ABOUT
If I could pick one mainstream political figure that is quintessentially progressive it would be Woodrow Wilson. The 28th President of the United States, Wilson is well remembered for his foreign policy: World War I, the Mexican intervention, The League of Nations and his 14 Points address. He is not, however, well remembered for his views on the nature of government, and as the first PhD president, Wilson’s views were very well developed. His essay “Socialism and Democracy” is important because it is a look at progressivism from the inside; however, there are better selections from Wilson’s oeuvre that I recommend: “The Writers and Signers of the Declaration of Independence” and “The New Freedom.”
HISTORY
As far as relating to Godkin’s essay, Wilson fulfills almost every prophecy. After campaigning on peace, Wilson took the nation into World War I. He was actively involved in Latin American affairs, supporting the US occupation of Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Wilson advocated the overthrow of Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerto and sent 12,000 U.S. troops into Mexico to kill Pancho Villa.
He pushed major economic reforms including the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. “Control,” said Wilson, “must be public, not private, must be vested in the government itself, so that the banks may be the instruments, not the masters, of business and of individual enterprise and initiative.” The Federal Trade Commission was established under Wilson’s leadership, as was the Federal Income Tax, the direct election of Senators, the Adamson Act, and the Federal Workingman’s Compensation Act.
Woodrow Wilson was almost certainly schooled in 19th century German thought. As Ronald Pestritto points out in Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism, “Wilson’s teachers at Hopkins were all educated in Germany and in the tradition of German state theory and philosophy of history.” The largest influences on Wilson’s professors were the likes of Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud and Weber. As Allan Bloom pointed out in “The Closing of the American Mind,” progressivism is a two-part theory: a nihilistic base that requires man-made meaning. For many progressives, the man-made meaning is simple: sociology should be used to solve societal problems (Weber) and psychoanalysis can be used to make people happy (Freud). Effectively, you can reach Utopia through affirmative action and prozac.
As far as the German view of history, Wilson believed in evolutionary progression. “Of Course in such a competition the better custom would prevail over the worse. (The State, Part I, Chp. I)” This, of course, extends to political thought, economic thought, and cultural thought. To understand progressivism we must examine Wilson’s state theory and view of history separately.
MY ANALYSIS
When the Founders were writing the constitution, they were attempting to end political tyranny in the sense that the government was infringing on individuals. The Constitution and its philosophical corollary, the Declaration of Independence, conquered this form of tyranny. What they did not conquer, according to Wilson, was “the incontrovertible fact that the economic and social conditions of life in our century are not only superficially but radically different form those of any other time whatever.” Time changes, and so does tyranny. “The contest is no longer between government and individuals; it is now between government and dangerous combinations and individuals.” The system of free enterprise that fostered the unparalleled material development in the United States was, to Wilson, “an economic system which is heartless. (New Freedom)”
To replace capitalism, Wilson looked (not surprisingly) to Germany. “It is easy to make socialism, as theoretically developed by the greater and saner socialistic writers, intelligible not only, but even attractive, as a conception.” Wilson thought “the only hard task is to give [socialism] validity and strength as a program in practical politics.” If we can make socialism work in a democracy, then we have a perfect system.
As far as “State Theory,” Wilson very clearly believed that the state deserves extreme amounts of power. The entire idea of a Constitution that limits authority is wrong, “[Socialism] proposes that all idea of a limitation of public authority by individual rights be put out of view, and that the State consider itself bound to stop only at what is unwise of futile in its universal superintendence alike of individual and of public interests.” This is necessary to conquer corporate tyranny. In other words, socialism proposes that every idea of the founding fathers is fundamentally incorrect. The essay gets even more progressive, “The thesis of the state socialist is, that no line can be drawn between private and public affairs which the State may not cross at will; that omnipotence of legislation is the first postulate of all just political theory.”
Even more importantly, Wilson asserted that socialism and democracy are not only compatible, but also a necessary pair. “For it is very clear that in fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same.” Limited government prevents experimentation, which in turn leads to progress (note his philosophy of history). If one can remove the limits on government (i.e. The Constitution) then the state has the power to expand as necessary. And true democracy necessarily entails this freedom, “the germinal conceptions of democracy are as free from all thought of limitation of the public authority as are the corresponding conceptions of socialism….” The point is this: “The difference between democracy and socialism is not an essential difference but only a practical difference—is a difference of organization and policy, not a difference of primary motive.”
America, of course, was not founded as a pure democracy. It was not until the direct election of senators (ratified under Woodrow Wilson) that the people had near complete control over the federal government. With this democratization and the devaluation of the founding documents we see a completely new state. This new state, a progressive state, has the exact same motive (and ends) as state socialism. Simply put, progressivism and socialism work towards the same goal; the difference is that progressives apply socialism “progressively,” whereas the socialist applies it tomorrow.
Read FDR’s Commonwealth Club Address for Tomorrow.
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