Progressivism, Socialism, and the Role of the State

The intellectual competitors to liberalism that appeared in the late nineteenth century often failed to clearly differentiate themselves in popular and academic discourse. Progressivism and socialism both found foothold with promises to transform the economy and society via an activist state; both sought to expand the scale and scope of government and to make it more responsive to the needs of the poor and working classes. However, despite sharing physical and intellectual space, little consideration has been given to the mutually constitutive elements that shaped Wisconsin progressive and socialist visions of the economic role of the state. This paper examines the evolution of Richard T. Ely’s thought on the economic role of government, contextualized by his work on, and in reaction to, socialist presentations. Two important distinctions emerge. First was Ely’s emphasis on equality of opportunity instead of equality of outcome, evident in his regulatory and tax policy proposals. Second, Ely limited collective ownership of productive resources to situations of natural monopoly that could be clearly identified using economic theory. Combined, these features provided a framework to clearly conscribe the economic role of the state and present progressivism as a ‘conservative’ reform program in contrast to the socialists’ more revolutionary goals