Progressivism

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Progressivism


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Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of contemporary international social and political philosophies. The term progressive was first widely used in late 19th century America, in reference to a general branch of political thought which arose as a response to the vast changes brought by industrialization, and as an alternative to the traditional conservative response to social and economic issues. Political parties such as the American Progressive Party organized at the start of the 20th century, and progressivism made great strides under American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.[1]

There are at least three distinct meanings of the word "progressive", as it is used today. Ordered from the most vague to the most specific, they are as follows:

  1. In the broadest sense, the label "progressive" may be used in self-description of anyone who advocates any kind of change in a society, or in any part of the political spectrum.
  2. In a somewhat more restricted sense, "progressive" is a term used within left-wing politics to distinguish those who advocate moderate or gradual social change - often called either "progressives" or "reformists" - from those who advocate larger and more rapid changes - called "revolutionaries" or "radicals".
  3. Finally, in the most specific sense, there is the continuation of the political movement/ideology that began in the late 19th century. This ideology is usually considered to belong to the political left-wing. Progressives support the continual advancement of workers' rights and social justice. The first progressives were some of the earliest proponents of anti-trust laws and the regulation of large corporations and monopolies. They were also among the first advocates of government-funded environmentalism, and the creation of National Parks and Wildlife Refuges. It is this meaning of progressivism that will be covered more extensively in the rest of the article below.

Contents

[edit] Tenets of Early Progressivism

In the beginning of the original progressive movement, most of the principles that were laid out by early 20th century American progressives continue to be the hallmarks of contemporary progressive politics. The following are some of those early tenets.

[edit] Democracy

Many progressives hoped to make government in the U.S. more responsive to the direct voice of the American people by instituting the following institutional reforms:

Ballot Initiative
A procedure whereby citizens could vote directly on whether to approve proposed laws.
Initiative
A procedure whereby ordinary citizens could propose laws for consideration by their state legislatures or by the voters directly.
Direct primary
A procedure whereby political party nominations for public office were made directly by a vote of rank-and-file members of the party rather than by party bosses.
Direct election of U.S. Senators
A procedure to allow the citizens in each state to directly elect their Senators. Previously, Senators were chosen by the state legislatures. Direct election of Senators was achieved with the addition of the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1913).
Referendum
A procedure whereby citizens could vote directly to rescind a law which was passed by the legislature.
Recall
A procedure by which a public official could be removed from office by a direct vote of the citizens.
Secret Ballot
A procedure by which citizens could keep their votes secret. Previously, voting was a public act witnessed by others. The voting records of individual citizens were recorded and made public. Many progressives argued that public voting allowed for voter intimidation. An employer, for instance, might require his employees to vote for certain candidates on pain of losing their jobs.
Women's Suffrage
Granting to women the right to vote. Women's Suffrage was achieved with the addition of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920).

The progressives achieved their greatest and most enduring successes in the effort to make governments more democratic.

[edit] Efficiency

Many progressives hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Reforms included:

Professional administrators
Many progressives argued that governments would function better if they were placed under the direction of trained, professional administrators. One example of progressive reform was the rise of the city manager system, in which paid, professional administrators ran the day-to-day affairs of city governments under guidelines established by elected city councils.
Centralization of decision-making process
Many progressives sought to make government more rational through centralized decision-making. Governments were reorganized to reduce the number of officials and to eliminate overlapping areas of authority between departments. City governments were reorganized to reduce the power of local wards within the city and to increase the powers of the city council. Governments at every level began developing budgets to help them plan their expenditures (rather than spending money haphazardly as needs arose and revenue became available). The drive for centralization was often associated with the rise of professional administrators.
Movements to eliminate governmental corruption
Corruption represented a source of waste and inefficiency in government. Many progressives worked to cleanup local governments by eliminating the power of machine politicians and urban political bosses. Often this was associated with the effort to restructure the ward system. Power was transferred from urban bosses to professional administrators.

Note that the progressives' quest for efficiency was sometimes at odds with the progressives' quest for democracy. Taking power out of the hands of elected officials and placing that power in the hands of professional administrators reduced the voice of the people in government. Centralized decision-making and reduced power for local wards made government more distant and isolated from the people it served. Progressives who emphasized the need for efficiency sometimes argued that an elite class of administrators knew better what the people needed than did the people themselves.

