Suchergebnisse

Scholarship attempting to explain the success of progressive reformism in the United States is divided into three approaches. "Great man" scholars regard it as the result of a genuine desire for good government; revisionists as an attempt by elites to eliminate immigrants from the power structure; and pragmatists as a means for urban political machines to increase their influence. The proposition made here is that it was the type of reform—electoral versus moral—that significantly determined the make‐up and motivations of the supporting coalitions. The hypothesis is supported through a roll call analysis of House votes on the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Amendments. While the electoral reform was backed by the groups who would reap the greatest tangible rewards, the coalition that formed around the moral reform reflected a regionally based ideological split.