Populist Movement

1

• Populist Movement
• Began in 1870s
• Farmers protest movement
• Movement lasted until 1896
• Created one of the first public forums for
  spotlighting concerns regarding big business

2

• What Populists Wanted
• Rural free delivery
• Direct election of Senators
• Postal savings banks to replace national banks
• End to the gold standardadoption of a silver
  standard
• Graduated income tax, heavier on rich
• Government ownership of railroad, telegraph, and
  telephone companies
• 8 hour days for industrial workers

3

• Progressive Movement
• Lasted from early 1900s till end of WWI
• Incorporated urban middle class as well as
  farmers
• Mainstream political doctrine

4
What Progressives Wanted
C4-S4

• End to political corruption
• Consumer protection
• Corporate and inheritance taxes
• Antitrust laws
• Securities regulation
• Imprisonment of executive lawbreakers
• Reform of railroad pricing

• Workplace safety
• Worker compensation laws
• Limits to working hours
• Strong labor unions
• End to child labor
• Slum improvement
• Initiative and referendum
• Utility regulatory commissions

5
Factors Underlying Negative Attitudes about
Business
C4-S5
6
Fundamental Criticism of Business
C4-S6
7
Current Criticism of Business
C4-S7

• Big corporations have too much power.
• Corporations have too much influence over
  government.
• Market values create amoral corporate cultures.
• Corporations exploit stakeholders.
• Industrial development is not true progress.

8

• Basic Categories of Business Critics
• Activist Reformers accept basic institutional
  framework of society but actively press for
  reforms in operation of business
• Liberal Intellectuals mainly thinkers who
  suggest reforms to solve social problems

9

• Basic Categories of Business Critics
• Socialist reject current institutional
• structures and demand replacement
• with a collectivist society.
• Radical nonsocialist demand restructuring of the
  business system, but do not agree on alternatives