What extent did the populist party succeed and to what extent did it fall?
Though a number of their ideas — notably direct election of senators and a graduated income tax — were later adopted through amendment of the Constitution, their following collapsed in a way common to other third-party movements: They were never able to gain a following outside their core agrarian constituency, economic conditions spurring their popularity changed, and several of their key ideas were espoused by a major party — in this case, William Jennings Bryan’s Democratic platform of 1896.
