The Hegelian Progressives

This chapter describes the legal and political theory of the American Progressive thinkers who were influenced by Hegel, and situates their thought within the broader Progressive movement. W.E.B. Du Bois, Woodrow Wilson, John Dewey, Mary Follett, and Frank Goodnow were each influenced by Hegel and Hegelian public law scholars. Read as a group, they offer a coherent understanding of democracy in the American administrative state. Du Bois argued that the state needed to create the conditions for democracy by protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of African Americans. Wilson argued that public opinion should influence administration, and that administration could become a source of binding law. The conflict between Du Bois and Wilson over questions of racial equality teases out a tension between democratic equality and public participation, which is explored further in chapter 3. Dewey understood the state as an articulation of rational public discourse, and insisted like Wilson on public participation in the administrative process. Follett buttressed Dewey’s democratic theory with an account of how participation in administrative policymaking could generate cooperative democratic power. Goodnow adapted the German concept of the Rechtsstaat to the American context. He explained how administrative agencies could carry legislative will into action through fair procedures, and how courts and administrative agencies could play a coordinate role in the implementation of law. Together these theorists offer a model of administration in which democracy-preserving goods and institutions are furnished by administrative bodies through participatory, egalitarian, and inclusive administrative processes.