progressive reform
Gradual systemic change
Progressive reform refers to political and social changes aimed at improving society through government action—addressing problems like corruption, inequality, unsafe working conditions, or environmental degradation.
The term often evokes the Progressive Era in the United States (roughly 1890–1920), when movements pushed for labor protections, women's suffrage, and corporate regulation.
Today it describes any agenda seeking systemic change through democratic institutions rather than revolution: The candidate ran on a platform of progressive reform.
- democracyRule by the people
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- equalitySame status for all
- wealth redistributionShifting assets across society
- renewable energySelf-replenishing natural power
tax the rich · clean energy · inclusion · labor rights · transparency · human rights · social justice · civil rights · equal pay · anti-discrimination · conservation · trust-busting · advocacy · muckraking · empowerment · grassroots movement · New Deal · living wage
- Victorian reformpoor laws, poorhouse, temperance movement, abolitionists, child labor
- Saint-Simonianismindustrial society, secular religion
progressive reformrollback
Return to prior condition
restoration · retrogression · backward step · reversal · austerity measures
progressive reformconservatism
Preference for existing institutions
status quo · stagnation · preservation · inaction · entrenchment
progressive, reform, progress, progression, progressively, progressiveness, progressing, progressed, reforms