Editing 1951 Reform Movement (section)

== Victory and Charter Reform ==

The 1951 election delivered a decisive reform victory. Clark won the mayoralty by over 120,000 votes; Dilworth became district attorney. Democrats captured a majority on City Council. The scale of the victory surprised even the reformers; decades of machine dominance had ended in a single election. Clark immediately moved to implement his reform agenda, working with Council to draft a new city charter that would institutionalize good government practices. The charter, approved by voters in 1951 and taking effect in 1952, represented the most significant governmental reform in Philadelphia since the [[Act of Consolidation of 1854]].<ref name="weigley"/>

The 1951 charter created a strong-mayor government, concentrating executive authority in an official accountable to the entire city rather than dispersed among independently elected row officers. It established a civil service system that protected most city employees from political dismissal and required merit hiring. It reorganized city departments into a rational structure and created a managing director to coordinate day-to-day operations. The charter established a Commission on Human Relations to address discrimination. These reforms directly targeted the mechanisms through which the machine had maintained power: by limiting patronage, requiring professional management, and centralizing accountability, the charter made it difficult for a machine to operate as before.<ref name="reichley"/>