Benefits Of The Progressive Movement

The Progressive Movement was the primary ideological philosophy of the founders of the Arizona Constitution. The foundational principles within the Progressive movement was to correct the ills of society. One such method being through the government establishing policies to improve or correct the social condition. Therefore, the implementation of the Progressive Movement can be seen in the provision to the Arizona Constitution like: secret ballots, direct primaries, voter initiatives, referendums, and the recall of judges. In the 1910’s to write these concepts into ones state constitution was quit a vogue proposition. In fact, President Taft rejected the initial Arizona Constitution solely on the provision of recalling judges which he felt could …show more content…
The Progressive movement instilled the concept of rule by the people by the institution of the initiative process which allow citizen to write up constitutional amendments, obtain the necessary signatures to get the proposal on the ballot, and allow the voters to determine if the constitution will or will not be changed. Another method of amending the constitution is through a Legislative referendum, however the voters still have the final say whether the legislative bill will take effect or not. Likewise for an amendment instituted by the constitutional convention. In essence all amendments must go through the ballot box for the voters’ approval. By implementing this progressive provision Arizona tax payers have paid to have sixty-seven constitutional initiative put on the ballot yet only forty-two percent were passed by voters (McClory, Toni, McClory Thomas, 2013). Also Progressive Movement is responsible for the fluctuation that the Arizona Constitution experiences each time there is an election seen by the 151 times the document has been amended (McClory, Toni, McClory Thomas,