Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political reform. As a
political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the
human condition through
social reform based on purported advancements in
science,
technology, and
social organization.[1] Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to human societies everywhere. Progressivism arose during the
Age of Enlightenment out of the belief that
civility in Europe was improving due to the application of new
empirical knowledge to the governance of society.[2]
In modern political discourse, progressivism gets often associated with
social liberalism,[3][4][5] a left-leaning type of liberalism.
History
From the Enlightenment to the Industrial Revolution
Modernity or modernisation was a key form of the idea of progress as promoted by
classical liberals in the 19th and 20th centuries, who called for the rapid modernisation of the economy and society to remove the traditional hindrances to
free markets and the
free movements of people.[8]
In the late 19th century, a political view rose in popularity in the Western world that progress was being stifled by vast
economic inequality between the rich and the poor, minimally regulated laissez-faire capitalism with out-of-control monopolistic
corporations, intense and often violent conflict between capitalists and workers, with a need for measures to address these problems.[9] Progressivism has influenced various political movements.
Social liberalism was influenced by British
liberal philosopher
John Stuart Mill's conception of people being "progressive beings."[10] British Prime Minister
Benjamin Disraeli developed
progressive conservatism under
one-nationToryism.[11][12]
President
Woodrow Wilson was also a member of the American progressive movement within the
Democratic Party. Progressive stances have evolved.
Imperialism was a controversial issue within progressivism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the United States, where some progressives supported
American imperialism while others opposed it.[27] In response to
World War I, President
Woodrow Wilson's
Fourteen Points established the concept of national
self-determination and criticised imperialist competition and colonial injustices.
Anti-imperialists supported these views in areas resisting imperial rule.[28]
In the 21st century, progressives continue to favour
public policy that they theorise will reduce or lessen the harmful effects of
economic inequality as well as systemic
discrimination such as
institutional racism; to advocate for
social safety nets and
workers' rights; and to oppose
corporate influence on the democratic process. The unifying theme is to call attention to the negative impacts of current institutions or ways of doing things and to advocate for
social progress, i.e., for positive change as defined by any of several standards such as the expansion of
democracy, increased
egalitarianism in the form of
economic and
social equality as well as improved well being of a population. Proponents of social democracy have identified themselves as promoting the progressive cause.[32]
Unlike progressives in a broader sense, some cultural progressives may be economically
centrist,
conservative, or politically
libertarian. The
Czech Pirate Party is classified as a (cultural or social) progressive party,[35] but it calls itself "economically centrist and socially liberal".[36]
Economic progressivism is a term used to distinguish it from progressivism in cultural fields. Economic progressives' views are often rooted in the concept of
social justice and aim to improve the human condition through
government regulation,
social protections and the maintenance of
public goods.[37]
^Nugent, Walter (2010). Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 2.
ISBN9780195311068.
^Alan Ryan. The Making of Modern Liberalism. p. 25.
^Patrick Dunleavy, Paul Joseph Kelly, Michael Moran. British Political Science: Fifty Years of Political Studies. Oxford, England; Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. pp. 107–108.[ISBN missing]
^Robert Blake. Disraeli. Second Edition. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd, 1967. p. 524.[ISBN missing]
^ Union Contributions to Labor Welfare Policy and Practice: Past, Present, and Future. Routledge, 16, 2013. p. 172.[ISBN missing]
^Faith Jaycox. The Progressive Era. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2005. p. 85.
^Charles Howard Hopkins, The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915 (1940).[page needed][ISBN missing]
^Ambrosius, Lloyd E. (April 2006). "Woodrow Wilson, Alliances, and the League of Nations". The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. 5 (2): 139–165.
doi:
10.1017/S153778140000298X.
S2CID162853992.
^Nugent, Walter (2010). Progressivism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 2.
ISBN9780195311068.
^Waluchow, Wil (17 August 2018). "Constitutionalism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Watson, Bradley (2020). Progressivism : the strange history of a radical idea. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. p. 11.
ISBN9780268106973.
^ After the Third Way: The Future of Social Democracy in Europe. I.B. Taurus, 2012. p. 47.[ISBN missing]
^Hugh Bochel. The Conservative Party and Social Policy. The Policy Press, 2011. p. 108.[ISBN missing]
^Henning Meyer, Jonathan Rutherford. The Future of European Social Democracy: Building the Good Society. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. p. 108.[ISBN missing]
^Nancy L. Cohen, ed. (2012).
Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America. Catapult.
ISBN9781619020962. When the going got tough, the economic progressives got going back to the Reagan days when the cultural progressives were to blame. Clinton's presidential campaign had "signaled cultural moderation and articulated the pocketbook frustrations of ordinary people," Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect ventured. "But in office, he seemed a cultural liberal who failed to produce on economics."
^"New political party says its roots are in Catholic Social Teaching". 26 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2021. I was working on my doctoral dissertation largely concerning difficulties and opportunities for socially conservative, economically progressive movements, and desired to get involved in such movements ... and was glad to see that ASP was interested in applying such ways of thinking to contemporary issues.
^Alvin Finkel (2012). Our Lives: Canada after 1945: Second Edition. James Lorimer & Company. p. 5. ... capitalism and a wise federal bureaucracy presided over by a progressive Liberal party with intelligent leaders.
^Robert Harris (2018). Song of a Nation: The Untold Story of Canada's National Anthem. McClelland & Stewart.
^Matthew Allen, Rumi Sakamoto, ed. (2007). Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan. Routledge. ... capturing 295 seats in the Diet. Progressive parties like the Japanese Communist Party and Social Democratic Party, ...
^""선제공격 능력 갖추자" 日정부 주장에…"시대착오적" 비판". Edaily. 13 November 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021. ... 개헌에 반대해 온 진보 성향의 일본공산당은 "적 기지에 대한 공격력을 갖추더라도 상대국의 지하나 이동발사대 등 미사일 위치를 모두 파악하고 파괴하는 것은 불가능하다"며 ... [... The progressive position Japanese Communist Party, which has opposed the constitutional amendment, said, "Even if it has offensive power against enemy bases, it is impossible to identify and destroy all missile locations such as underground or mobile launchers of the other country" ...]
^"Minjung Party press conference". Yonhap News Agency. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2020. Members of the progressive Minjung Party hold a press conference in front of former President Chun Doo-hwan's home in Seoul on May 18, 2020.
^Sebastián Royo, ed. (2020).
Why Banks Fail: The Political Roots of Banking Crises in Spain. Springer Nature. p. 298.
ISBN9781137532282. As of January 2020 (the time of writing), a new leftist government coalition between the Socialist Party and the leftist populist Unidas Podemos that emerged from the November 2019 election is coming to power with a progressive agenda ...
^Kuo, Yu-Ying, ed. (2018). Policy Analysis in Taiwan. Policy Press. The Democratic Progressive Party, founded in 1986, is a progressive and liberal political party in Taiwan.
^Daniel K. Lewis, ed. (2014).
The History of Argentina, 2nd Edition.
ABC-CLIO. p. 193.
ISBN9781610698610. Progressive decrees, exemplified by the government's legalization of same-sex marriage in July, depicted the FPV as progressive. Behind the scenes, Kirchner promoted 'La Campora," and Peronist youth organization.
^Rémond, René (1966). University of Pennsylvania Press (ed.). The Right Wing in France: From 1815 to de Gaulle.
Dudley, Larkin Sims. "Enduring narratives from progressivism." International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior 7.3 (2003): 315-340.
Eisenach, Eldon J., ed. Social and Political Thought of American Progressivism. (Hackett Publishing, 2006).
Frohman, Larry. "The Break-Up of the Poor Laws—German Style: Progressivism and the Origins of the Welfare State, 1900–1918." Comparative Studies in Society and History 50.4 (2008): 981-1009.
Jackson, Ben. "Equality and the British Left: A study in progressive political thought, 1900-64." in Equality and the British Left (2013)
Kloppenberg, James T.Uncertain Victory: Social Democracy and Progressivism in European and American Thought, 1870–1920. Oxford University Press, US, 1988.
ISBN0195053044.
Lakoff, George. Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004.
ISBN1931498717.
McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920. 2003.
Nugent, Walter. Progressivism: A very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2009).
Petrow, Stefan. "Progressivism in Australia: the case of John Daniel Fitzgerald, 1900-1922." Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 90.1 (2004): 53-74.
Sawyer, Stephen, and William J. Novak. "Emancipation and the creation of modern liberal states in America and France." Journal of the civil war era 3.4 (2013): 467-500.
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