[edit] Regulation of Large Corporations and Monopolies

Many progressives hoped that by regulating large corporations that they could liberate human energies from the restrictions imposed by industrial capitalism. Yet the progressive movement was split over which of the following four solutions should be used to regulate corporations:

Trust-busting
Some progressives argued that industrial monopolies were unnatural economic institutions which suppressed the competition which was necessary for progress and improvement. The federal government should intervene by breaking up monopolies into smaller companies, thereby restoring competition. The government should then withdraw and allow marketplace forces once again to regulate the economy.
Regulation
Some progressives argued that in a modern economy, large corporations and even monopolies were both inevitable and desirable. With their massive resources and economies of scale, large corporations offered the U.S. advantages which smaller companies could not offer. Yet, these large corporations might abuse their great power. The federal government should allow these companies to exist but regulate them for the public interest.
Socialism
Some progressives believed that privately owned companies could never be made to serve the public interest. Therefore, the federal government should acquire ownership of large corporations and operate them for the public interest.
Laissez-Faire
Some progressives argued that marketplace forces were the best regulators of all. A company which paid low wages or maintained an unsafe work environment would be forced to change its policies by the loss of workers. A company which made an unsafe product would eventually lose customers and go bankrupt. In the long run, a free market would best protect the public interest.

The laissez-faire and socialist approaches were less popular among American progressives than the trust-busting and regulatory approaches.

[edit] Social Justice

Many progressives supported both private and governmental action to help people in need (such action is called social justice). Social justice reforms included:

Development of professional social workers
The idea that welfare and charity work should be undertaken by professionals who are trained to do the job. (Notice again the progressives' concern for efficiency through professionalism.)
The building of Settlement Houses
These were residential, community centers operated by social workers and volunteers and located in inner city slums. The purpose of the settlement houses was to raise the standard of living of urbanites by providing schools, day care centers, and cultural enrichment programs.
The enactment of child labor laws
Child labor laws were designed to prevent the overworking of children in the newly emerging industries. The goal of these laws was to give working-class children the opportunity to go to school and to mature more naturally, thereby liberating the potential of humanity and encouraging the advancement of humanity.
Support for the goals of organized labor
Progressives often supported such goals as the eight-hour work day, improved safety and health conditions in factories, workers compensation laws, minimum wage laws, and unionization.
Prohibition laws
Progressives adopted the cause of prohibition. They claimed the consumption of alcohol limited mankind's potential for advancement. Progressives achieved success in this area with the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919.[2]

[edit] Environmentalism

During the term of the progressive President Theodore Roosevelt (1901 – 1909), the largest government-funded environmentalism-related projects in U.S. history were undertaken:

National parks and wildlife refuges
On March 14, 1903, President Roosevelt created the first National Bird Preserve, (the beginning of the Wildlife Refuge system), on Pelican Island, Florida. In all, by 1909, the Roosevelt administration had created an unprecedented 42 million acres of national forests, 53 national wildlife refuges and 18 areas of "special interest", including the Grand Canyon. This environmental record was unequaled until President Bill Clinton's term, 90 years later.[3]

In addition, Roosevelt passed the Newland Act of 1902, which gave subsidies for irrigation in sixteen western states. Another conservation-oriented bill was the Antiquities Act of 1906 that protected large areas of land. The Inland Waterways Commission was established in 1907 to control the United States' rivers and streams.[4]

[edit] Progressivism Worldwide

The precise definition of what constitutes "Progressivism" varies somewhat worldwide. Most of the above tenets still apply, with the most notable divide being in regards to economic principles. The issues pertaining to government economic intervention, such as corporate regulation, split the early progressive movement into two major branches. The branch of progressivism which adheres to a less radical policy of intervention through trust-busting and regulation is more predominate in North America, while the more interventionist social-democratic branch is more predominate in parts of South America and Asia. Europe has a fairly even representation of both schools.

[edit] Americas

In North America, Green and other progressive parties have a small but fairly consistent following. The Federation of Green Parties of the Americas is a coalition of progressive environmentalist parties from the U.S., Canada, and parts of South America..[5] The progressive movement in South America more commonly advocates moderate socialism or social-democracy as an economic reform option, and is currently experiencing an upswing in popularity, as recent elections in Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and other parts of Latin America show. The Latin American Socialist Coordination (Coordinación Socialista Latinoamericana) is an organization of social-democratic parties with progressive policies in South America.[6]

Canada 

Western Canada at the turn of the 20th century began to receive an influx of radical political ideas. From the United States, came progressivism. The Progressive Party of Canada was founded in 1920 by Thomas Crerar, a former Minister of Agriculture in the Unionist government of Robert Borden. Crerar quit the Borden cabinet in 1919 because Minister of Finance Thomas White introduced a budget that did not pay sufficient attention to farmers' issues. Crerar became the first leader of the Progressive Party, and led it to win 65 seats in the 1921 general election.

