New Institute Report: Modern Progressive Values

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Gillette’s report consolidates the work of many other groups and individuals, who have used a variety of methodologies during the past decade to create lists of values. These lists had many similarities, but differences, too. Gillette analyzed their work to identify a set of six core value clusters (three pairs) that appear to define modern progressive thought.

Freedom / Security describes what progressives value for individuals, including what the state allows its citizens to do (speak, marry, travel, etc) and what it protects its citizens from (violence, exploitation, illness, and so on). Community / The Commons refers to how citizens relate to one another as groups, and how those groups relate to the resources we all share. Finally, Truth / Justice pertains to the formal structures of language and law, rooted in a commitment to reason, transparency, and fairness.

“While each of these six terms might also be used by conservatives, progressives define them differently,” Gillette explained. “Several tendencies, or ‘moral intuitions’, mark these values as different for progressives than for conservatives. These include empathy and responsibility, a proclivity for non-hierarchical patterns, pragmatic attention to real-world problems, acceptance of diversity, and recognition of our interdependence."

These attitudes distinguish the six core values in ways that are uniquely progressive and ground them in human emotion and behavior. Like all values, they are experienced and expressed through emotions, images, narratives, and action.

According to Barry Kendall, executive director of the Commonweal Institute, “It is time for progressives to reclaim the terms of American political dialogue. Over the past forty years, Americans have watched as a narrow but powerful coalition has taken over our country’s government and conducted its business in ways that violate strong, deeply-held values that so many of us share. One of the most insidious aspects of the violence done to our values has been the Orwellian language that enveloped their misguided and malign policies in a deceptive, feel-good haze.

“Today, the conservative political machine has run out of gas, and many of its theoretical underpinnings have proved bankrupt. A new coalition of voters is emerging in response. This can be a watershed moment for the progressive movement that has been fighting back for the last eight years.

“The six core values - three pairs - identified in this report give progressives a consistent way of talking about what unites the progressive movement, what progressives most essentially represent. This is a common values platform that can be adapted to a wide range of issues. As we move forward toward the 2008 presidential election and beyond, progressives will be able to think and talk about the values that guide our policies, our way of government. We’ll be able to communicate our values more effectively."

“It would be a mistake, though, to reduce the value of values to votes,” added Gillette. “Each vote, even each election, is merely a means to make a freer, more equitable future. We must not confuse the ends and means. Political power is only worth something if we have a compelling vision to work toward. In this sense, the values identified here are not a tool but a statement of purpose, an image of the country progressives have said they want. These values, aggregated and distilled from the thoughtful hard work of so many devoted progressives, represent what we stand for, who we are, and what America can become.”

Funding for this project was provided by the A. H. Zeppa Family Foundation of Duluth, Minnesota.

READ THE FULL REPORT IN PDF.