Progressive conservatism
Progressive conservatism is a political ideology that attempts to combine conservative and progressive policies. While still supportive of capitalist economy, it stresses the importance of government intervention in order to improve human and environmental conditions.
Progressive conservatism first arose in Germany and the United Kingdom in the 1870s and 1880s under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli respectively. Disraeli's 'One Nation' Toryism has since become the central progressive conservative tradition in the UK.
In the UK, the Prime Ministers Disraeli, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan,[1] David Cameron and Theresa May have been described as progressive conservatives.[2][3] The Catholic Church's Rerum Novarum (1891) advocates a progressive conservative doctrine known as social Catholicism.[4]
In the United States, Theodore Roosevelt has been the principal figure identified with progressive conservatism as a political tradition. Roosevelt stated that he had "always believed that wise progressivism and wise conservatism go hand in hand".[5] The administration of President William Howard Taft was considered by some to be progressive conservative. Various European leaders such as Angela Merkel have also aligned themselves with progressive conservative politics.[6]