On American Federal Senatorial Election System Reform In The Progressive Era

The Seventeenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which was ratified in1913, provides that the U. S. Senator will be elected by the people of several states rather than the state legislatures. The federal senatorial election system reform marked the significant change of the major structural element in the original Constitution, exerting a far-reaching influence on later American constitutional development.The Constitution of1787provided that the federal senators should be elected by state legislatures, reflecting the prevailing concept of state sovereignty and anti-democracy. In the American constitutional system which was characterized by federalism and bicameral congress, electing federal senators by the state legislatures can not only reflect the state sovereignty, but also can embody elite politics, suppress democratic tendencies of the House of Representatives and help keep the checks and balances of the Senate.Since the late1820s, American citizens’political participation consciousness gradually awakened with the formation of the mass democracy concept and the expansion of universal suffrage, which not only provided a profound ideological foundation for direct election of federal senators, but also provided class basis for ordinary citizens. After the Civil War, under the dual federalism system, it had gradually become a consensus among U. S. citizens that states did not possess any sovereignty. Meanwhile, the state legislatures gradually became the spokesperson for the interest groups instead of the protector of people’s freedom. The sharp decline in credibility and confidence crisis of state legislatures had shaken the legal foundation of the federal senators.During the period of the Progressive Movement, progressives tried to perfect the representative government which showed strong tendencies to elitism by strengthening citizen’s political participation. In this process, the Muckraking Movement exposed the corruption of federal senatorial election system, arousing widespread concern among the public in the United States. The Populist Party members introduced direct election of federal senators into political program and states began to implement the democratical election of federal senators by amending states Constitution. Under the strong appeal for reform, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was finally ratified, marking a satisfactory federal senatorial election system reform.Federal senatorial election system reform embodied the progress of mass democracy, but it did not fundamentally change the prevailing elite politics in the United States. On the contrary, it strengthened the elite politics and perfected representative democracy.