Reform

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reform means beneficial change, or sometimes, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state.

Reform is generally distinguished from revolution. The latter means basic or radical change; whereas reform may be no more than fine tuning, or at most redressing serious wrongs without altering the fundamentals of the system. Reform seeks to improve the system as it stands, never to overthrow it wholesale.

During the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, for example, the New Jersey Plan would have reformed the existing constitution, the Articles of Confederation. By contrast, the Virginia Plan proposed to completely rewrite the nation's fundamental charter, and create a new constitution. Virginia's more revolutionary approach prevailed and resulted in the U.S. Constitution.

Likewise today, many reforms are proposed in the United States Congress which aim to improve the system. For example, campaign finance reform would modify the way elections in the United States are financed, but would not change the basic nature of the offices at stake. Rotation in office or term limits would, by contrast, be more revolutionary, in altering basic political connections between incumbents and constituents.^[1]

A note about grammar: when used to describe something which is physically formed again, such as re-casting it in a mold/mould, or a band that gets back together, the proper term is re-form (with a hyphen), not "reform".

Reform can refer to:

In politics:

• Reform movement, a generic term for various social and political movements
  • Reform Movement (disambiguation), a list of specific organizations known as the Reform Movement
• Non-reformist Reform, reform which is attentive to immediate social needs and at the same time moves toward further gains, and eventually, wholesale transformation
• Reform Party, a list of parties calling themselves the Reform Party or variants thereof
• Reform Act, a common name for electoral-reform bills in the United Kingdom; they are usually differentiated by their year
• Reform (think tank), a think-tank in the United Kingdom that promotes deregulation, competition in UK public services, and a low-tax economy
• Reforming Movement, a French centrist political group created in 1972
• La Reforma, a period of liberal reforms in Mexico after 1855

In religion:

• Islamic Reform or Islamic Renewal. SeeTajdid. Also see Mujadid, an Islamic Reformer or an Islamic Renewer.
• Protestant Reformation
  • Reform (Anglican), an evangelical organisation within the Anglican Church
  • Wesleyan Reform Union, an independent group of Methodists in the United Kingdom
• Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation
• Reform Judaism, a major denomination of Judaism with principles influenced by the Enlightenment

In chemistry:

• Catalytic reforming, a process that converts the hydrocarbons in various oil refinery naphthas into higher octane hydrocarbons for use as components of gasoline
• Steam reforming, also called hydrogen reforming or catalytic oxidation, a method of producing hydrogen from hydrocarbons

In geography:

• Reform, a town in western Alabama

[edit] See also

• Reformation (disambiguation)