Progressivism in the United States

In U.S. history, the term progressivism refers to a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century. The initial progressive movement arose as an alternative to the conservative, or what is today called neoliberal, response to the vast changes brought by the industrial revolution. Throughout the 20th century, American progressivism gradually evolved to become a movement with close ties to the political left-wing, and contemporary progressives continue to embrace concepts such as environmentalism and social justice.

Early progressivism

Political progressivism

At the turn of the 20th century, the growth of industry and cities had created tremendous problems. A small number of people held a large proportion of the nation’s wealth while others fell into poverty. Workers faced long hours, dangerous conditions, poor pay, and an uncertain future. Big business became closely allied with government, and political machines, which offered services in return for votes, controlled some city governments. As the United States entered the 20th century, demand arose to combat these ills.

Progressive reformers sought to remedy the problems created by industrialization and urbanization. To progressives, economic privilege and corrupt politics threatened democracy. Never a cohesive movement, progressivism embraced many types of reform. Progressives strove, variously, to curb corporate power, to end business monopolies, and to wipe out political corruption. They also wanted to democratize electoral procedures, protect working people, and bridge the gap between social classes. Progressives turned to government to achieve their goals. National in scope, progressivism included both Democrats and Republicans. From the 1890s to the 1910s, progressive efforts affected local, state, and national politics. They also left a mark on journalism, academic life, cultural life, and social justice movements.

In the early 20th Century, politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties (see Theodore Roosevelt, Bull-Moose Republicans, and the United States Progressive Party) began to pursue social, environmental, political, and economic reforms. Chief among these aims was the pursuit of trustbusting (breaking up very large monopolies), support for labor unions, public health programs, decreased corruption in politics, and environmental conservation.

Progressivism at the turn of the twentieth century was largely a bipartisan effort led by William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette and William Howard Taft. One leader, Bryan, had been linked to the Populist movement of the 1890s, while the other major leaders were opposed to Populism. When Roosevelt left the Republican party in 1912 he took with him many of the intellectual leaders of progressivism, but very few political leaders. The Republican party then became notably more committed to business-oriented and efficiency oriented progressivism, typified by Taft and Herbert Hoover. Political progressivism was also represented in the candidacies of economic philosopher Henry George and the Single Tax movement, President Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull-Moose Party, the Cleveland mayoral administration of Tom L. Johnson, Louisiana Governor Huey Long and the Share Our Wealth movement.

The five original goals of progressivism:

1. Democracy - Many progressives hoped to make government in the U.S. more responsive to the direct voice of the American people by instituting reforms such as initiative, and direct primary.
2. Social justice and equality - Many progressives supported both private and governmental action to help people in need (such action is called social justice). They embraced welfare, Prohibition of alcohol, and women's suffrage.
3. Creating economic reform - Through regulation of large corporations and monopolies by actions such as trust-busting, many progressives hoped that they could liberate human energies from the restrictions imposed by industrial capitalism.
4. Fostering the Efficiency Movement - Many progressives hoped to make American government better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational.
5. Environmentalism - made great strides under progressive President Theodore Roosevelt.

The foundation of the progressive tendency is rooted in the uniquely American philosophy of pragmatism. In modern terminology this movement is generally called populism, which can range from the political left to the political right. Populism has often manifested itself as a distrust of concentrations of power in the hands of politicians, corporations, families, and special interest groups, generating calls for reform. Thus the work of Ralph Nader reflects a blend of progressive left politics, consumerism, and right-wing populism reminiscent of the historic aspects of populist political progressivism.

Cultural progressivism

Equally significant to progressive-era reform were the crusading journalists, known as muckrakers. These journalists revealed to middle class readers the evils of economic privilege, political corruption, and social injustice. Their articles appeared in McClure’s Magazine and other reform periodicals. Some muckrakers focused on corporate abuses. Ida Tarbell, for instance, exposed the activities of the Standard Oil Company. In The Shame of the Cities (1904), Lincoln Steffens dissected corruption in city government. In Following the Color Line (1908), Ray Stannard Baker criticized race relations. Other muckrakers assailed the Senate, railroad practices, insurance companies, and fraud in patent medicine.

