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Progressivism is a left-leaning political philosophy and reform movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform. Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to human societies everywhere. Progressivism arose during the Age of Enlightenment out of the belief that civility in Europe was improving due to the application of new empirical knowledge.Harold Mah. Enlightenment Phantasies: Cultural Identity in France and Germany, 1750–1914. Cornell University. (2003). p. 157.
In modern political discourse, progressivism is often associated with social liberalism, a left-leaning type of liberalism, and social democracy. Within economic progressivism, there is some ideological variety on the social liberal to social democrat continuum, as well as occasionally some variance on cultural issues. Illustrative examples of this include some Christian democracy and conservative-leaning Communitarianism movements. While many ideologies can fall under the banner of progressivism, all eras of the movement are characterized by a critique of unregulated capitalism and a call for a more active Democracy government to safeguard human rights, promote cultural development, and serve as a check-and-balance on corporate monopolies.
Modernity or modernisation was a key form of the idea of progress as promoted by classical liberals in the 19th and 20th centuries, who called for the rapid modernisation of the economy and society to remove the traditional hindrances to and the free movements of people.
In the late 19th century, a political view rose in popularity in the Western world that progress was being stifled by vast economic inequality between the rich and the poor, minimally regulated laissez-faire capitalism with out-of-control monopolistic , intense and often violent conflict between capitalists and workers, with a need for measures to address these problems. Progressivism has influenced various political movements. Social liberalism was influenced by British Liberalism philosopher John Stuart Mill's conception of people being "progressive beings."Alan Ryan. The Making of Modern Liberalism. p. 25. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli developed progressive conservatism under one-nation Toryism.Patrick Dunleavy, Paul Joseph Kelly, Michael Moran. British Political Science: Fifty Years of Political Studies. Oxford, England; Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. pp. 107–108. Robert Blake. Disraeli. Second Edition. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd, 1967. p. 524.
The first modern socialists of the 19th century followed utopian socialism, and experienced pushback from progressive socialism. This reformist approach was reflected in a readiness to question revolutionary tenets of Marxist orthodoxy, as well as challenges to sections of scientific socialism. G.A. Kleene, a 19th-century economist, defined progressive socialism as Eduard Bernstein's stand against "'Old-School' Marxism." Progressive socialism has historically been associated with reformist openness to question scientific socialism, such as by criticizing the law of growing misery.
In France, the space between social revolution and the socially conservative laissez-faire centre-right was filled with the emergence of radicalism which thought that social progress required anti-clericalism, humanism, and republicanism. Especially anti-clericalism was the dominant influence on the centre-left in many French- and Romance-speaking countries until the mid-20th century. In Imperial Germany, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck enacted various progressive social welfare measures out of paternalistic conservative motivations to distance workers from the socialist movement of the time and as humane ways to assist in maintaining the Industrial Revolution. Union Contributions to Labor Welfare Policy and Practice: Past, Present, and Future. Routledge, 16, 2013. p. 172.
In 1891, the Roman Catholic Church encyclical Rerum novarum issued by Pope Leo XIII condemned the exploitation of labor and urged support for labor unions and government regulation of businesses in the interests of social justice while upholding the property right and criticising socialism.Faith Jaycox. The Progressive Era. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2005. p. 85. A progressive Protestant outlook called the Social Gospel emerged in North America that focused on challenging economic exploitation and poverty and, by the mid-1890s, was common in many Protestant theological seminaries in the United States.Charles Howard Hopkins, The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915 (1940).
