That Gilded Age reflected deficiencies in Public Policy and law that enabled powerful industrialists as they built opulent lifestyles along with infrastructure like cross-country railroads and telecommunications systems (initially consisting of Morse Code telegraph).
With those infrastructure upgrades, "the rabble" grew discontent and got more involved in civic life and more organized.
Arizona State University professor emeritus of Political Science and Morrison Institute for Public Policy senior research fellow David Berman has contributed an important book that those wanting to learn lessons from the Progressive Movement will want to devour.
Berman explores the balance of states' rights and the centralized federal government. With more of a focus on the chief executives of state governments, covering each state in the Union at the time.
Berman tells us what they did.
...Populists and, later, the Progressives, moved away from laissez-faire, individualism, and limited government and generally took the position that poverty was the product of conditions over which the poor had no control or, borrowing from the Populists, that the poor were that way because the rich were stealing from them. [William Jennings] Bryan sought to bring the good life to all people, not simply the privileged. He pledged to break up the monopolies, regulate or nationalize the railroads, democratize the political system so that the common people could rule, and shift more of the costs of government to those who could afford to pay. (p 21)Of most interest to me, George W. P. Hunt, the first state governor of Arizona oversaw the writing of the Constitution of the 48th State. Beside declaring that
All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.it enshrined the right of the People to make their own laws, and refer all of what the Arizona Legislature enacted back to the People for approval or lack thereof.
But I digress.
La Follette, a politician (having served in several offices, including governor) from Wisconsin is widely known for having defeated "political machines" that anointed candidates for office.
In the 1880s and 1890s railroad and lumber interests were the dominant political power in Wisconsin. They "dictated to the governor and both houses of the legislature. At one time, a railroad lobbyist boasted the no legislation ever had been or could be enacted without the permission of the railroads." [...]
La Follette began his political career by running for the office of Dane County district attorney in 1880. He did this despite a warning from the local Republican boss, Colonel E. W. Keyes, that his machine had already chosen a candidate for that position and that La Follette's bid was not welcomed. Keyes demanded that La Follette respect the authority of the political machine. La Follette ignored him, campaigned around the county promising to clean house and reinvigorate the county attorney's office, and was able to build up enough support to win the nomination... He had learned a valuable lesson: the bosses could be beaten. (pgs 47-48)In Arizona today, similar might be said regarding major electric utilities, Arizona Public Service (an IOW, investor-owned utility) and the Salt River Project (a quasi-governmental corporation). Plenty has been written about APS having "purchased" its own government regulators (a majority of the five elected members of the Arizona Corporation Commission) in local news and blogs (including the Arizona Eagletarian).
Other than APS exerting direct influence on the ACC, both APS and SRP have outsized pull in the state legislature, for two main reasons. First, generous campaign contributions to candidates. Second, lavish spending on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers. Sure there are limits, but even within those limits, the influence on lawmakers is immense.
With the power of the People, Arizona voters have in the last 25 years established the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. In the current election cycle, a completely grassroots movement is mobilized to Outlaw Dirty Money (aka the People's Right to Know) so that Big Money can't hide who is trying to buy influence over elected officials in our state.
It is no accident that these reforms have come from Arizona and that Arizona has enjoyed the academic research, teaching and writing of David Berman.
One thing I'm confident that Berman would tell you is that the struggle never ends. But...
Reform-minded governors throughout the country in the first two decades of the twentieth century also brought needed independence and prestige to the office of governor and aroused interest, confidence and a sense of excitement in state government... They helped shift into an era where more state chief executives began following Al Smith's (see also pgs 163-165) maxim: "It is the duty of the governor to let the people tell him their troubles."
Governors helped build the image of state governments as innovative, do-something governments. While leaving much to do in the area of civil rights and the rights of workers, they led efforts to bring about a more democratic political system, a more proactive government sensitive to the needs of ordinary people, and a government better prepared to take what action was needed of a regulatory nature or in the provision of public services. (pg 270)
Governors and The Progressive Movement was published by the University Press of Colorado (2019).
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
On Thursday September 19 (the evening before the next big Climate Strike event) Professor Berman will appear at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe at 7pm to talk about the Governors and the Progressive Movement and sign copies of the book.
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