What was the progressive approach to social problems?

progressivism, in the United States, political and social-reform movement that brought major changes to American politics and government during the first two decades of the 20th century.

Historical context

Progressive reformers made the first comprehensive effort within the American context to address the problems that arose with the emergence of a modern urban and industrial society. The U.S. population nearly doubled between 1870 and 1900. Urbanization and immigration increased at rapid rates and were accompanied by a shift from local small-scale manufacturing and commerce to large-scale factory production and colossal national corporations. Technological breakthroughs and frenzied searches for new markets and sources of capital caused unprecedented economic growth. From 1863 to 1899, manufacturing production rose by more than 800 percent. But that dynamic growth also generated profound economic and social ills that challenged the decentralized form of republican government that characterized the United States.

Goals of progressivism

The Progressive movement accommodated a diverse array of reformers—insurgent Republican officeholders, disaffected Democrats, journalists, academics, social workers, and other activists—who formed new organizations and institutions with the common objective of strengthening the national government and making it more responsive to popular economic, social, and political demands. Many progressives viewed themselves as principled reformers at a critical juncture of American history.

Above all else, the progressives sought to come to terms with the extreme concentration of wealth among a tiny elite and the enormous economic and political power of the giant trusts, which they saw as uncontrolled and irresponsible. Those industrial combinations created the perception that opportunities were not equally available in the United States and that growing corporate power threatened the freedom of individuals to earn a living. Reformers excoriated the economic conditions of the 1890s—dubbed the “Gilded Age”—as excessively opulent for the elite and holding little promise for industrial workers and small farmers. Moreover, many believed that the great business interests, represented by newly formed associations such as the National Civic Federation, had captured and corrupted the men and methods of government for their own profit. Party leaders—both Democrats and Republicans—were seen as irresponsible “bosses” who did the bidding of special interests.

In their efforts to grapple with the challenges of industrialization, progressives championed three principal causes. First, they promoted a new governing philosophy that placed less emphasis on rights, especially when invoked in defense of big business, and stressed collective responsibilities and duties. Second, in keeping with these new principles, progressives called for the reconstruction of American politics, hitherto dominated by localized parties, so that a more direct link was formed between government officials and public opinion. Finally, reformers demanded a revamping of governing institutions, so that the power of state legislatures and Congress would be subordinated to an independent executive power—city managers, governors, and a modern presidency—that could truly represent the national interest and tackle the new tasks of government required by changing social and economic conditions. Progressive reformers differed dramatically over how the balance should be struck between those three somewhat competing objectives as well as how the new national state they advocated should address the domestic and international challenges of the new industrial order. But they tended to agree that those were the most important battles that had to be fought in order to bring about a democratic revival.

Above all, that commitment to remaking American democracy looked to the strengthening of the public sphere. Like the Populists, who flourished at the end of the 19th century, the progressives invoked the Preamble to the Constitution to assert their purpose of making “We the People”—the whole people—effective in strengthening the federal government’s authority to regulate society and the economy. But progressives sought to hitch the will of the people to a strengthened national administrative power, which was anathema to the Populists. The Populists were animated by a radical agrarianism that celebrated the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian assault on monopolistic power. Their concept of national democracy rested on the hope that the states and Congress might counteract the centralizing alliance between national parties and the trusts. In contrast, the progressives championed a new national order that completely repudiated the localized democracy of the 19th century.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

In their quest for national community, many progressives revisited the lessons of the Civil War. Edward Bellamy’s admiration for the discipline and self-sacrifice of the Civil War armies was reflected in his enormously popular utopian novel Looking Backward (1888). In Bellamy’s utopia, men and women alike were drafted into the national service at the age of 21, on the completion of their education, where they remained until the age of 45. Bellamy’s reformed society had thus, as his protagonist Julian West notes with great satisfaction, “simply applied the principle of universal military service,” as it was understood during the 19th century, “to the labor question.” In Bellamy’s utopian world there were no battlefields, but those who displayed exceptional valour in promoting the prosperity of society were honoured for their service.

Bellamy’s picture of a reformed society that celebrated military virtues without bloodshed resonated with a generation who feared that the excessive individualism and vulgar commercialism of the Gilded Age would make it impossible for leaders to appeal, as Abraham Lincoln had, to the “better angels of our nature.” His call to combine the spirit of patriotism demanded by war with peaceful civic duty probably helped to inspire the philosopher William James’s widely read essay The Moral Equivalent of War (1910). Just as military conscription provided basic economic security and instilled a sense of duty to confront a nation’s enemies, so James called for the draft of the “whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature,” which would do the rugged jobs required of a peaceful industrial society.

James’s proposal for a national service was not as ambitious as the one found in Bellamy’s utopian society; moreover, James called for an all-male draft, thus ignoring Bellamy’s vision of greater gender equality, which inspired progressive thinkers such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman. But both Bellamy and James expressed the core progressive commitment to moderate the American obsession with individual rights and private property, which they saw as sanctioning a dangerous commercial power inimical to individual freedom. Indeed, progressive presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and the philosopher John Dewey, strongly supported America’s entry into World War I, not only because they believed, with President Wilson, that the country had a duty to “make the world safe for democracy,” but also because they acknowledged that there was no moral equivalent for the battlefield. Most progressive reformers held a common belief in civic duty and self-sacrifice. They differed significantly, however, over the meaning of the public interest and how a devotion to something higher than the self could be achieved.

What social problems did the progressives want to solve?

What does it mean to be progressive on social issues?

What were the social issues during the Progressive Era?

How did progressives hope to solve problems through political reform?