What is Progressivism? Pt. 2

Read the original post by Anders Ibsen and comments at the Young People For Blog.

| August 30, 2008

In my last post, I identified the core assumptions of Conservative doctrine in order to provide the right contrast to help us create our own ideology.

Conservatism is built on a foundation of atomism (individualism run amok) and crony capitalism. While conservatives profess a belief in personal responsibility and minimalist government, what they really strive for is selective government - I want mine, someone else pays for it.

With the basics of the other side covered, let's attempt a rough idea of what we're all about. Returning to the two basic questions (what is human nature, what is the role of government), Progressivism seems to boil down to two things:

1. People are cooperative, and capable of personal growth.

2. We're all in this together.

Read more below.

That communitarian sense of compassion is the beating heart of everything we stand for. Like Liberalism, we Progressives believe that government is obliged to provide for the common well-being, as well as respecting the private rights of individuals. As Barack Obama explained so well last night, Progressives and Liberals adhere to two overlapping kinds of responsibility: personal responsibility - my obligation to pull my weight and respect the rights of others - and mutual responsibility - my duty to contribute to the greater good and help those around me.

Progressivism is not a synonym for Liberalism, however. Though we are both communitarians, Progressives have rejected the more simplistic Utilitarianism of Liberalism for a more nuanced, mature Capability Approach.

A Liberal believes in attaining the greatest good for the greatest number. Government levels the playing field to accomplish this goal, while doing its best to also protect individual rights. Inequality is primarily seen as a matter of resource deprivation - throw more money at the problem, institute more charities and welfare programs and the problem will go away.

The Progressive sees society and the individual as a work in progress. Inequality isn't just a disparity of resources, but the deprivation of choice and potential. An uninsured family is denied the ability to live healthily and lives in constant fear of crisis, and as a result lacks the capacity to enjoy other basic human needs (like recreation or political involvement, for example). Progressivism refines Liberalism in this way, by recognizing that the enjoyment of individual rights depends on freeing the individual from the tyranny of social powerlesness - a freedom that requires social equity and cooperation.

It's this crucial development - seeing choice as a matter of power, rather than an isolated decision - that separates Progressivism from Conservatism and Liberalism.

Taken one step further, the Capability Approach becomes class conscious: in a plutocratic society where most economic and political power is concentrated in the hands of a small elite, one class has effectively monopolized choice, and expropriated decision-making power from the majority. The majority cannot exercise full choice without more power.

This final implication touches on democracy itself. Democratic government becomes a collaborative struggle against the deprivation of social power - a battlefield of principles, as opposed to a marketplace of ideas. So long as undemocratic systems of political and economic power remain in place, we can never be truly free.

Through empowering the many, we enrich the soul of the individual. Through freedom and equity, we offer the world a life that is fully human.