Editing 1951 Reform Movement (section)

== Legacy ==

The 1951 reform movement's legacy is mixed. It achieved its immediate goals: ending Republican machine rule, modernizing city government, and demonstrating that reform was possible. The charter it produced remains in effect and has prevented the restoration of old-style machine politics. Philadelphia's government is more professional, more accountable, and more open than before 1951. These were real achievements that improved how the city was governed. The reform movement also demonstrated that citizen organization could challenge entrenched political power, providing a model that inspired reformers elsewhere.<ref name="reichley"/>

Yet the reforms did not solve Philadelphia's underlying problems. Deindustrialization, white flight, and racial conflict would challenge Philadelphia through subsequent decades regardless of who governed. The Democratic Party that replaced the Republican machine eventually developed its own organizational practices that critics called machine politics by another name. The reform era's grand urban renewal projects displaced communities and failed to reverse decline. The reformers were better at dismantling the old system than at building a new Philadelphia that worked for all its citizens. Still, the 1951 movement remains a landmark in Philadelphia's political history—the moment when citizens chose reform over machine politics and proved that such choices were possible.<ref name="peirce"/>