1. Political Ideology
Progressive Age

2. Ideology Politics Social concerns Moral concerns Economics Diplomacy
A set of beliefs, attitudes, and ideas:
Politics
Social concerns
Moral concerns
Economics
Diplomacy
Changes from time to time

3. Ideology
Liberal
Conservative
Challenge existing attitude and practices, prefer new approaches, seek to change society and seek to change/or improve behavior
Embrace conventional wisdom of their time, prefer tradition, accept the status quo, and prefer small, incremental change

4. Progressive Era Ideology
Liberal (Left)
Conservative (Right)
Regulate big business: trusts
Insure free market competition
Government is an agent of social change
Federal gov’t governs
Level playing field for all
More secular
Manage natural resources
Loose Construction
“survival of the fittest”
States’ rights
Limited government
Property Rights
Individual Rights
Regulate morality
More religious
Use natural resources
Strict Construction

5. Progressive Era Ideology
Socialism
Eugene Debs
Government owns (nationalization) important businesses: oil, steel, transportation
Democratic
Provides equal power relationships between management and workers
Provides safety net for all: social and economic
Popular around
“Those who produce should have, but we know
that those who produce the most - that is, those
who work hardest, and at the most difficult and
most menial tasks, have the least.”

6. Progressivism: Conservative Movement?
Preserve market system (capitalism) and remove it from the “plutocracy” through reform
Feared that American values and democracy were undermined by labor unions and immigration
(Moral Progressives) wanted to regulate individual behavior
Immigrants: main source of crime, poverty, and vice
Xenophobia: feared Catholicism and Judaism, new languages and customs, and foreign ideas
Order and stability to chaotic patterns of urbanization and industrialization
Reforms were band-aids; did not address the fundamental problems of the socio-economic structure
Mark Hanna: Chair of the Republican Party

7. Progressivism: Conservative Movement?
Ignored the Rise of Jim Crow
Preserving the free market system
Segregation furthered
Ignored the plague of lynching
Drive for women’s suffrage prolonged
Supreme Court struck down the Keatings-Owens Act
Prohibition: 18th amendment
Mann Act
Narcotics Tax Act
Nativism: Literacy tests
Americanization: public school system
Elimination of gambling; Blue Laws
Anti-gambling laws
Establishment of professional standards: ABA, AMA, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

8. Suffrage Map

9. Progressivism: Liberal Movement?
Federal government governs, not the trusts
Government is an agent of social change or activism
Role of Federal government must change with the times
“the bully pulpit”
Elimination of corruption at the state and local levels
Square deal
Increased democracy
Australian Ballot
Initiative, Referendum, Recall
Direct Primaries
Private social programs
Settlement house movement
National Consumers League
NAACP

10. Progressivism: Liberal Movement?
Conservation
Antiquities Act
Forest Service
National Park System
Consumer Protection
Railroad Regulation
Federal Reserve System
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Northern Securities Case
Federal Trade Commission
16th Amendment
17th amendment
19th amendment

11. Conservative or Liberal?
"The Progressive movement from 1895 to 1917 was a triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism.”
Using your knowledge of the period, assess the validity of this statement.