Progressive movement

Cultural  

1. A movement for reform that occurred roughly between 1900 and 1920. Progressives typically held that irresponsible actions by the rich were corrupting both public and private life. They called for measures such as trust busting, the regulation of railroads, provisions for the people to vote on laws themselves through referendum, the election of the Senate by the people rather than by state legislatures, and a graduated income tax (one in which higher tax rates are applied to higher incomes). The Progressives were able to get much of their program passed into law. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were associated with the movement.

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Example Sentences

McElwee left the progressive movement and joined forces with moderate Democrats before becoming embroiled in ethical scandals.

From Slate

His proposals shocked the city’s corporate elite and minted him a new leader of the progressive movement.

From The Wall Street Journal

That struggle has unfolded in unusually close quarters in Brooklyn, where two of the party’s most powerful figures have strained to cope with a rising progressive movement, embodied by Mamdani, that is already looking past them.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Progressive movement began to gel, ushering in a new respect for expertise and technocratic skill.

From Salon

Eskow: This may be blue-sky thinking, but it occurs to me that the progressive movement can display leadership and vision in forming that front, at a time when those qualities seem to be lacking elsewhere.

From Salon