social progress
Civilization moving forward
Social progress is the gradual improvement of a society's conditions—greater equality, expanded rights, reduced suffering, improved living standards.
The term implies a direction: that societies can and should move toward justice and human flourishing.
What counts as progress depends on values: Some see same-sex marriage as social progress; others see it as decline.
The phrase often appears in political rhetoric, where it typically signals liberal or left-leaning views.
- gender equalityEqual treatment regardless sex
- equal rightsIdentical legal protections
- LGBTQ+ rightsProtections for sexual minorities
- racial justiceFairness regardless of ethnicity
- fair housingAntidiscrimination laws for rentals
democratic governance · freedom of speech · economic empowerment · living wage · education access · grassroots activism · collective action · peacebuilding · civil liberties · income equality · desegregation · voting rights · community building · disability rights · poverty alleviation · civic engagement · public awareness campaigns · suffrage movements
- historical forcescultural shifts, political change, economic development, technological change, industrial revolution
- social changecultural shift, cultural fusion, globalization, assimilate, integrate
- social evolutioncultural evolution, Morgan, savagery, barbarism, civilization
- Classical SociologyDurkheim, Marx, Weber, Engels, anomie
- Saint-Simonianismsecular religion
social progressmoral decay
Decline in ethical standards
retrogression · devolution · barbarism · dark ages · dystopia
social progressstagnation
Absence of flow or progress
stasis · standstill · inertia · immobility · paralysis
social progressreactionism
Opposition to social progress
social conservatism · traditionalism · reaction · counter-revolution · atavism
social, progress, society, associate, progression, association, sociable, progressive, aggression