Compare and contrasts Populism and Progressivism

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Compare and Contrast Populism and Progressivism
Populism is derived from “Populus,” a Latin word that refers to people. The populism movement was initiated by farmers in the 19th century as a political ideology based on the belief that bankers and industrialists interfered in governmental policies driven against farmers, particularly intended for destabilizing them (Foner 642). The fundamental demand of farmers was imposing more taxes on business class to obtain a dedicated share of income taxes through the 16th Amendment. On the other hand, progressivism is different in that it was started by the middle class and occurred in the 20th century. In contrast to that of populism, the basic ideology of progressivism was that it stood against the rich and powerful and its belief was to fight against instances of the unfair election system, corruption among the business class, worker exploitation and that children and women should prevail in the society. Other issues that fueled the movement was an unstable legal system and inflation.
While populism was down-to-up movement progressivism was a top-to-bottom on. In populism, the down-to-up movement had their goals and objectives fulfilled gradually in civil service reforms, band and industry regulations, as well as being granted eight hours of labor (Foner 688). On the other hand, in progressivism, being a top-to-bottom movement, its ideology spread widely among the masses. Progressivism was different from populism as the key players were mainly educated and urban middle class.

Both men and women advocating for progressivism equally stood against inflation, which was attributed to the influx of immigrants. In addition, while the ideology of progressivism was mainly intended for uplifting the country and based on political reforms, the populist movement was led by farmers and those in agriculture to better their welfare (Foner 700). Therefore, it can be surmised that while the ideas of populism were civil service reforms, industry and bank regulations, as well as eight hours work for labor, those of progressivism were political reforms and issues like corruption and inflation. Even though the government listened to the social, political, and economic demands of both populists and progressives, from the analysis, populism was more successful as the specific objectives were met.

Work Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition. WW Norton & Company, 2013.