In the United States, progressivism began as an intellectual rebellion against the political philosophy of Constitutionalism as expressed by John Locke and the Founding Fathers of the American Republic, whereby the authority of government depends on observing limitations on its just powers. What began as a social movement in the 1890s grew into a popular political movement referred to as the Progressive Era; in the 1912 United States presidential election, all three U.S. presidential candidates claimed to be progressives. While the term progressivism represents a range of diverse political pressure groups, not always united, progressives rejected social Darwinism, believing that the problems society faced, such as class warfare, greed, poverty, racism and violence, could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. Progressives lived mainly in the cities, were college educated, and believed in a strong central government. "The Progressive Era (1890–1920)". The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. . Retrieved 31 September 2014. President Theodore Roosevelt of the Republican Party and later the Progressive Party declared that he "always believed that wise progressivism and wise conservatism go hand in hand."
President Woodrow Wilson was also a member of the American progressive movement within the Democratic Party. Progressive stances have evolved. Imperialism was a controversial issue within progressivism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the United States, where some progressives supported American imperialism while others opposed it. In response to World War I, President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points established the concept of national self-determination and criticised imperialist competition and colonial injustices. Anti-imperialists supported these views in areas resisting imperial rule. Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace. p. 309.
During the period of acceptance of economic Keynesianism (the 1930s–1970s), there was widespread acceptance in many nations of a large role for state intervention in the economy. The "progressive" brand was frequently identified with supporters of the New Deal by the year 1936. While the more progressive Second New Deal was more controversial in the public, the progressive consensus of the New Deal was strong, and even future moderate Republican presidents like Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon worked to preserve it. The New Deal provided the context for future expansive progressive programs, especially the Great Society measures of Lyndon Johnson's administration. With the rise of neoliberalism and challenges to state interventionist policies in the 1970s and 1980s, centre-left progressive movements responded by adopting the Third Way, which emphasised a major role for the market economy.Jane Lewis, Rebecca Surender. Welfare State Change: Towards a Third Way?. Oxford University Press, 2004. pp. 3–4, 16. There have been social democrats who have called for the social-democratic movement to move past Third Way. After the Third Way: The Future of Social Democracy in Europe. I.B. Taurus, 2012. p. 47. Prominent progressive conservative elements in the British Conservative Party, such as from the likes of Rab Butler, promoted the post-war consensus, and others have criticised neoliberalism.Hugh Bochel. The Conservative Party and Social Policy. The Policy Press, 2011. p. 108.
In May 2020, Progressive International was formally founded and launched on 11 May 2020, responding to a 2018 open call by the Democracy in Europe Movement and the Sanders Institute for united progressive forces around the globe. The open call was echoing two twinned appeals published in 2018 by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis, who is a Greek economist and self-described libertarian Marxist, to form an international movement to combat the rise of hard right authoritarianism and potential Neo-fascism global influence represented by U.S. president Donald Trump. PI's founding was supported by a group of 40 advisors including Ece Temelkuran, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Yanis Varoufakis, Carola Rackete, Nick Estes, Vanessa Nakate, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Niki Ashton, Rafael Correa, Fernando Haddad, Celso Amorim, and Alvaro Garcia Linera. PI seeks to combat authoritarian nationalism around the world and is opposed to what it describes as disaster capitalism.
Jeremy Corbyn represented a staunch return of the Labour party platform to its more historic democratic socialism with a focus on Nationalization, robust public spending, and both anti-austerity and anti-war stances. Corbyn appealed to a progressive left base disillusioned with previous Labour governments, but he was a controversial figure in the party who oscillated between a loyal base of support and electability concerns. Subsequent leader and eventual prime minister Keir Starmer shifted Labour toward pragmatic, economically cautious centrism, striving for electability by striking a balance between broad public appeal, traditional Labour beliefs, and Starmer's own conviction that economic changes made previous more left-wing economic positions untenable. The animosity between Corbyn and Starmer intensified with Starmer's suspension of Corbyn from Labour in 2020, accusing Corbyn of an inadequate response to antisemitism. Corbyn was supported against these accusations by Progressive International. Starmer said in 2023 that "the very best of progressive politics is found in our determination to push Britain forward," but "there are precious things – in our way of life, in our environment, in our communities – that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve and to pass on to future generations. If that sounds Conservative, then let me tell you: I don't care." Corbyn supported the foundation of the socialist Your Party in 2025 with Zarah Sultana in a further schism for U.K. left-leaning progressive politics. Facing challenges from Brexit and increased right-wing presence, contemporary progressivism in the United Kingdom can be characterized by increasing cultural liberalism and factionalism surrounding the role of capitalism in society.
