The Progressive Impulse - AP U.S. History Topic Outlines - Study Notes

The mastery of forward-looking leading in the city encouraged chase to run for narrate office. In Wisconsin, perchance the most liberal state during the era, regulator Robert La Follette challenged deprave corporations and political machines. in advance his election as governor, La Follette served terce terms as a progressive Republican congressman. During that conviction he demonstrable a repute as an severe enemy of corruption. La Follette reasoned that close information was the constitute to ethical behavior. If people are surface informed, they will engage to do the ripe(p) thing. Democracy, he claimed, was establish upon knowledge, which is why political machines relied on magic and fraud to arrest water control. La Follette incessantly clashed with the more than(prenominal) materialistic Republicans in his state, and was impeach of oversimplifying the truth to voters, nevertheless he remained dedicated to keeping governing body honest. During his t enure as governor, La Follette naturalized direct primaries, dragoon regulations, state income tax, and workers compensation. To fix a more efficient political relation, he developed the legislative Reference Bureau, which was staffed by experienced sparing and political acquisition professors from the University of Wisconsin. The Bureau formal a legislative reference library to help lawmakers draft bills. The success of the Wisconsin Idea, as it became known, swept into different states as progressive-minded politicians, both Republican and Democrat, looked for methods to make government more responsive to the inevitably of the population. Progressivism gained national solicitude when Theodore Roosevelt took his place in the White House. The adventurous death chair who love to box, wrestle, hunt, and chase rustlers embraced some of the movements ideals. He believed that the president should set the schedule for Congress, rather than erect lead the executive departm ents. He promoted cogency and expertise and staffed the outgrowth federal government with highly suitable professionals. \n