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The basic Progressive vision is of community as a caring, responsible family. Progressives envision a community where people care about each other, not just themselves, and act responsibly with strength and effectiveness for each other. The basic principles of Progressivism are:
In the United States, the term liberal has for many decades (at least since the New Deal) been used to describe the political left, and conservative the right. Since at least the late 1990s, the term progressive has been employed to describe certain leftist views of one form or another, for at least two reasons.
The first is to create a contrast between center-left and farther-left politics. For example, John Kerry, Al Gore, and the Democratic Party are more likely to be described as or to describe themselves as liberal, whereas Howard Dean (a Democrat), Ralph Nader (endorsed by the Green Party in 2000) and the Green Party are more likely to be described as or to describe themselves as progressive. In addition to progressive third parties like the Greens, there is also a Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives, made up of Democrats and an independent Congressman. (Note that the Democratic and Republican parties have not always represented the left and the right. The modern alignment has been strongest since the 1970s.)
The second is to find a term with positive connotations. The intuitive opposite of liberal is conservative, which some people are proud to consider themselves. The intuitive opposite of progressive is regressive, a label with which hardly any person or political ideology would want to be associated. Critics of leftist politics often use the term liberals to describe their opponents, so distancing oneself from that term can be a rhetorical device to distance oneself from that criticism. (Both liberal and conservative can be quite pejorative when used by their critics on the opposite side.) Progressive connotes progress, a notion which is both positive and intuitively orthogonal to a left-right axis.
Progressive and conservative are also intuitive opposites; the former represents change, the other, tradition. This replaces the distinction between large and small government (especially with regard to government spending) evoked by the pairing of liberal / conservative. These distinctions are, however, controversial and often inaccurate in predicting how either side feels about any given issue.
Avoidance of the term liberal has the benefit of being less ambiguous. In other countries, the terms liberal and conservative may have slightly different or even completely opposite meanings than in the United States. Liberal can also mean free, as in freedom and free country. See the article on LiberalismLiberalism is a political current embracing several historical and present-day ideologies that claim defense of individual liberty as the purpose of government. It typically favors the right to dissent from orthodox tenets or established authorities in po for a full explanation.
For more historical perspective, see the articles on the Progressive EraIn the United States, the Progressive Era was a movement of reform that began in America's cities in the 1890s and lasted through the 1910s. Reformers sought change in labor and fiscal policies in different levels of government; initially it was successfu and the Progressive PartyThe United States Progressive Party refers to three distinct political parties in 20th-century United States politics. The first Progressive Party The first was formed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Roosevelt ran against President Taft in the Republican p (which actually refers to several different parties of different periods).
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