Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198274322
- eISBN:
- 9780191599330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198274327.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter examines the moderate brand of progressive liberalism that gained prominence during the 1920s. Progressive centrist-liberalism overlapped on several issues. It accepted a certain role of ...
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This chapter examines the moderate brand of progressive liberalism that gained prominence during the 1920s. Progressive centrist-liberalism overlapped on several issues. It accepted a certain role of the state, but refused to subscribe to a faith in the state as the disinterested agent of the community, reverting instead to a more individualistic conception of human nature and social relations. It magnified the ideological differences between liberalism and a socialist/trade-unionist Labour party. It was also less reflective, philosophically oriented, or synthetic in the broad cultural sense of integrating various braches of human knowledge.Less
This chapter examines the moderate brand of progressive liberalism that gained prominence during the 1920s. Progressive centrist-liberalism overlapped on several issues. It accepted a certain role of the state, but refused to subscribe to a faith in the state as the disinterested agent of the community, reverting instead to a more individualistic conception of human nature and social relations. It magnified the ideological differences between liberalism and a socialist/trade-unionist Labour party. It was also less reflective, philosophically oriented, or synthetic in the broad cultural sense of integrating various braches of human knowledge.
Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198274322
- eISBN:
- 9780191599330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198274327.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Political thinking in England throughout the 1930s retreated into weariness and complacency. Liberalism and socialism were submerged beneath the political surface, emerging periodically to indicate ...
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Political thinking in England throughout the 1930s retreated into weariness and complacency. Liberalism and socialism were submerged beneath the political surface, emerging periodically to indicate their presence but with insufficient intellectual resources to stay afloat. Fascism lost its appeal among British socialists as its German variant loomed on the international scene. Communism repopularized a 19th century image of a materialist, capitalist liberalism cut-off from social life. The quality of political argument deteriorated further under these conditions.Less
Political thinking in England throughout the 1930s retreated into weariness and complacency. Liberalism and socialism were submerged beneath the political surface, emerging periodically to indicate their presence but with insufficient intellectual resources to stay afloat. Fascism lost its appeal among British socialists as its German variant loomed on the international scene. Communism repopularized a 19th century image of a materialist, capitalist liberalism cut-off from social life. The quality of political argument deteriorated further under these conditions.
Robert Adcock
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199333622
- eISBN:
- 9780199370146
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199333622.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book situates the origins of American political science in relation to the transatlantic history of liberalism. It shows how the field adapted European liberal responses to democratization and ...
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This book situates the origins of American political science in relation to the transatlantic history of liberalism. It shows how the field adapted European liberal responses to democratization and industrialization to speak to particular challenges of mass democracy and large-scale industry as they developed in nineteenth-century America. When political science first secured a niche in the American academy during the antebellum decades, it advanced a democratized classical liberal political vision overlapping with the contemporary European liberalism of Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill. As political science expanded during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, divides and divergence within its liberalism first came to the fore in the area of political economy, and then were fleshed out into two alternative late-century political visions: progressive liberalism and disenchanted classical liberalism. During the early twentieth century, both found expression among early presidents of the new American Political Science Association, and subsequently, in contests over the meaning of “liberalism” as this term acquired salience in American political discourse. Political science’s pioneers in the American academy were, this book proposes, active agents of the Americanization of liberalism, and the history of American political science offers a venue in which we see how a distinct current of mid-nineteenth-century European liberalism was divergently transformed into alternative twentieth-century American liberalisms.Less
This book situates the origins of American political science in relation to the transatlantic history of liberalism. It shows how the field adapted European liberal responses to democratization and industrialization to speak to particular challenges of mass democracy and large-scale industry as they developed in nineteenth-century America. When political science first secured a niche in the American academy during the antebellum decades, it advanced a democratized classical liberal political vision overlapping with the contemporary European liberalism of Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill. As political science expanded during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, divides and divergence within its liberalism first came to the fore in the area of political economy, and then were fleshed out into two alternative late-century political visions: progressive liberalism and disenchanted classical liberalism. During the early twentieth century, both found expression among early presidents of the new American Political Science Association, and subsequently, in contests over the meaning of “liberalism” as this term acquired salience in American political discourse. Political science’s pioneers in the American academy were, this book proposes, active agents of the Americanization of liberalism, and the history of American political science offers a venue in which we see how a distinct current of mid-nineteenth-century European liberalism was divergently transformed into alternative twentieth-century American liberalisms.
David Howell
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198203049
- eISBN:
- 9780191719530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203049.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
In April 1926, James Maxton became chairman of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). More than anyone, he would symbolize the party's radicalization. He also evoked affection from many outside and ...
