Robert La Follette argued that corporations and political leaders were blocking the people from exercising their true role in a Republic as the ones to select their government representatives. Before La Follette's push for primary elections, candidates were chosen by political party leaders behind closed doors, often with much influence (including bribery) from corporations.
In an 1897 speech entitled, "The Danger Threatening Representative Government," La Follette said:
- <em>Since the birth of the Republic, indeed almost within the last generation, a new and powerful factor has taken its place in our business, financial and political world and is there exercising a tremendous influence. The existence of the corporation, as we have it with us today, was never dreamed of by the fathers. . . . The corporation of today has invaded every department of business, and it’s powerful but invisible hand is felt in almost all activities of life.</em>
Robert La Follette led the Progressive movement within the Republican Party in the state of Wisconsin. La Follette was governor of the state from 1901 to 1906 and represented Wisconsin in the US Senate from 1906 to 1925. La Follette originated what was called the "Wisconsin Idea" (or the "Wisconsin Way"), which proposed that efficient and ethical government will be controlled by voters, not by businesses and lobbyists. The Wisconsin Idea also theorized that educated specialists in law, economics and the sciences would produce the best sort of government.
The president of the University of Wisconsin during La Follette's governorship was Charles Van Hise, who was a friend and former classmate of La Follette's. Van Hise applied the Wisconsin Idea also to the role of the university in fostering good government for the benefit of progressive reform in the state. In a 1905 address, Van Hise said, “I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every family of the state.” That aspect of the Wisconsin Idea is still hailed as a guiding principle for the University of Wisconsin system.
