Progressivism

[picture: Child laborer, Newberry, SC, 1908]

Progressivism is the term applied to a variety of responses to the economic and social problems rapid industrialization introduced to America. Progressivism began as a social movement and grew into a political movement. The early progressives rejected Social Darwinism. In other words, they were people who believed that the problems society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. Progressives lived mainly in the cities, were college educated, and believed that government could be a tool for change. Social reformers, like Jane Addams, and journalists, like Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbel, were powerful voices for progressivism.

Source:

nps.gov

Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of international social and political philosophies. The term [P]rogressive 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 both to the traditional conservative response to social and economic issues and to the various more or less radical streams of socialism and anarchism which opposed them. 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, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.[1]

Source:

en.wikipedia.org

Progressivism began in the cities, where the problems were most acute. Dedicated men and women of middle-class background moved into the slums and established settlement houses. Led by women such as Jane Addams in Chicago and Lillian Wald in New York City, they hoped to improve slum life through programs of self-help. Other reformers attacked corruption in municipal government; they formed nonpartisan leagues to defeat the entrenched bosses and their political machines. During the 1890s, reform mayors such as Hazen Pingree in Detroit, Samuel Jones in Toledo, and James Phelan in San Francisco were elected on platforms promising municipal ownership of public utilities, improved city services, and tenement housing codes. Urban reformers were often frustrated... because state legislatures, controlled by railroads and large corporations, obstructed the municipal struggle for home rule.

Source:

answers.com

As explanations of Progressivism's social basis and intellectual character multiplied, dissatisfaction grew. The best- known statement of this discontent was Peter Filene's 1970 "An Obituary for the Progressive Movement." Defining the term "movement" carefully, Filene argued that the early-twentieth- century reform surge never had the coherence necessary to qualify as a distinctive social or political movement. He proposed abandoning the term "Progressive" and finding some other basis for a synthesis of early twentieth-century public life.

Source:

h-net.org

Progressivism, on the other hand, is rooted in the Progressive Era of TR and Woodrow Wilson, and is primarily concerned with fostering some kind of virtue in the electorate and in preserving the prerequisites of citizenship. What's the difference? When liberals talk of competing interests, progressives speak of the public interest. When liberals talk about the rights of individuals and the concerns of groups, progressives talk about the obligations of citizens and the needs of communities. While liberalism as a philosophy is value-neutral with respect to corporate power (they serve the needs of consumer-Americans), progressives want to know how this corporate power adversely affects citizenship. In the liberal view, government mediates betwen groups of people, while, in the progressive view, the people are the government.

Source:

kevincmurphy.com

Progressivism was ... identified with liberalism- old style liberalism of believing in social justice and mandates for advocacy. During the Great Depression this association played well. After World War Two "right wing" conservatives spent a decade translating progressive education and liberalism as a communist plot -fuzzyheaded and a dangerous doctrine. The irony of taking the idea of the individual and critical inquiry as one and the same with the mass society model of inevitable determinism was lost on the conservative detractors. Besides, in the cold war climate of absolute goods and bads, who cared to mince around with nuances and historical context?

Source:

albany.edu