Lulism in Brazil demonstrates the broad Coalition and Reformism nature of contemporary progressivism. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 2022 presidential comeback campaign was a progressive resurgence narrative focused on the working class and anti-corruption, running against incumbent right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula was 17% ahead of Bolsonaro in a poll in January 2022 in what was seen as an early sign of shifting progressive sentiment in the voting population against far-right politics of the Bolsonaro government. In the first round of the presidential election, Lula was in first place with 48% of the electorate, qualifying for the second round with Bolsonaro, who received 43% of the votes. Lula was elected in the second round on 30 October with 50.89% of the vote, the smallest margin in the history of Brazil's presidential elections. Lulism features an overlaps in political parties, including the Workers' Party founded by Lula. While seeing a democratic socialist society as the ultimate goal, Lula has called for a Reformism "social liberal" approach to begin resolving poverty gap while acknowledging the reality of existing market structures.
In March 2022, the NDP agreed on a confidence and supply arrangement with the Liberal Party, including policies such as establishing a national dental care program for low-income Canadians, progress toward a national pharmacare program, labor reforms for federally regulated workers, and additional taxes on financial institutions. The NDP and the Liberal Party terminated their confidence and supply agreement in September 2024. The agreement had been in place since March 2022, however it was terminated nine months ahead of schedule. On January 6, 2025, during a political crisis, Trudeau announced he would resign as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by 24 March 2025 upon the election of a new party leader, attributing his decision to intraparty dissent. The Liberal Party moved further from its more progressive stances toward the Centrism under new leadership from Mark Carney, who became the first prime minister in Canadian history never to have held elected office. Carney would lead the Liberals to a minority government in late 2025 after advising the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and trigger a federal election.
In the United States, both the Progressive Era and the modern movement are rooted in the notion that free markets lead to economic inequalities that can be fixed through government action and protect the working class. In the 21st century, progressives continue to favor public policy that they theorize will reduce or lessen the harmful effects of economic inequality and additionally are focused on ending systemic discrimination such as institutional racism; to advocate for social safety nets and workers' rights; and to oppose corporate influence on the democratic process. The unifying theme is to call attention to the negative impacts of current institutions or ways of doing things and to advocate for social progress, i.e., for positive change as defined by any of several standards such as the expansion of democracy, increased egalitarianism in the form of economic and social equality as well as improved well-being of a population. Proponents of social democracy have identified themselves as promoting the progressive cause.Henning Meyer, Jonathan Rutherford. The Future of European Social Democracy: Building the Good Society. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. p. 108. Landmark developments in progressive governance include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was originally proposed in 2007 by Elizabeth Warren, a self-described progressive capitalist who played a key role in its institutional creation. In reaction to the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed in 2010, established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureauas an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve.
The Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign road a wave of left-wing populist and progressive sentiment coming out of the 2008 financial crisis and the Occupy Wall Street movement. The campaign and Sanders himself praised social democracy programs in Europe and supported workplace democracy via union democracy, worker cooperatives, and workers' management of public enterprises. This continued into his 2020 presidential campaign and the Fighting Oligarchy tour with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, sharply critiquing Neoliberalism capitalism. Sanders and broader coalitions like the Congressional Progressive Caucus have called for universal, single-payer healthcare, living wage laws, reductions in military expenditure, increased corporate regulation, ending mass incarceration, and strong measures to reverse climate change. Some socialists and major socialist organizations have described Sanders as a democratic socialist, Market socialism, or reformist socialist, while others have called him a reformist social democrat.
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