Progressive

Where it sits

The left side of the Diamond Chart. Progressives score higher on the personal scale than on the economic scale of the World’s Smallest Political Quiz: self-government on personal issues, more state action on economic ones.

What it meansTheir worldTypesHeroesOrganizationsBooks

What it means to be a progressive

Overview

The progressive self-image, from Three Languages of Politics by Arnold Kling…

“My heroes are people who have stood up for the underprivileged. The people I cannot stand are the people who are indifferent to the oppression of women, minorities, and the poor.”Arnold Kling, The Three Languages of Politics

Progressives seek to maximize equality, openness, and self-actualization. Progressives believe that…

• Unregulated human greed tends to create economic outcomes that are unfair and unequal.
• State action is necessary to correct these problems, because only The State has the required power, resources, and expertise.
• The proper use of state power can foster ever-increasing human progress.

Progressives also realize that state power can be used to hinder equality, openness, and self-actualization. This is why they favor limits on state power to protect the freedom of expression, including religious and sexual freedom. However, some progressives think the cause of social justice requires some state regulation of personal expression to curtail hate and intolerance.

What would things look like in a progressive world?

The progressive vision applies the scientific revolution to society itself. In a progressive world democratic majorities will approve large and dynamic plans to solve huge social problems. Progressives will…

• Regulate greed so as to foster competition, prevent monopolies, and conserve the environment.
• Redistribute resources from those who have too much to those who have too little.
• Pursue their plans in a balanced and humble way that will foster rather than hamper the entrepreneurial engine that creates human wealth.

Progressives believe their approach to scientifically planned regulation and reallocation will increase equality and fairness. Great disparities of wealth will decrease or disappear entirely. As a result, no one will lack for food, housing, education, and healthcare.

With these fundamentals taken care of, people will be free to grow and evolve, achieving self-actualization. This revolution of self-improvement will lead to further social progress. A progressive world will learn how to be more efficient, doing more with less, thereby protecting the environment. The human economy and the biological environment will harmonize.

Life will cease being a grim struggle for existence. Art, culture, and leisure will flourish in ways never before experienced. The pursuit of happiness will finally catch its quarry.

These domestic achievements will also influence the rest of the world, leading to peace, harmony, and cooperation.

Such vast goals that encompass all of society can only be achieved by an equally vast institution. The State is that institution. Only The State has sufficient power, wealth, and expertise to accomplish such large tasks.

In the progressive vision, The State is the means by which we all join together to do great things. But progressives also recognize that state power has hidden dangers…

Any institution that can force people to do good things can also do bad things. This is why progressives extol democracy, dialogue, and tolerance. This is also why progressives sometimes seek to regulate expressions that promote hate and intolerance. Reasonable regulations on toxic communications can help to foster a non-hateful democratic consensus that will achieve progressive goals while avoiding state tyranny.

There is no conflict between progressive fairness and human freedom. Rather, progressive fairness is the best way to maximize human freedom. Franklin Roosevelt said it well when he defined the Four Freedoms…

• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear

Types of progressives

Important progressive heroes and accomplishments

Important progressive organizations

Important progressive books

• The Feminine MystiqueBetty Friedan · 1963
  Helped launch the modern feminist movement.
• The Souls of Black FolkW.E.B. Du Bois · 1903
  Explores the African American experience. It addresses topics such as race, identity, and the struggle for equality.
• The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster CapitalismNaomi Klein · 2007
  Examines how economic and political elites exploit crises to advance neoliberal policies. It analyzes the consequences of privatization, deregulation, and austerity measures on societies and advocates for alternative economic models.
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of ColorblindnessMichelle Alexander · 2010
  Sheds light on the racial biases and systemic inequalities within the American criminal justice system. It explores how the war on drugs disproportionately targets and marginalizes communities of color, perpetuating a cycle of racial oppression.
• Capital in the Twenty-First CenturyThomas Piketty · 2013
  Examines the dynamics of wealth and income inequality. Piketty provides historical and economic analysis to argue that without state intervention, wealth will become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leading to social and economic instability.

Explore other political types

See how progressive beliefs compare to other political philosophies on the political type comparison and the Nolan Chart. Or take the World's Smallest Political Quiz to find out your own political type.

LibertarianHigh on both personal and economic freedomConservativeHigher on economic freedom than personalModerateIn the middle on bothAuthoritarianLow on both