Progressive Movement In Wisconsin: La Follette And Public Interests

The United States had undergone a rapid and vast economic expansion since the19thcentury. It had transferred from a rural, agricultural nation to an urban,industrialized giant within a few years. However, the remarkable achievement wasovershadowed by the problems that came with the concentrated wealth and polarizedsociety. When few people enjoyed the fruit of the development, most people had noteven a bite. The government was reluctant to act and the whole representative systemwas on the edge of collapse.The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism andpolitical reform that flourished from the1890s to the1920s. Middle Class NativeAmerican from different backgrounds called for reforms to cope with problemsaccompanied with the industrialization and urbanization. It started at local level andthen was promoted to state and later federal level. The Progressive Movement was auseful historical reference to illustrate how the United States, as a developing countryand a rising world power, had dealt with similar challenges that confronted Chinaexactly a century later. It could offer China some useful historical insights about themeaning of―progress‖, governmental responsibilities and social development.The paper first of all reviewed the achievements and challenges brought byindustrialization after the Civil War. Then it moved to discuss how people fromdifferent social groups responded to the problems and what they have achieved.Among those achievements, reforms at state level accomplished the most. In thesecond chapter, the paper tried to generalize the political theory of Robert M LaFollette by reviewing his family background, educational experience and earlypolitical performances. The third chapter discussed his three major reforms inWisconsin, namely, direct primary, taxation reform and railroad regulation. Hebelieved in the majoritarian democracy that public interest went beyond everything.His political theory was mainly reflected by the―Wisconsin Idea‖.