Progressive vs. Conservative Thinking

Hello LINC 7 Students,

With the federal election call, we've been talking about the political spectrum and ways of thinking associated with it.  I've edited and adapted this text from Study.com:

Social values matter a lot to a society, but people have different ideas about what those values are. There are generally two opposing viewpoints.


Social Progressives (Left wing)

Let's start on the left side of the political spectrum, with the ideologies of the social progressives. This is the belief that society's root issues and problems need to be exposed and corrected. Social progressives are generally not content with accepting things as they are for the sake of tradition, and are willing to uproot even longstanding social traditions to create what they see as a better, fairer, and more equal society. So, if we can sum up social progressive movement in a word, it's reform.

Conservatives (Right wing)

The opposing viewpoint on this is conservatism, and specifically social conservatism. While social progressives value reform over tradition, social conservatives place great faith in the status quo. From the perspective of social conservatism, it's the traditional social values of a society that hold the nation together. Therefore, challenging these values or seeking to reform them represents a threat to the security and identity of the nation. Under this belief, social conservatives historically have fought against issues like women's voting rights, race equality, and LGBTQ (gay) rights.



Another nice summary is on this webpage although the grammar isn't perfect!

"The key difference between a Conservative and a Progressive is a Conservative has a conservative (traditional) attitude -- not favoring political and social change, while a Progressive favors political and social transformations and innovations."