R.J. Pestritto: On Progressivism, Liberalism, and the Administrative State
The American Mind
The Claremont Institute
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2019
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this edition of The American Mind podcast, host Ryan Williams sits down with Ronald “R.J.” Pestritto, Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, to discuss Progressivism: how it came to be, its theoretical and political impact, and what it means for us today.
Since its arrival on the scene at the turn of the 20th Century, Progressivism has transformed American politics. But one cannot fully appreciate this shift without an understanding of the Founders’ view of human nature, government, and justice—and how the Progressive vision for America seeks to unravel it.
Pestritto also discusses small “L” liberalism—a topic very much en vogue today on the Right—and how it came to be dissociated with its original meaning of the protection of rights, which the Founders embraced.
Of course, no discussion of Progressivism is complete without considering the Administrative State. Pestritto and Williams talk about the rise of the bureaucracy in America and what it means for our constitutional order.
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Recommended Reading: The German Stamp on Wilson’s Administrative Progressivism
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | if you think of most of the major policy controversies, they've ended up in court, whether it's health |
| 0:04.5 | care or the environment. |
| 0:06.5 | The immigration would be another very obvious example. |
| 0:08.9 | Their administrative law cases, their question, well, has the agency done what the law says? |
| 0:14.4 | Was it wrong for Congress to give them this discretion in the first place? |
| 0:17.7 | What posture should the court take toward the decision that the agency made? |
| 0:22.2 | Should it give it a lot of deference or not, |
| 0:24.4 | and there are all these obscure doctrines. |
| 0:26.1 | But they're becoming increasingly important. |
| 0:28.0 | Why? |
| 0:29.0 | Because this is how we've chosen to make policy. |
| 0:30.5 | Congress does nothing these days. Are you trying to understand the principles that guide American politics? |
| 0:50.0 | So are we. |
| 0:52.0 | Welcome to the American Mind Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Williams, the |
| 0:56.4 | president of the Claremont Institute and publisher of the Claremont Review Books. |
| 1:00.0 | For all of our writings, programs, and all that we do, go to |
| 1:05.0 | W.W. dot Clermont.org. |
| 1:07.0 | My guest on the show today is Ronald J. Pastrido, known as R.J. to his friends. |
| 1:13.2 | R.J is the dean of the graduate school, professor of politics, and the Charles and |
| 1:16.9 | Lucia Shipley chair in the American Constitution at Hillsdale College. |
| 1:21.5 | He's a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. We're talking out here in California while R.J. is out teaching in our Publius Fellowship. |
| 1:29.0 | R.J has written many excellent studies of progressivism and the figures of progressivism, I recommend |
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