Dating back to 1854, Canada's oldest political party was the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, until it was dissolved in 2003. The PC Party generally followed a centre-right agenda, with conservative pro-business policies, but was progressive in its opposition to the Apartheid regime of South Africa, and support for the introduction of the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Ontario Code of Human Rights. The PC party adopted the "Progressive Conservative" party name in 1942 when Manitoba Premier John Bracken, a long-time leader of that province's Progressive Party, agreed to become leader of the Conservatives on condition that the party add Progressive to its name. Despite the name change, most former Progressive supporters continued to support the Liberal Party or the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. After defeat and scandal plagued the PC's in the election of 1993 they lost their position as Canada's main conservative party to the Far Right, social conservative and neo-conservative, Reform Party of Canada. In 2003, Canada's oldest political party was dissolved along with the much larger Canadian Alliance (which had been formed by the Reform Party in 1999) to create the new Conservative Party of Canada. The Progressive Canadian Party, composed mostly of anti-merger Progressive Conservatives, was formed several months prior to the 2004 general election.

Today, the term progressive is still popular in Canada. The New Democratic Party is progressive in its stances, and attempts to appeal to progressive voters. The Liberal Party is more centrist, with various ideoligical camps present in the party and tends to promote neoliberal , social liberal and progressive policies.

Some of the New Democrats' more progressive stances are:

While the Liberal Party has supported the more conservative causes of increased spending on military and cuts in corporate tax (by two points from 21% to 19% by year 2010), it has also legalized same-sex marriage and use of cannabis for medical purposes, and has been proposing complete decriminalization of possession of small amounts of it. The party also holds progressive views on various other social issues like abortion.

During the 2006 election the Liberal party's progressive stances included:

  • Progressive stances on drugs and same-sex marriage
  • Immediately cut tax for low income earners by 1 point from 16% to 15%
  • Reducing wait times for medical treatments
  • Increased support and opportunities for seniors, immigrants and the aboriginal populations
United States 
Main article: Progressivism in the United States

Progressive political parties were created in the United States on three different occasions. The first of these - the Progressive Party, founded in 1912 by President Theodore Roosevelt - was the most successful third party in modern American history. The other two were the Progressive Party founded in 1924 and the Progressive Party founded in 1948, which were less successful.

From the New Deal to the 1960s, the progressive movement was largely subsumed into modern American liberalism. After the 1960s, however, progressives grew increasingly unhappy with the direction of the liberal movement and the leadership of the Democratic Party. On the one hand, progressives agreed with many of the concerns of the New Left, such as environmental conservation. On the other hand, they preserved their commitment to the original progressive issues, such as workers' rights, which liberals grew less interested in. And finally, progressives also began advocating entirely new ideas - for example electoral reform (including proportional representation) and campaign finance reform. As many American progressives felt disenfranchised from the contemporary American liberal movement, they sought to establish their own separate political organizations. Two prominent examples are the Vermont Progressive Party, and the environmentalist Green Party. Other progressive organizations, like the Coalition of Progressive Democrats, remain within the Democratic Party to advocate progressive policies.

[edit] Asia

While the term "progressive" is not as popular in most parts of Asia as it is elsewhere, there are political parties and organizations that advocate for many of the tenets of progressivism, such as the Progressive Writers' Movement.

China 

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is an oligarchy. Individuals are elected to government via a series of indirect elections in which one people's congress appoints the members of the next higher congress, and in which only the lowest people's congresses are subject to direct popular vote. This means that although independent members can theoretically, and occasionally in practice, get elected to the lowest level of people's congresses, it is impossible for them to organize to elect members to the next higher people's congress without the approval of the ruling party, or to even exercise oversight over executive positions at the lowest level in the hierarchy. This lack of effective power also discourages outsiders from contesting the people's congress elections even at the lowest level. As well, control is often maintained over the civilian population through regulation of information, propaganda and censorship (see Propaganda in the People's Republic of China). These aspects of China's government run counter to many of the fundamental principles of progressivism, and thus there is no major contemporary progressive movement there.

[edit] Europe

In Europe there is a large but varied progressive movement, mostly in the form of center-left social-democrats, and Green parties. The European Federation of Green Parties is a multinational organization of progressive environmental parties. The Socialist International is comprised of social-democratic parties.

