ABSTRACT
The chapter traces the birth of several good government crusades directed at restoring public trust in government by breaking the stranglehold of the spoils system and the increasing power of special interests over the nation’s democratic institutions. After the Civil War, the industrial revolution transformed American society. With the industrial revolution came the accumulation of massive amounts of wealth in the hands of a small number of individuals who built powerful new corporations and trust. The ensuring backlash gave birth to the populist, civil service and progressive movements as well as the new discipline of public administration. The so-called Age of Reform brought together individuals with vastly different backgrounds to take on political machines and powerful special interests. Considering the power of political machines and special interests, these movements had a remarkable amount of success in helping to put in place reform directed at restoring public trust in government. The same period also saw the birth of so-called purity reform movements seeking to reverse a perceived collapse of the personal morality of Americans. Led by Christian Protestants, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw these movements take on prostitution, gambling, alcohol, abortion, crimes against nature, and a wide range of perceived social evils by demanding that governments adopt and enforce much more expansive anti-vice laws. These social reform movements sought to impose a much stricter moral code on all Americans including career public servants and elected officials.
