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Friday 23 October 2009

Progressive liberalism emerged in the early twentieth century as many intellectuals and political leaders had come to believe that inherited forms of democratic governance were outdated.  The forces of the modern world, including the Darwinian assault on the idea of a fixed reality and authority, the rapid transformation from a merchant to an industrial economy, and equally rapid urbanization, had so altered the American regime that a new science of politics seemed necessary to address problems altogether new.  This science of politics must rest, however, not on traditional forms of knowledge.  Indeed, the intellectuals of the Progressive movement begin by rejecting all forms of essentialism, all claims to knowledge of the universal, in favor adaptive knowledge—the science of living that helps one adapt or adjust to changing circumstances.  In the absence of traditional forms of authority, science will serve as the best guide to making public choices. These early Progressives believed that the individual was no longer capable of fending for himself and needed the protective canopy of an empathetic government.  Given the greater complexity of the modern world and the greater scope given to the government, progressives called for rule by experts—people trained to apply evolving social science to policy making.  The need for specialized expertise, however, was accompanied by an appeal to a revitalized democracy.  By educating the public to approach life experimentally, like scientists, then they could be citizens capable of deliberating together based on facts, on evidence, rather than on prejudice, inherited ideas, or fuzzy values.  These basic characteristics of progressivism are part of the new generation of neo-progressives. Progressive Liberalism Or: How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Big Government

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