Editing Progressive Era (section)

===Popular democracy: Initiative and referendum===
Inspiration for the initiative movement was based on the Swiss experience. New Jersey labor activist James W. Sullivan visited Switzerland in 1888 and wrote a detailed book that became a template for reformers pushing the idea: ''Direct Legislation by the Citizenship Through the Initiative and Referendum'' (1893).<ref>See [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28%22Direct%20legislation%20by%20the%20Citizenship%22%29 online copies]</ref>  He suggested that using the initiative would give political power to the working class and reduce the need for strikes.  Sullivan's book was first widely read on the left, as by labor activists, socialists and populists. William U'Ren was an early convert who used it to build the Oregon reform crusade. By 1900, middle-class "progressive" reformers everywhere were studying it.<ref>Richard J. Ellis, "The Opportunist: James W. Sullivan and the Origins of the Initiative and Referendum in the United States." ''American Political Thought'' 11.1 (2022): 1–47.</ref><ref>Ellis (2002) pp. 28–33.</ref>