Ireland 

In the Republic of Ireland, the Progressive Democrat Party (in Irish An Páirtí Daonlathach, literal back-translation: The Democratic Party) was founded in 1985 as a free market liberal party. While the party is often described as right wing or neoliberal by supporters and critics alike, they have several policies which may be considered progressive:

  • They have been strong supporters of overseas development aid. Liz O’Donnell of the Progressive Democrats, then Minister of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs, threathened to resign if aid wasn’t increased. As a result, it was doubled.
  • The former PD leader, Mary Harney, introduced Ireland's first minimum wage in 2000 while she was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. At the time, it was the highest minimum wage in the EU.[8]
  • They support the social partnership agreements on taxation, wages and conditions negotiated between unions, government and employers.
  • Their election programmes have included the intention to significantly increase welfare spending in key areas, including children's allowance, unemployment benefit and old age pensions.
  • They support free university education.[9]
United Kingdom 

In the UK, the Liberal Democrats tend to favor more progressive causes than the center-left Labour Party, though both have at times embraced the progressive movement. The Respect Party, while leaning more towards socialism, is one of the more progressive parties in the region. The Scottish Green Party and the Green Party of England and Wales are progressive environmental parties.

The Liberal Democrats more progressive policies are:

  • Recently the party has adopted a strong sense of environmentalist values - favouring taxing high polluters.
  • The party has supported higher taxes on high earners, and higher levels of government spending.
  • They are supportive of a multilateral foreign policy, and opposed to British participation in the War in Iraq.
  • They support more open government, including substantial reforms to increase parliamentary oversight of the executive.
  • They support anti-discrimination laws. 25 Lib Dem MPs signed EDM710 calling on the government to extend the protections for religious groups, in respect of discrimination in the provisions of goods, facilities and services, to lesbians and gay men.
  • They are in favour of proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons, preferably by the STV system..[10]

Some of the Respect Party's policies are:

[edit] Pacific

Australia 

The term progressive is popular in Australia, and most progressives tend to support either the Labor Party, the Democrats or the Greens, opposed to the right-wing neo-liberal Liberal Party of Australia.

The Australian Democrats' have many progressive agendas, including:

The party also explicitly targets voters who seek a brake on the powers of the government of the day to change things, with their long-term hold on the Senate balance of power. Many important internal issues (such as electoral preselection and leadership) are decided by direct postal ballot of the membership. Although policies are theoretically set in a similar fashion, Democrat parliamentarians have extensive freedom in interpreting them.

The Australian Green Party is a progressive environmentalist party.

New Zealand 

The current Prime Minister of New Zealand - Helen Clark, leader of the Labour Party - announced in 2005 that she had come to a complex arrangement that led to a formal coalition consisting of the Labour Party and Jim Anderton, the New Zealand Progressive Party's MP. A further arrangement has been made with the Green Party, which has given a commitment not to vote against the government on confidence and supply.

Jim Anderton formed the Progressive Party after splitting from the Alliance (New Zealand political party) Party. The Progressive Party states a particular focus on the creation of jobs, and has said that it is committed to achieving full employment. They seek to raise the legal age of alcohol consumption to 20. They are pro-environment, and list free education and free healthcare as other policy objectives.[13]

Progressive voters also support the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Greens focus primarily on environmental issues. In recent times, they have expressed particular concerns about genetic engineering, which they strongly oppose using. They have also spoken out against the military operations conducted by the United States of America and other countries in Afghanistan and Iraq. In its economic policies, the Green Party stresses factors such as sustainability and "fair trade". It also states that measuring economic success should concentrate on measuring well-being rather than analysing economic indicators.

The Progressive Green Party was formed in 1995 but has now disbanded.

[edit] Progressivism in relation to other political ideologies

[edit] Liberalism

The term "progressive" is now often used in place of "liberal". Although the two are related, they are really distinct political ideologies. According to John Halpin, senior advisor on the staff of the Center for American Progress, "Progressivism is an orientation towards politics, It's not a long-standing ideology like liberalism, but an historically-grounded concept ... that accepts the world as dynamic." Progressives see progressivism as an attitude towards the world of politics that is far less black-and-white than conservatism vs. liberalism, and as an attempt to break free from that false and divisive dichotomy.[14][15]

Liberalism is ultimately founded on a concept of natural rights and civil liberties, and the belief that the major purpose of the government is to protect those rights. Liberals are often called "left-wing", as opposed to "right-wing" conservatives. The progressive school, as a unique branch of contemporary political thought, tends to advocate certain center-left or left-wing views that may conflict with mainstream liberal views, despite the fact that modern liberalism and progressivism may still both support many of the same policies (such as the concept of war as a general last resort).

