Constitution 201: Challenge of Progressivism

Today we begin a 10-part lecture series presented by Hillsdale College entitled “Constitution 201.”

Each lecture lasts approximately 40 minutes.  Lectures and study materials will be made available to our readers.  Today we present part 1 "The Founders’ Constitution and the Challenge of Progressivism."

We expect to present all 10 parts before Election Day, November 6.

Overview

The principles of the American Founding, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the Constitution, came under assault by Progressives of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Progressivism rejects the Founders’ ideas of natural rights, limited government, the  separation of powers, representation, and federalism.  Progressive government, exemplified by the modern administrative state, has fundamentally transformed key aspects of the American way of life.

>>"The Founders’ Constitution and the Challenge of Progressivism” Reader.

Progressives believe that America needs to move beyond the principles of the Founding.  Woodrow Wilson—who served as president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey, and as America’s 28th president—was one of the earliest Progressive thinkers.  His critique of the Founding—namely, his rejection of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution’s system of the separation of powers—is one of the most articulate expressions of the Progressive movement’s core beliefs.