The Progressive Era Movement's Goals (Essay Sample)

The Progressive Era Movement's Goals
Georgetown University professor Katherine Benton-Cohen presented a course on the Progressive Era. She described how politicians and reform groups used trust-busting, interstate regulation, and prohibition in the early twentieth century to improve social and economic conditions. Another issue she discussed was Theodore Roosevelt, the most influential politician of the day. Professors described Progressivism as the period in US history from the 1890s to the 1920s when the considerable social and political transformation was undertaken to produce a better society. This paper examines Professor Katherine's lecture on the Progressive Era. 
The Progressive movement brought about significant changes in American culture and government in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to Katherine, the Progressive Era movement's goals included making the federal government more successful in satisfying the people's economic, social, and political demands. Progressives wanted to change parts of American society, like how a few people had too much money and businesses had too much power in the economy and government.
Katherine Benton-Cohen focuses on democracy as a fundamental theme in the progressive era. Many progressives seek to give people authority over machines, employers, and professional politicians. People could choose candidates democratically without going to conventions run by professionals, and laws could be passed without going through the legislature with the help of the initiative and referendum.
According to Katherine progressive era increased government effectiveness and responsiveness. Two of Progressivism's key aims were to give the people a more political voice and limit the power of business tycoons. The progressive movement attempted to achieve these goals through several legislative initiatives. To reduce the power of political machines in the nomination process, the direct primary, a preliminary election in which all members of a party have an equal opportunity to participate in a nomination, was implemented, as was the initiative in which citizens can propose a law by gathering a certain number of signatures on a petition, and the referendum, in which voters decide whether or not to enact that law.