The Pros And Cons Of The Progressive Era

1680 Words7 Pages

The progressive era is a critical period in the history of the national construction of the United States and a critical period of national governance. Since the middle of the nineteenth Century, the United States has experienced great and rapid economic and social changes. In the promotion of liberal capitalism, in the past few decades, the U.S. economy rapid industrialization, the United States showed a rapid economic growth, creating a hitherto unknown economic prosperity, the United States also from an agricultural society rapid transformation into an industrial society, to the agricultural industry and handicraft industry dominated capitalist economy quickly turns to large companies as the core of corporate capitalism. Industrialization …show more content…

Instead, they adopted a concept of positive liberty. In their view, the implementation of negative freedom embodied in the laissez faire liberal economic policies in the most deprived of the freedom of the American people, and almost all of the progressive reformers believe that excessive loyalty to laissez-faire liberalism has seriously damaged the American democracy. Therefore, in order to guarantee people's freedom and maintain democratic system in a very complex industrial society, liberalism must be adjusted and amended, and positive liberty should be used instead of negative freedom. Under the liberalism based on positive freedom, citizens and governments should accept this, and democracy requires the responsibility of society and the protection of …show more content…

On the one hand, there are more and more differences in the progress of the progressive reform, on the other hand, the progressive reform is beginning to face the opposition and attack of the conservatism. In 1919, Theodore Roosevelt died. In 1924, Thomas Woodrow Wilson died. With the death of these two important progressives, both Democrats and Republicans are less interested in promoting progressive reform in the whole country. And the successor presidents are more conservative Republicans. As a result, the impact of large enterprises on the government is becoming more and more big, and big enterprises seem to learn more and more how to achieve their own interests in the