The Progressive Era Assault on Individualism and Property Rights

Summary

Introduction

The Progressive Era of the early twentieth century witnessed sustained condemnation of individualism and individual rights. “The idea of the liberty of the individual,” Washington Gladden (1836–1918) declared in 1905, “is not a sound basis for a democratic government.” Gladden, a Progressive and leader of the Social Gospel movement, was hardly alone in expressing such sentiments. A few years later Herbert Croly (1869–1930), a prominent Progressive theorist, attributed economic ills to “the peculiar freedom which the American tradition and organization have granted to the individual.” Indeed, most Progressives viewed skeptically claims of individual rights, which they associated with property rights. Progressives, in short, moved dramatically away from the classical liberalism of John Locke (1632–1704), which stressed the primacy of the individual over the state. Instead, Progressives invoked concepts such as “public welfare,” “social justice,” and “common good” to justify greater statist control of society.

This essay examines the widespread criticism of individualism and property rights which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and which would eventually have a profound influence on the polity. The intellectual currents of the Progressive era called into question the individualist values of classical liberalism, and paved the way for the political triumph of the New Deal. The Progressive agenda amounted to a fundamental challenge to the prevailing view of the proper role of government. To this end, Progressives virtually revamped the traditional understanding of the Constitution, rejecting the notion of limited government.