Reform movement

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Reform Movement redirects here. For specific organizations by that name, see Reform Movement (disambiguation)

A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of the society rather than rapid or fundamental changes. Reformists' ideas are often grounded in liberalism. It is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements or transformational movements. Reactionary movements, which can arise against any of these, attempt to put things back the way they were before whatever successes of the new movement(s), or prevent any such successes in the first place.

Great Britain / United Kingdom: Reform Movements from the late 18th century

1. Parliamentary Reform
   1. The Radical movement campaigned for electoral reform and eventually led to formation of the United Kingdom Liberals
   2. The Chartist movement sought Universal suffrage
   3. The Suffragette movement campaigned for the vote for women

United States Reform Movements of the 1840s

1. Art -- The Hudson River School of Art defined a distinctive American style of art, depicting romantic landscapes via the Transcendentalist perspective on nature
2. Literature -- founding of the Transcendentalism, stressed high thinking and a spiritual connection to all things (see pantheism).
3. Science -- John James Audubon founded the science of ornithology (the study of birds)
4. Utopian Experiments
   1. New Harmony (founder: Robert Owen), practiced economic communism, although it proved socially inviable.
   2. Oneida Commune (founder: John Noyes), practiced eugenics, complex marriage, and communal living. The commune was supported through the manufacture of silverware, and the corporation still exists today, producing spoons and forks for households of the world. The commune sold its assets when Noyes was jailed on numerous charges.
   3. Shakers -- (founder: Mother Ann Lee) Stressed living and worship through dance, supported themselves through manufacture of furniture. The furniture is still popular today.
5. Public education reform -- (founder: Horace Mann), goals were a more relevant curriculum and more accessible education. Noah Webster's dictionary standardized English spelling and language; William McGuffey's hugely successful children's books taught reading in incremental stages.
6. Women's rights movement (1848) (founders: Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony), began at the Seneca Falls Convention; published a Declaration of Sentiments calling for the legal equality of women.
7. Abolition movement -- the Mexican northern territories in 1848 reopened the possibility of expansion of race-based chattle slavery; the adaptation of the slave system to industrial-style cotton production resulted in increasing dehumanization of black workers and a backlash against the slavery in the northern states; key figures included William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.
8. Prohibition or Temperance movement -- Anti-alcohol movement supported by Frances Willard's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which stressed education; the Anti-Saloon League, which Carrie Nation promoted a confrontational approach towards bars and saloons; and the Know-Nothing Party, an anti-catholic, anti-immigration, anti-drinking political party.

Mexican Reform Movement of the 1850s

Political agenda of the Mexican Liberal party led by Benito Juarez and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and embodied in the 1857 Constitution of Mexico:

1. Abolition of the fueros which granted civil immunity to members of the church and military
2. Liquidation of traditional ejido communal lands holdings and distribution of freehold titles to the peasantry
3. Expropriation and sale of concentrated church property holdings
4. Curtaiment of exorbitant fees by the church for administering the sacraments
5. Secular public education
6. Civil registry for births, marriages and deaths

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