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In April 1926, James Maxton became chairman of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). More than anyone, he would symbolize the party's radicalization. He also evoked affection from many outside and inside the ILP who nevertheless queried his political judgements. Maxton became chairman just as the first fruits of Clifford Allen's drive for a new party were appearing. Six commissions had been appointed to devise new policies, the most important of which acquired its formal authorization at the Gloucester Conference of 1925. Its remit was to develop a programme for the abolition of poverty within the broader context of an advance towards socialism. The commission's membership was impressive, led by J. A. Hobson as chairman and H. N. Brailsford as secretary. This commission epitomized the blend of progressive liberalism and ILP ethical socialism that characterized Allen's hopes for the Left. This chapter looks at the ILP's socialist agenda, economic policy, and politics with regards to its relationship with the Labour Party.Less
In April 1926, James Maxton became chairman of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). More than anyone, he would symbolize the party's radicalization. He also evoked affection from many outside and inside the ILP who nevertheless queried his political judgements. Maxton became chairman just as the first fruits of Clifford Allen's drive for a new party were appearing. Six commissions had been appointed to devise new policies, the most important of which acquired its formal authorization at the Gloucester Conference of 1925. Its remit was to develop a programme for the abolition of poverty within the broader context of an advance towards socialism. The commission's membership was impressive, led by J. A. Hobson as chairman and H. N. Brailsford as secretary. This commission epitomized the blend of progressive liberalism and ILP ethical socialism that characterized Allen's hopes for the Left. This chapter looks at the ILP's socialist agenda, economic policy, and politics with regards to its relationship with the Labour Party.
Ben Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719073069
- eISBN:
- 9781781701454
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719073069.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The demand for equality was at the heart of the politics of the Left in the twentieth century, but what did theorists and politicians on the British Left mean when they said they were committed to ...
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The demand for equality was at the heart of the politics of the Left in the twentieth century, but what did theorists and politicians on the British Left mean when they said they were committed to ‘equality’? How did they argue for a more egalitarian society? Which policies did they think could best advance their egalitarian ideals? This book provides comprehensive answers to these questions. It charts debates about equality from the progressive liberalism and socialism of the early twentieth century to the arrival of the New Left and revisionist social democracy in the 1950s. Along the way, the book examines and reassesses the egalitarian political thought of many significant figures in the history of the British Left, including L. T. Hobhouse, R. H. Tawney and Anthony Crosland. It demonstrates that the British Left has historically been distinguished from its ideological competitors on the centre and the right by a commitment to a demanding form of economic egalitarianism. The book shows that this egalitarianism has come to be neglected or caricatured by politicians and scholars alike, and is more surprising and sophisticated than is often imagined.Less
The demand for equality was at the heart of the politics of the Left in the twentieth century, but what did theorists and politicians on the British Left mean when they said they were committed to ‘equality’? How did they argue for a more egalitarian society? Which policies did they think could best advance their egalitarian ideals? This book provides comprehensive answers to these questions. It charts debates about equality from the progressive liberalism and socialism of the early twentieth century to the arrival of the New Left and revisionist social democracy in the 1950s. Along the way, the book examines and reassesses the egalitarian political thought of many significant figures in the history of the British Left, including L. T. Hobhouse, R. H. Tawney and Anthony Crosland. It demonstrates that the British Left has historically been distinguished from its ideological competitors on the centre and the right by a commitment to a demanding form of economic egalitarianism. The book shows that this egalitarianism has come to be neglected or caricatured by politicians and scholars alike, and is more surprising and sophisticated than is often imagined.
Robert Adcock
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199333622
- eISBN:
- 9780199370146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199333622.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter uses the 1880s writings of Woodrow Wilson as a student and young professor of political science to explicate the political content of progressive liberalism. It first examines the ideal ...
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This chapter uses the 1880s writings of Woodrow Wilson as a student and young professor of political science to explicate the political content of progressive liberalism. It first examines the ideal of representative government and accompanying criticism of the American Constitution in Wilson’s early Congressional Government. It then pinpoints the influence of Wilson’s graduate education at Hopkins on the character of his liberalism by documenting twin mid-1880s shifts in his views of administration and political economy. These shifts were directly connected through Wilson’s adoption of a progressive liberal argument justifying expansion of the administrative state as a response to the transformative impact of industrialization. Finally, the chapter explores Wilson’s articulation, by the end of the 1880s, of a full-fledged progressive liberal vision of the “modern democratic state” as the liberal end of history.Less
This chapter uses the 1880s writings of Woodrow Wilson as a student and young professor of political science to explicate the political content of progressive liberalism. It first examines the ideal of representative government and accompanying criticism of the American Constitution in Wilson’s early Congressional Government. It then pinpoints the influence of Wilson’s graduate education at Hopkins on the character of his liberalism by documenting twin mid-1880s shifts in his views of administration and political economy. These shifts were directly connected through Wilson’s adoption of a progressive liberal argument justifying expansion of the administrative state as a response to the transformative impact of industrialization. Finally, the chapter explores Wilson’s articulation, by the end of the 1880s, of a full-fledged progressive liberal vision of the “modern democratic state” as the liberal end of history.