Novelists, too, revealed corporate injustices. Theodore Dreiser drew harsh portraits of a type of ruthless businessman in The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914). In The Jungle (1906) Socialist Upton Sinclair repelled readers with descriptions of Chicago’s meatpacking plants, and his work led to support for remedial legislation. Leading intellectuals also shaped the progressive mentality. In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen attacked the “conspicuous consumption” of the wealthy. Educator John Dewey emphasized a child-centered philosophy of pedagogy, known as progressive education, which affected schoolrooms for three generations.

The evolution of progressivism

Following the first progressive movement of the early 20th century, there would be three more distinct swells in the popularity of progressive thought.

The second progressive movement got underway in 1924. This time the key leadership role was fulfilled by Robert M. La Follette. La Follette campaigned for such things as direct elections in primaries, fairer taxation, conservation of natural resources, control of lobbyists, and banking reform. He vigorously opposed both oligarchy — government by a tiny elite — and plutocracy (government of, by, and for the wealthy).

The third Progressive movement was initiated in 1947 by former Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Many progressives were uncomfortable with his religiosity, but were admirers of his call for a sort of global "New Deal". Each of these peaks resulted in a further evolution of the progressive movement, ultimately resulting in today's definition of contemporary progressivism, which is associated with the Green Party and the Nader presidential candidacy.

The fourth and current Progressive movement grew out of social activism movements, Naderite and populist left political movements in conjunction with the civil rights, LBGT, women's, and environmental movements of the 1960s-1980s. It can also be seen as heir to the Progressive Party of the 1940s, which promoted better relations with the Soviet Union and ran Henry Wallace for President in 1948.

This exists as a cluster of political, activist, and media organizations ranging in outlook from centrism to left-liberalism to social democracy and sometimes even democratic socialism. Modern progressivism includes several political figures including Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Peter Camejo, and the late Paul Wellstone. Also in this category are many leaders in the women's movement, labor movement, anti-globalization movement, American civil rights movement, environmental movement, immigrant rights movement, and gay and lesbian rights movement. Other well-known progressives include Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Greg Palast, George Lakoff, Michael Lerner, Suzanne Pharr, Urvashi Vaid, and Paul Wellstone.

Significant media include The Progressive magazine, The Nation, The American Prospect, AlterNet.org and In These Times. Other media voices for the progressive movement in the United States include individuals such as Barbara Ehrenreich, Al Franken, Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, the late Molly Ivins, Rachel Maddow, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, Betsy Rosenberg, and Ed Schultz.

Modern issues for "progressives" can include: electoral reform (including proportional representation and fusion candidates), environmental conservation, pollution control and environmentalism, universal health care, cessation of the death penalty, affordable housing, a viable Social Security System, renewable energy, gun control, "smart growth" urban development, a living wage and pro-union policies, among many others.

Examples of the broad range of progressive texts include: New Age Politics by Mark Satin; Why Americans Hate Politics by E.J. Dionne, Jr.; Community Building: Renewing Spirit & Learning in Business edited by Kazimierz Gozdz; Ecopolitics: Building a Green Society by Daniel Coleman; and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

The main current national progressive party is the Green Party of the United States. At the state level, there is the Vermont Progressive Party.

See also

• The Center for American Progress
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• List of progressive organizations
• Progressive Christianity
• Progressive logic
• United States Progressive Party

External links

• The Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank
• "What Is Progressive?", AlterNet opinion piece, July 25th 2005
• Common Dreams list of progressive websites by popularity
• The Empathic Science Institute-The starting point for a progressive methodology for political science
• The Roosevelt Institution, a progressive student think tank
• ProgressiveSpace an art, culture and green-living webzine.
• Progressive U, a student political weblog