So suppose you were playing a game with the goal of rushing all reforms as soon as possible. What do you do? I'd be interested in both general answers as well as specific answers for certain nations if it makes a difference to your strategy.
Also nations with the national value 'Freedom' get reforms much faster.
Not enacting the reform the pops want is the best way to "rush" reforms. I.e. if the pops want voting rights, enact everything but voting rights and after every policy you enact, they will still clamor for reform, allowing you to pass more reforms. For political reforms it's almost always voting rights that people desire the most, so pass those last. Usually you can get all political reforms passed by the end of the liberal revolution as a European power by doing this.
If you can reliably pump up militancy, you can pass reforms at certain thresholds. I don't recall what the threshold for political is (possibly 3 militancy?) but once the pops in your nation average out to 6+ militancy, you can automatically pass social reforms, as long as you ignore the possible political reforms along the way, which will unlock first. Liberal revolutions, losing wars, and putting an unpopular party in power are good ways to push militancy up fast. I once got a lucky early and looong liberal revolution as Sardinia-Piedmont and almost fully passed healthcare to the max level in 1840.
war exhaustion. Let some lolcountry occupy your provinces and when you got 50%+ war exhaustion, use your armies and win the war. This will get you huge militancy for couple years. Although, it might back-fireAside from numerous early proxy wars, is there any way to get high MIL to push reforms?
doesn't increasing militancy increase the chances of rebels revolting?