Roosevelt, Wilson, and the Democratic Theory of National Progressivism

Summary

Introduction

America's original Progressives, rising to prominence at the turn of the twentieth century, sounded the theme of democratic reform. The American Constitution, they contended, placed too much distance between the people and their government, due to an inordinate fear by the Constitution's Framers of the factious tendencies of unfiltered public opinion. Because of this indirect and representative form of popular government, Progressives complained that popular majorities of their own day were unable to direct the government to act effectively in response to the pressing social and economic crises of the nation. Instead, a small but powerful minority, Progressives argued, was taking advantage of the Constitution's limits on popular rule to benefit itself at the expense of the great mass of people. It is for this reason that many of the reforms advocated by Progressives involved reducing or eliminating the distance between majority opinion and governing at the federal, state, and local level. Progressives, regardless of certain important differences among them, universally supported movements toward more direct forms of democracy: the ballot initiative, recall, referendum, and direct primaries for elections. Democratization was, arguably, the most important theme of the Progressive Movement, as it sought to place more governing power in the hands of popular majorities.