Progressives believe that government run by experts should have a larger role in the economy and in running our lives than has historically been the case in free market economies. They believe government planners are altruistically motivated and can run an economy more successfully than a lightly regulated free market.
Curiously, Progressives put more faith in the citizens’ ability to appropriately elect the politicians who are to choose the planners and experts who are to guide the management of their lives than in the citizens’ ability to manage their lives themselves.
Progressives prefer bigger and more pervasive government and more government enforced equality, and ignore the consequent loss of liberty. Government becomes more pervasive as individual responsibilities and freedoms are reduced and the roles of religion and voluntary associations weakened. Our federal government has gained an enormous amount of control over our educational institutions and voluntary philanthropic associations by subsidizing them with rules and conditions attached.