The History of Progressive Politics
American progressivism is considered a largely left-wing political and social tradition. It has its roots in the late 19th-century response to the transformative effects the Industrial Revolution had on the country. However, not all progressives were left-wing: The progressive president Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican. Since then, the spirit of progressive politics has evolved to change with the times, but its egalitarian spirit remain unchanged. Also unchanged is that American-style progressive politics are usually not as left-wing as its European counterparts.
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More Democracy
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The progressivism of the late 19th Century was a polyglot thing, being more a collection of regional movements addressing regional issues than a national political organization. However, progressives shared many of the same ideas. First among them was favoring more democracy. Progressives established a regime in Oregon that was called "Initiative, Referendum and Recall," and it was widely copied throughout the United States. The mechanisms for ballot initiatives, referendums and recalls in most U.S. states date to the progressive movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Progressives were also champions of the secret ballot and women's suffrage.
Better Government
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The early progressive movement advocated a more-professional and efficient civil service, which led to the widespread elimination of patronage from the professional civil service at all levels of government in America. It also led to protections to prevent the firing of professional government workers for political reasons, and these two steps effectively de-politicized government in the United States, to the extent that political party issues were minimized in day to day government operations. Another key achievement of progressives was to confirm and expand the use of merit considerations and testing in hiring and promotion.
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Economic Regulation
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Progressives were not always strongly anti-corporate. Some argued that monopolies were not only natural, but even desirable so long as they were regulated. Labor union progressives, on the other hand, were powerful advocates of anti-trust measures that were designed to break up monopolies. In general, however, progressives favor government oversight of the market and policies that are favorable to labor unions. They therefore were also responsible for creating child labor laws, worker's compensation and the minimum wage, as well as inspection and safety organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration.
Society and Environment
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The early progressive movement included the prohibitionists, who succeeded in banning all alcohol consumption in the United States in 1920. That experiment was a failure, and came to an end in 1933. Progressives were also strongly conservationist, which resulted in the beginning of what has become the extensive National Parks system starting with Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.
Progressive Evolution
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The progressives formed a national political party in 1912 and again in 1924, and although the party never achieved even marginal national power, they were able to secure many of their gains. The New Deal of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was infused with progressive thinking, which reached its apex with Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party of the late 1940s. While the country was soon swept up in a wave of anti-left-wing, anti-communist hysteria, the truth is that most of the key ideas of the original progressive movement were mainstream by that time, and much of it would continue to be so. For example, while the 1980s and 1990s would prove very hostile to organized labor and economic regulation, only the most extreme right-wingers called for the abolition of a professional, de-politicized civil service, and no one called for the repeal of voting rights for women or ethnic minorities.
Modern Progressivism
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The current brand of progressivism is an outgrowth of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movements for ethnic minorities and gay people, the modern environmental movement, anti-death penalty advocates, pro-labor activists and electoral reform movements. This represents a spectrum of ideas and organizations that are centrist and left-wing. In this respect, the pro-democracy, pro-conservationist and pro-labor strands of progressivism of the late 19th Century movement remain alive and well in modern progressive activism.
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