1 - The Ascendancy of Reform Populism

Summary

Americans have tried repeatedly to improve their political system in various ways. They have extended voting rights to women and racial minorities, ensured more regular presidential rotation, replaced indirect with direct Senate elections, and regulated congressional pay by constitutional amendments. State and local governments have experimented with nonpartisan elections, the citizen’s initiative, recall, referendum, participatory budgeting, and city manager government. Political jurisdictions at all levels have passed measures to reduce material corruption, control campaign finance, improve government ethics, and lessen government secrecy. The result is a complex assortment of limits, prohibitions, and requirements that regulate many facets of political activity.

American political improvement is also highly institutionalized. Nonprofit reform groups abound – some with broad agendas, such as Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, U.S. PIRG, and the Brennan Center, and others with more specific democratic goals, such as Open Secrets and Open the Government (transparency), the Fund for Constitutional Government (effective government oversight), No Labels (lessened partisanship), OMB Watch (fiscal responsibility), Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center (tighter lobbying and campaign finance controls), and Little Sis and the Center for Voting and Democracy (better voting procedures). But despite some notable reform achievements, there is a nagging doubt about all of this activity: is America truly making progress, or is the goal of achieving a less imperfect democracy simply futile?