American History - the Progressivism

The Progressivism refers to the movement aimed to “a perfection of democracy by a group of journalists and writers collectively known as muckrakers”. Their major activities included “expose problems in American society as well as urged the public to identify solutions” , examples like Lincoln Steffens, a wrtier, who explored corruption in city politic; Ida Tarbell, a woman muckraer, who wrote about the dangers of Standard Oil and Jacob Riis who displayed the dismal and dangerous living conditions of the working class. What they had exposed covered political, economical and social aspects of the American society at that time. From the perspective of society, “they regarded themselves as the agents of social justice and reform, representing the benefits of the poor.” They looked for the social justice and equality, so the forms the progressives took were various. They focused on the African Americans, the immigrants suffered from serious discrimination, women and children as well as the poor. The organizations formed like National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) and the U.S. Children’s Bureau were examples of their social efforts. Politically, “they denied the political party”, so that they would promote the changes for the perfect democracy. The vestiges of Progeressivism we can see in our modern lives is the three-quarters of U.S. states used in the primary election. Another political innovation promoted by the Progressivism was the initiative, referendum, and recall, which have been taken effect in the practices in the history of America. Additionally, they also pushed the approval of direct election of U.S. senators. Economically, “they looked to government to regulate the modern market economy” so that they tried to implement new systems to solve the problem of corruption and improve the efficiency of the government such as the commission system to divide up responsibilities and the the concept of hiring expert advisors to the elected officials. As well, they also engaged themselves in improving the efficiency of business, which is also the pursuit in modern business world. For example, the Talorism emphasized the scientific way of management and productivity.