American progressives tend to support interventionist economics: they advocate income redistribution, and they oppose the growing influence of corporations. Conversely, European and Australian progressives tend to be more pro-business, and will often have policies that are soft on taxation of large corporations. Progressives are in agreement on an international scale with left-liberalism in that they support organized labor and trade unions, they usually wish to introduce a living wage, and they often support the creation of a universal health care system. Yet progressives tend to be more concerned with environmentalism than mainstream liberals, and are often more skeptical of the government, positioning themselves as whistleblowers and advocates of governmental reform. Finally, liberals are more likely to support the Democratic Party in America and the Labour party in Europe and Australia, while progressives tend to feel disillusioned with any two-party system, and vote more often for third-party candidates.

[edit] Conservatism and libertarianism

Some views in opposition to progressivism are conservatism, and libertarianism.

Conservatives, by definition, advocate tradition and social stability. They are skeptical of notions of "progress" and social change - in any direction - believing that it is best to retain social relations that have been proven stable by past experience.

Libertarians, on the other hand, advocate their own brand of social change, which is in many ways opposed to the kind of change advocated by progressives. For this reason, libertarians claim that "they" are the true promoters of progress, and that the policies of progressivism are actually "regressive". A notable supporter of this view is Brink Lindsey, an economist working with the Cato Institute. Lindsey believes that by terming themselves progressives, American liberals and social democrats have put a positive spin on what he claims to be regressive economic tendencies. Being a libertarian, he argues in favor of free market capitalism and believes that progressive economic policies (such as minimum wages, income taxes, payroll taxes, most social safety nets and trade barriers) help to increase unemployment among the poor and unskilled, as well as increase costs for all members of society.

Progressives counter that free market capitalism can be demonstrated to be regressive due to negative social consequences caused by its rejection or mitigation of government intervention in the labor market, and the fact that it is often at odds with fair trade and other movements that argue for the concepts of labor rights and social justice in international relations and economics. They further argue that the kind of policies advocated by libertarians like Brink Lindsey would and have created severe poverty, widened the gap between rich and poor and allowed those who are already rich to gain an excessively high amount of both wealth and power over the rest of society.

[edit] Socialism

Socialism (in the strict or radical sense) aims to establish a fundamentally different society from the one that currently exists in most countries. While there are different schools of socialism, which often tend to have differing views of the ideal socialist society, some general examples of socialist concepts are: The desire to abolish capitalism, to place the means of production under the collective ownership of the people, and to achieve a very high degree of economic and political equality. Socialists argue that capitalism exploits the working class, and they desire for workers to play a vital role in moving society from capitalism to socialism (either by rising up in a revolution or general strike, or by voting en masse for socialist political parties).

In contrast, by definition progressivism aims to achieve gradual social change, and most progressives are outright opposed to any form of radical revolution. When the progressive movement split on economic principles, some progressives moved towards the socialist camp, advocating a planned economy. Other progressives moved towards the regulated mixed economy camp, with both public and private ownership of companies. Between these two extremes is social democracy (not a term in popular U.S. usage), a branch of socialism that became increasingly moderate and moved towards the political center. Regulated-capitalism progressives and socialist progressives still tend to support similar progressive social policies, outside of economic principles.

However, the relationship between progressivism and socialism as described here has often been a tense one. An example of this tension can be seen in the conflict between the Progressive Party of Theodore Roosevelt and the Socialist Party of Eugene V. Debs in the United States.

[edit] List of progressive parties

See also: List of progressive organizations

[edit] List of progressive advocates

[edit] References

  1. ^ Progressivism. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  2. ^ Progressivism 1900 - 1920. Georgetown College. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  3. ^ Environmental Timeline 1890 - 1920 The Progressive Era. Radford University. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  4. ^ "Conservationist - Life of Theodore Roosevelt". Theodore Roosevelt Association. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  5. ^ Green parties of the world. Broadleft.org. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  6. ^ Leftist parties of the world. Broadleft.org. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  7. ^ Policies. New Democratic Party of Canada. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  8. ^ Achievements in government. Progressive Democrats of Ireland. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  9. ^ Policies. Progressive Democrats of Ireland. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  10. ^ Policies. Liberal Democrats of Britain. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  11. ^ Policies. Respect Party. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  12. ^ Policies. Australian Democrats. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  13. ^ Policies. New Zealand Progressive Party. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  14. ^ "What Is Progressivism?". Andrew Garib. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  15. ^ "Progressive versus Liberal". Untergeek.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.

[edit] External links

Progressive Versus Liberal - David Sirota

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