Late 19C & Early 20C Progressive Reforms

In the years following the Civil War (ended 1865), the political and especially the economic life of the US evolved at a previously unheard of pace. Among the consequences by the end of the century was the greatly increased influence of finance in political life, with a consequent contraction of the real power of the people. Eventually, this situation provoked healthy reactions, on the one hand from predominantly rural and agricultural interests together with small businesses, in the Populist movement led by William Jennings Bryan, and on the other, among more urban and more economically comfortable interests, in the Progressive movement. Bryan was the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1896, but Populism had few lasting successes. The Progressive movement, on the other hand, brought about a number of reforms:

=> Several Amendments to the US Constitution:
• Amendment XVI (1913) Personal income tax
• Amendment XVII (1913) Direct election of Senators
• Amendment XVIII (1919) Prohibition
  
  (of alcoholic liquor; this rare attempt at moral, rather than political, reform became the only amendment to be repealed, in 1933, when it had become clear that its unintended effects [mass violations of, and disrespect for, the law by a citizenry that did not stop drinking and vastly increased gangsterism by the organized criminals who supplied their drinks] were far worse than the evil it was intended to correct)
• Amendment XIX (1920 ) Woman suffrage
  
  (the US was far from being the first country to give women the vote, but equally far from being the last)

=> A number of Amendments to State Constitutions:

Some of these reforms were adopted by many states, but some states adopted all of them and others adopted none. The general intent of the measures was (and is) to lessen the power of vested financial interests by giving the people a more direct and thus more democratic voice in public affairs. For a long time, they were to a effective in doing so, but in recent years, notably in the state of California, they have frequently been perverted to serve the ends of exactly the monied interests they were originally designed to combat (read about what has happened in California here).
• Referendum
  
  As is the case in French Constitutional law, the elected government can, in some circumstances, refer legislative or constitutional questions to the people, who decide directly on the policy to be adopted.
• Initiative
  
  The objective of the Initiative was to circumvent State Legislatures and the vested economic and social interests that often dominated them. The Initiative is a mechanism by which the people, through a petition process, can directly propose and vote upon legislative or constitutional questions, thus avoiding the procrastination or evasive actions of a legislature too dependent on financial interests.
• Recall
  
  The counterpart of the impeachment process in the federal government, recall makes it possible for the people to remove elected officials from office before the normal end of their terms in office. The process is set in motion by a petition, much like that of the initiative, and asks a) whether the official in question should be removed from office, and b) if s/he is removed from office, who should succeed her/him.