Differences Between the Progressive Movement Vs. Individualism
Individualism and the progressive movement are two competing ideas of how society, and its members' rights, should be organized. They are political ideals that concern what types of laws should be enacted to form a more ideal society. Individualism tends to favor laws that protect the rights of the citizen, while the Progressive movement generally strives for a more egalitarian organization of society.
Other People Are Reading
-
History of Individualism
-
The Enlightenment, growing out of the Renaissance, led to thinking about the individual and their rights. Though ideas about individual rights were present in the Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, the true development of Individualism came during the Enlightenment. Early thinking in individualism revolved around the accumulation and protection of property rights as a means to fulfillment in society. John Stuart Mill, John Locke and Thomas Jefferson all thought and wrote about Individualism.
History of the Progressive Movement
-
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt monument in Washington, D.C., showcases the poor, who were said to benefit from his Progressive policies. The Progressive movement traces its roots from collectivism in the Scottish Enlightenment, but American Progressivism really emerged in the 19th and early 20th century to champion a more egalitarian society, wealth redistribution to varying degrees and social programs. American presidents identified with the Progressive movement include Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.
-
Features of Individualism
-
The right to property and free enterprise are protected to a great degree, and individuals are judged by their accomplishments. Individualism places emphasis upon rights of the individual in society. Economically, this includes the right to property and to free enterprise, associated with laissez faire. Individualistic thinking judges people upon their accomplishments, and holds that all are able to succeed according to their merits and work.
Features of Progressivism
-
Franklin Delano Roosevelt greatly expanded the role of the state in American society. The Progressive movement tends to favor policies that enforce egalitarianism. Progressive thought tends to emphasize equality above individual achievement. Thinkers in the Progressive tradition recognize that cultural and natural barriers prevent some people from achieving according to their work or merits, and thus uses government authority to equalize the foundation for the whole of society.
Significance
-
These opposing schools of thought form the fundamental basis for the political discourse in America, and in much of the world. In America, the Republicans are generally Individualistic, while the Democrats are the modern heirs to Progressivism. Likewise, in England, the Liberal and Labour parties are generally Progressive, and the Tories or Conservative Party are Individualistic.
Liberty
-
Perhaps the starkest contrast to the ideas of the Progressive movement deal with liberty. Individualism tends to emphasize what has been called "negative" liberties, or "the freedom from" something, such as the freedom from government control. In contrast, the Progressive movement emphasizes what have been termed "positive" liberties, or the "right to" something (usually provided by the state)--such as, the right to an education, the right to health care, etc.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Jon Gilbert Leavitt Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of carulmare Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Tony Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of foundphotoslj
More Like This
Comments
-
rfmorin
Aug 10, 2010
A demonic progress emerges out of the proliferation of these juxtapositions--i.e., within this country's political disorder--, rather than an essentially humanist progress, not subject to differentiations or distinctions such as nationality, political affiliations, and religious faith.
-
rfmorin
Aug 10, 2010
Propaganda is not truth! One should not observe our responsibilities as separate from one another, Republicans and Democrats.
-
rfmorin
Aug 10, 2010
Individualism is misunderstood to stand for the rights of the individual when opposed to a progressive ideology only insofar as such analysis allows for a very narrow and divisive understanding of individual uniqueness, reflective of current political traditions, i.e., in the opposition between Republicans and Democrats. These narrow-minded ideas are pure philistine nonsense, a conflict never to be surmounted by such limited conceptual relationships. The true sense of the individual is precisely an entity not divided or separated from the totality of society, of Life itself.
