achtungbaby
10-24-2003, 07:44 PM
By Phil Nash, Washington Journal, Oct 17, 2003
In the just-completed California recall election, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger experienced some of the power of the populist fervor that shook this country to its core 100 years ago.
While the election of a millionaire movie star might not have been what the proponents of recall elections had in mind when they pushed for this form of direct democracy in dozens of states in the Progressive Era (approximately 1890 to 1917), this successful channeling of voter outrage against an incumbent governor provides a useful reminder that Progressive Era reforms are powerful tools in the arsenal of one-person-one-vote democracy.
Removing a corrupt official from office via direct recall was but one tool of direct democracy that won favor at this time. Others that found favor in various state and federal election laws included referenda (direct citizen votes on bills or proposed state constitutional amendments), initiatives (petitions by citizens to their state legislators to ask them to consider passing certain bills), secret ballots (allowing votes without party bosses seeing for whom you voted) and direct primaries (allowing voters to select candidates for office, instead of party bosses in smoke-filled back rooms).
Reforming electoral practices was only half of the problem, however, as city, state and federal management practices were resulting in cronyism, nepotism and the handing out of huge no-bid contracts to major campaign donors. City commissioners and city managers were hired in many cities during the Progressive Era to bring professional expertise in accounting, landscaping, education and trash removal. Progressive governors such as Wisconsin’s Robert LaFollette, New York’s Theodore Roosevelt and New Jersey’s Woodrow Wilson reformed corruption on the state levels of their respective states.
full story (http://yellowworld.org/comments.php?id=10655_0_1_0_C)
In the just-completed California recall election, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger experienced some of the power of the populist fervor that shook this country to its core 100 years ago.
While the election of a millionaire movie star might not have been what the proponents of recall elections had in mind when they pushed for this form of direct democracy in dozens of states in the Progressive Era (approximately 1890 to 1917), this successful channeling of voter outrage against an incumbent governor provides a useful reminder that Progressive Era reforms are powerful tools in the arsenal of one-person-one-vote democracy.
Removing a corrupt official from office via direct recall was but one tool of direct democracy that won favor at this time. Others that found favor in various state and federal election laws included referenda (direct citizen votes on bills or proposed state constitutional amendments), initiatives (petitions by citizens to their state legislators to ask them to consider passing certain bills), secret ballots (allowing votes without party bosses seeing for whom you voted) and direct primaries (allowing voters to select candidates for office, instead of party bosses in smoke-filled back rooms).
Reforming electoral practices was only half of the problem, however, as city, state and federal management practices were resulting in cronyism, nepotism and the handing out of huge no-bid contracts to major campaign donors. City commissioners and city managers were hired in many cities during the Progressive Era to bring professional expertise in accounting, landscaping, education and trash removal. Progressive governors such as Wisconsin’s Robert LaFollette, New York’s Theodore Roosevelt and New Jersey’s Woodrow Wilson reformed corruption on the state levels of their respective states.
full story (http://yellowworld.org/comments.php?id=10655_0_1_0_C)