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.
Developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed Industrial sector, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is al ...
may carry out a wide range of reforms to improve their living standards, often with support from
international financial institutions and
aid agencies. This can include reforms to
macroeconomic policy, 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 public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
.
In the United States,
rotation in office or
term limits 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 (
mold/mould) or a
band 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 ( figur ...
), not "reform".
See also
*
Catalytic reforming
*
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, th ...
*
Electoral reform
*
Land reform
*
Microeconomic reform
*
Monetary reform
*
Progressivism
*
Reform (Religion)
*
Reform movement
*
Reformism
*
Security sector governance and reform
*
Tax reform
*
University reform
*
Wall Street reform
Notes
References
Further reading
* Harrington, Mona. ''The Dream of Deliverance in American Politics''. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1986. x, 308 p.
{{Authority control
18th-century neologisms