Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from
Christopher Wyvill's Association movement which identified “Parliamentary Reform” as its primary aim.
[Reform in English Public Life: the fortunes of a word. Joanna Innes 2003] Reform is generally regarded as antithetical to
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
.
Developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
may carry out a wide range of reforms to improve their living standards, often with support from
international financial institutions
An international financial institution (IFI) is a financial institution that has been established (or chartered) by more than one country, and hence is subject to international law. Its owners or shareholders are generally national governments, al ...
and
aid agencies
An aid agency, also known as development charity, is an organization dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government, between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organization ...
. This can include reforms to
macroeconomic policy
Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole.
For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...
, the
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, and
public financial management.
In the United States,
rotation in office
In the United States, term limits, also referred to as ''rotation in office'', restrict the number of terms of office an officeholder may serve. At the federal level, the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the president of t ...
or
term limits
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...
would, by contrast, be more revolutionary, in altering basic political connections between incumbents and constituents.
Re-form
When used to describe something which is ''physically'' formed again, such as re-
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
(
mold/mould) or a
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
*Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
that gets back together, the proper term is ''re-form'' (with a
hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...
), not "reform".
See also
*
Catalytic reforming
Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil (typically having low octane ratings) into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are premium blending stocks for high-o ...
*
Education reform
Education reform is the name given to the goal of changing public education. The meaning and education methods have changed through debates over what content or experiences result in an educated individual or an educated society. Historically, t ...
*
Electoral reform
Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:
* Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-ru ...
*
Land reform
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
*
Microeconomic reform
Microeconomic reform (or often just economic reform) comprises policies directed to achieve improvements in economic efficiency, either by eliminating or reducing market distortion, distortions in individual sectors of the economy or by reforming ...
*
Monetary reform
Monetary reform is any movement or theory that proposes a system of supplying money and financing the economy that is different from the current system.
Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals:
* A return t ...
*
Progressivism
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tec ...
*
Reform (Religion)
A religious reform (from Latin ''re-'': "back, again", and ''formare'': "to form"; i.e. put together: "to restore, reconstruct, rebuild") aims at the reform of religious teachings. It is not to be confused with an organizational reform of a religi ...
*
Reform movement
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary mo ...
*
Reformism
Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.
Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...
*
Security sector governance and reform The concepts of security sector governance and reform (SSG/R, or SSG and SSR) generally refer to a process in Western-based international development and democratization to amend the security sector of a state towards good governance and its prin ...
*
Tax reform
Tax reform is the process of changing the way taxes are collected or managed by the government and is usually undertaken to improve tax administration or to provide economic or social benefits. Tax reform can include reducing the level of taxatio ...
*
University reform University reform is a type of education reform applied to higher education.
Examples include:
* Argentine university reform of 1918
* Chilean university reform
* Reform of French universities
** Law on Higher Education and Research (2007)
**Libert ...
*
Wall Street reform Wall Street reforms are reforms or regulations of the financial industry in the United States.
Wall Street is the home of the country's two largest stock exchanges, and "Wall Street" is a metonym for the United States financial sector. Major W ...
Notes
References
Further reading
* Harrington, Mona. ''The Dream of Deliverance in American Politics''. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1986. x, 308 p.
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18th-century neologisms