Patrick J. Deneen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300223446
- eISBN:
- 9780300231878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300223446.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter examines the ways in which the individualist philosophy of classical liberalism and the statist philosophy of progressive liberalism reinforce each other. It begins with a discussion of ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which the individualist philosophy of classical liberalism and the statist philosophy of progressive liberalism reinforce each other. It begins with a discussion of the conflict between the “conservatives,” who advance the project of individual liberty and equality of opportunity especially through defense of a free and unfettered market, and the liberals, who aim at securing greater economic and social equality through extensive reliance upon the regulatory and judicial powers of the national government. The chapter shows how statism and individualism grow together while local institutions and respect for natural limits diminish, noting that, despite their differences, this ambition animated thinkers such as John Locke, John Dewey, Francis Bacon, Francis Bellamy, Adam Smith, and Richard Rorty.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which the individualist philosophy of classical liberalism and the statist philosophy of progressive liberalism reinforce each other. It begins with a discussion of the conflict between the “conservatives,” who advance the project of individual liberty and equality of opportunity especially through defense of a free and unfettered market, and the liberals, who aim at securing greater economic and social equality through extensive reliance upon the regulatory and judicial powers of the national government. The chapter shows how statism and individualism grow together while local institutions and respect for natural limits diminish, noting that, despite their differences, this ambition animated thinkers such as John Locke, John Dewey, Francis Bacon, Francis Bellamy, Adam Smith, and Richard Rorty.
Jonathan Bean
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125459
- eISBN:
- 9780813135205
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125459.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The history of civil rights in the United States is usually analyzed and interpreted through the lenses of modern conservatism and progressive liberalism. This book argues that the historical record ...
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The history of civil rights in the United States is usually analyzed and interpreted through the lenses of modern conservatism and progressive liberalism. This book argues that the historical record does not conveniently fit into either of these categories and that knowledge of the American classical liberal tradition is required to gain a more accurate understanding of the past, present, and future of civil liberties in the nation. By assembling and contextualizing classic documents—from the Declaration of Independence to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning school assignment by race—the book demonstrates that classical liberalism differs from progressive liberalism in emphasizing individual freedom, Christianity, the racial neutrality of the Constitution, complete color-blindness, and free-market capitalism.Less
The history of civil rights in the United States is usually analyzed and interpreted through the lenses of modern conservatism and progressive liberalism. This book argues that the historical record does not conveniently fit into either of these categories and that knowledge of the American classical liberal tradition is required to gain a more accurate understanding of the past, present, and future of civil liberties in the nation. By assembling and contextualizing classic documents—from the Declaration of Independence to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning school assignment by race—the book demonstrates that classical liberalism differs from progressive liberalism in emphasizing individual freedom, Christianity, the racial neutrality of the Constitution, complete color-blindness, and free-market capitalism.
Robert Adcock
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199333622
- eISBN:
- 9780199370146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199333622.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The first half of this chapter examines the department of historical and political science at the new Johns Hopkins University. It identifies the multiple currents of historicist science brought ...
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The first half of this chapter examines the department of historical and political science at the new Johns Hopkins University. It identifies the multiple currents of historicist science brought together in the department in its 1880s heyday by its leading faculty: Herbert Baxter Adams and Richard T. Ely. Doing so illuminates the specific manner in which Ely’s view of industrialization as socially transformative underwrote the new late-century vision of progressive liberalism. The chapter’s second half contrasts the consensual 1884 founding of the American Historical Association with the controversy-laden middle to late 1880s early years of the American Economics Association. This comparison completes the argument, developed across chapters 4 and 5, that political economy was the area within political science in which divides and then divergence in the liberal visions of political scientists first came to the fore.Less
The first half of this chapter examines the department of historical and political science at the new Johns Hopkins University. It identifies the multiple currents of historicist science brought together in the department in its 1880s heyday by its leading faculty: Herbert Baxter Adams and Richard T. Ely. Doing so illuminates the specific manner in which Ely’s view of industrialization as socially transformative underwrote the new late-century vision of progressive liberalism. The chapter’s second half contrasts the consensual 1884 founding of the American Historical Association with the controversy-laden middle to late 1880s early years of the American Economics Association. This comparison completes the argument, developed across chapters 4 and 5, that political economy was the area within political science in which divides and then divergence in the liberal visions of political scientists first came to the fore.
