The beginning of the XX century is known as Progressive Era in the American History. Many important historical changes and reforms took place at that time. The reforms have shaped the American society for the next century.
Three important reforms of the Progressive Era are the expanding of democracy, women’s suffrage and the creation of the Federal Reserve Board.
Expanding democracy was an important process that shaped the political and electoral climate in the United States for decades. At the beginning of the XX century, many common citizens were dissatisfied with the level of accountability of the government to the voters. The political system was corrupt, inefficient and wasteful. It served the interests of big businesses.
The Progressives movement used the tactics of local government reforms. There were three major parts to the democratic reforms: direct primaries, initiative, referendum and recall innovations and the direct election of the U.S. senators. Direct primaries allowed all the party members of a state to elect the candidate, while the old system reserved this right to convention delegates only.
Initiative, referendum and recall reforms allowed the voters to place legislative initiatives on the ballot, to oppose enacted legislation by holding a referendum and the recall procedure made it possible to remove the elected official by popular vote. Not all of the three processes received an equal development throughout the United States, but they served the main purpose of improving democracy. The changes got gradually adopted by many of the states and thus gave more power to the common citizen and curbed the political corruption.
Women’s suffrage was another great step to grant equal rights to all citizens of the United States. The movement to give women equal rights to vote with men started in 1848. It took long 72 years until the 19th Amendment was passed by both houses of the Congress. According to Eleanor Roosevelt’s article Battle for Suffrage: “The 19th Amendment had the immediate result of granting 26 million women, half the nation's population, the right to vote” (Roosevelt). Some of the states adopted women voting rights legislations earlier in a short-term attempt to counterbalance the black votes. However, the long-term impact was far more important: “While suffrage did not produce the immediate results hoped for by its supporters nor did it include minority women in the successes it did effect, it did lay the groundwork for future women to seek out a life of independence and public activity” (Roosevelt).
Federal Reserve Board was established by President Wilson late in 1913. It has created a system of twelve regional reserve banks that were subordinated to the Federal Reserve Board. The goal was to take the power to establish interest rates from private bankers and regulate the economy by changing the rates depending on the economic situation. Federal Reserve Board was designed to be independent from any political influence. The system is in place today. It has shaped the modern financial markets system.
Neil Irvin of The Washington Post in his 2013 article The Federal Reserve was created 100 years ago. This is how it happened., analyzed the reasons for its creation: “The U.S. financial system needed remaking. The United States had a long but less than illustrious history with central banking. Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, believed a national bank would stabilize the new government’s shaky credit and support a stronger economy — and was an absolute necessity to exercise the new republic’s constitutional powers” (Irvin, 2013).
It has been a mixed blessing since the creation of the Fed, because many analysts blame it with being too close to the large banks and investment companies. However, it was an important move at the beginning of the XX century and created a basis for further development of the country.
Works Cited
Roosevelt, Eleanor. (n.d.) Battle for Suffrage. American Experience. PBS. Retrieved on March 2, 2016 from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/eleanor-suffrage/
Irvin, Neil. (2013) The Federal Reserve was created 100 years ago. This is how it happened. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 2, 2016 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/12/21/the-federal-reserve-was-created-100-years-ago-this-is-how-it-happened/
