CDZ In 1783, what was the most 'left', progressive government and country in the world?

[there4eyeM]

This comes from one who has nothing to do with either of the parties that have unjustly taken over control of US politics, and further has no affiliation with any of the noisy, partisan groups that bandy misused epithets. It results from a desire to see how the fervor of the American 'Revolution' and the resultant effort to form a government is seen today.
As the origins of 'left' and 'right' in politics are with a monarch at the center, any overthrow of a king would by definition be 'leftist', well before any association with unpopular later theoreticians. Would we not also say that the American way represented progress?.

 

[there4eyeM]

Just watched the PBS documentary on the War for Independence.

 

[320 Years of History]

I haven't ever considered the specific question asked in the thread title. Forced to guess, I'd say Switzerland if the answer be constrained to Western nations.

• THE HISTORY OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN SWITZERLAND

I think overall, the answer is likely a non-Western nation, most probably it was a nation that was at the time considered "primitive" or "savage," such as one or several Native American nations, perhaps a nation in Africa, Polynesia or Australia. It may even be China for as we know today, the absence of enough progressivism is revolt and the demise of a culture. Chinese culture has lasted a really, really long time; it predates Rome after all. That just doesn't happen when neither a nation's own citizens and its allies and enemies have "had enough" with its unprogressive nature. Many someones must do many major things right, or even more minor things, for a culture to last that long.

One must remember that in the Western world, nearly every nation was a monarchy, and in most cases absolute monarchies in substance, parliament or no parliament. Thus the Enlightenment ideas that came out of the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment were reactions to the inefficiencies and inequities deriving from those forms of rule. It's not as though Western monarchies raced each other to adopt humanist or Enlightenment ideas and themes, at least not in the context of governance and comprehensive enrichment of the majority of the polity.

Perhaps most important for giving a good answer to your question (one that is a good one for an academic paper or exam in history, economics, or sociology classes) is that Progressivism is at the earliest a 19th century concept. Thus none of the Western powers about which most Americans are taught in K-12 classroom were, in the 1700s, what we see today as progressive. It's also worth noting that progressivism is largely a concept focused on education. To that end and again, as go Western powers of the 18th century, none of them were progressive.

• The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics -- Not my ideal reference because it's not unbiased and it's publisher "has an axe to grind," but with regard to the points I've made in the preceding paragraph, it'll do.
• education101intrototeaching / Theories of Education: Progressivism

 

[Agit8r]

Probably Massachusetts or Pennsylvania

"Government is instituted for the common good, for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people, and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government, and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it."
-- Constitution of Massachusetts (1780)

 

[there4eyeM]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. No axes to grind here, just discussion.