What is Progressivism?
Progressivism starts from a simple idea: things can get better, and public action is how. Progressives think that industry, cities and new technology create problems that individuals cannot fix alone, such as unsafe food, monopolies, poverty and unequal rights. They look to government, expert knowledge and social movements to fix them. The word has two main uses. One is the American reform movement of about 1890 to 1920. The other is a broader modern label for people on the left who push for social change.
Core beliefs
- Social conditions are made by people, so people can change them.
- Government should regulate big business and protect workers, consumers and the vulnerable.
- Civil rights and equal treatment should be extended to all groups.
- Public policy should rest on evidence and expert study.
- Democracy should be widened by giving citizens a more direct say.
- Education and public health are shared responsibilities.
History
The American Progressive Era grew out of the changes of the Gilded Age. Reformers such as Jane Addams, who set up Hull House in Chicago in 1889, worked in poor city districts. Journalists known as muckrakers exposed corruption and bad factory conditions. Robert La Follette reformed the state of Wisconsin. Theodore Roosevelt broke up some trusts as president and ran as a Progressive in 1912. Laws on food and drug safety passed in 1906. Amendments created a federal income tax and direct election of senators in 1913, and gave women the vote in 1920. Herbert Croly and John Dewey gave the movement its ideas. Many ideas reappeared in the New Deal of the 1930s, the Great Society of the 1960s and in later movements.
Variants
Early progressives were split. Some focused on efficiency and expert management, some on moral causes such as temperance, and some on labor and social justice. Their record includes unpleasant chapters: some backed eugenics, and some supported racial segregation. Later versions include New Deal liberalism and the modern progressive left, which stresses racial and gender equality, climate action and economic fairness. Outside the United States, parties from Canada to Latin America have used the label.
Criticisms
Conservatives say progressivism trusts experts and central government too much, and that it overrides local control, tradition and family. Libertarians argue that regulation and taxes limit freedom and distort the economy. Critics on the left say progressives are too cautious and prefer small adjustments to deep change in the economy. Historians also criticize the early movement for its links to eugenics and its poor record on race. Supporters point to the long list of public goods it created, from safer food to the weekend.
In practice
Progressive ideas helped create the modern regulatory state, including antitrust law, consumer protection, labor standards, public schools and the vote for women. Today the term is used for politicians and movements that favor wider civil rights, environmental policy and fairer economic rules. On the 12 axes, progressivism scores strongly toward Progressive on Morality and Multicultural on Culture, and toward Secular on Religion. It leans toward Democratic on Authority and Cooperation on Foreign policy, with moderate leanings toward Public and Shared on the economic axes.