Democratic candidates (Hillary Clinton for example) these days are packaging themselves as "progressives," an attempt to describe their politics without resorting to the now dirty word "liberal." In that light, I strongly commend to you Scott Johnson's ruminations over at Powerline on the political thought of Woodrow Wilson. Part I and Part II are available for your consideration. Wilson is an exemplar of the Progressive mindset of the early 20th Century that strongly influences the Democratic party today. I would argue there are three major components of the Progressive political philosophy, all of which, Johnson demonstrates, were shared by Woodrow Wilson.
1. A commitment to historicism. To put it briefly, and therefore somewhat crudely, historicism is the belief that truth is historically determined. Those who live later in history know more than those who lived earlier, thus the current opinions trump those of the forebearers. This gives us two hallmarks of Progressivism of which Americans should be highly skeptical. First, the rejection of natural right as the basis of our politics. In Progressivism there is no Nature, only History (See this work by James Ceaser for an excellent discussion of this subject). Thus there are no "self-evident truths" or "Laws of Nature and Nature's God." The Declaration of Independence is rejected. Second, constitutionalism is rejected. Why bind yourself to a document that is historically determined? Again, we who live later know more than those who lived before, therefore we should envision a "living constitution" that changes with the times.
2. Related to the rejection of constitutionalism and natural rights is the rejection of limited government. Progressives were highly influenced by the Pragmatist movement typified by William James and later John Dewey. A progressive society requires constant experimentation to figure out which polices work and which do not. Anything that limits experimentation should be rejected. Thus natural rights and constitutions are dumped as they set up artificial roadblocks to progress.
3. A commitment to scientific government. Woodrow Wilson is one of the founders of the field of public administration. Wilson and other progressives, highly influenced by Max Weber, believed that bureaucracy staffed by those schooled in social science could govern a society better than elected officials. Progressives tended to see elected legislators as corrupted by special interests and the need for re-election. Thus we need to liberate ourselves from legislatures. This was to be done in two ways. First, put the people in direct control of their government via direct democracy (recall, initiative, referendum, etc). Second, give more power to bureaucrats. Just as the "hard sciences" were ever increasing their ability to master the physical world, social science was believed to be capable of mastering the social world, building up a progressive society managed by the scientific principles of public administration and ruled by objective disinterested social scientist bureaucrats.
As Johnson explains, Woodrow Wilson rejected the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the ideas of separation of powers and limited government. If this is what current Democratic candidates mean by "Progressive," they should be rejected by the the American polity.
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