it passed both the house and the Senate by the required 2third majority and then went to the states for the required 3ars of the states to approve it before it would be added to the Constitution in April of 1913 Connecticut became the 36th state to approve it and on May 31st 1913 the 17th amendment was officially added to the US Constitution giving the
American people the power to directly vote for members of the US Senate as mentioned earlier Progressive leaders such as Wisconsin governor Robert lafallet Champion change instituting new ideas such as appointing University professors to draft laws and advise lawmakers additionally other state Governors such as Theodore Roosevelt of New York sought to Institute Fair hiring practices within state government and woodro Wilson of New Jersey who supported direct primary elections both Advanced political reform both Roosevelt and Wilson would go on to become president of the United States and bring their ideas to the federal level of government the
reform and change in the United States government during the Progressive Era would have a profound impact on the political landscape of the country and result in American voters having more power and influence in American democracy so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
