Many have noted the irony that the public-employee crisis of 2011 is unfolding in Wisconsin, home of America’s original progressive movement. The irony is sharpened by the fact that Wisconsin is by no means in the worst fiscal shape among the 50 states. California, Illinois, New York – all face considerably worse debt problems. Governor Scott Walker is certainly correct that things will only get worse if adjustments aren’t made today. But the relative freedom Wisconsin has at the moment – the ability to choose a course rather than have it dictated by creditors and an empty public treasury – highlights the fact that Walker and the statehouse Republicans are making a choice. They are rejecting the quintessential idea of progressivism: that government is best managed by a cadre of public employees whose professional activities are (in theory) isolated from “partisan politics.”
The term “progressive” has been batted around in various incarnations over the last decade, but in its original sense in U.S. politics – the sense popularized by the Wisconsin Progressives and the spinoffs from their movement – progressivism was about enlarging the government’s supervisory role over society and entrusting the administration of that role to experts employed in public agencies. Read More