Liberal vs Progressive: Difference and Comparison

We come across many people in life. We used to speak with them. They would share their opinions and thoughts about the topic that we discussed or give us some new information.

This will help us in the long run. The two cases in which the conversation can help a person to get a better view are liberal and the other one is progressive.

The conversation can be stretched based on these two behaviours of the person.

Key Takeaways

1. Liberal is a political ideology that values individual liberty and equality, while progressive is a political ideology that advocates for social progress and reform.
2. Liberal is associated with classical liberalism, while progressive is related to modern progressivism.
3. Liberal is more focused on individual rights, while progressive is more on social justice.

Liberal vs Progressive

Liberal people are very open-minded people. They take other people’s considerations into account and try to prioritize other people’s opinions. It is derived from old French and helps people in politics. While progressive mindset helps to achieve the interests of common people. It is derived from latin.

People who are being liberal will accept everything around them with an open-minded attitude. This quality will help them when they are in politics.

There they have to accept another person’s opinion as well and cannot oppose them. People always wished for a liberal nation where they could tolerate everything without having any religion.

In a word, liberalism is gradual progress which, when applied, will change the laws in society. 

Progressive is a term where other people’s interests will be taken into consideration. There is also a golden rule available for progressive as well.

The golden rule is they used to respect all people and try to value their difference in them, and also, they will deal with those differences in such a way that it won’t hurt the other person.

Also, it will deal in a way in which it should be dealt with. 

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Liberal	Progressive
Definition	People who are open-minded and accept other people’s behaviour and ideas	It is used to represent other people’s interests.
Derived from	Old French	Latin Progredi
Saying Yes	Usually, liberal people won’t say yes	Progressive people used to say yes
Saying No	Usually, liberal people used to say no	Progressive people won’t say no
Law	For liberal people, the main principle that they follow is equality before the law.	These people won’t follow equality before the law.

What is Liberal?

Liberal people will accept the behaviour and opinion of people other than their own. They will be favorable to whatever topic they are discussing.

They won’t oppose them. They will accept the other person’s opinion and ideas. These people will also have some liberal views in politics and religious areas as well. 

A liberal-minded person will always be open-minded in whatever topics they discuss. They won’t judge the person who is speaking on the opposite side.

They also like new ideas, which they love hearing from others. They don’t mind whether the idea is traditional or not. They love to hear them. It is called generous or large.

Sometimes this can be defined with a liberal attitude. Having a liberal attitude will be good, especially when you are going to enter the politics area.

A liberal attitude will help them to tolerate something for the change. There are numerous synonyms available for being liberal, and one such synonym is generous.

They are also many words available for calling liberal-minded people, and some of them are open-minded, lenient, tolerant, and broad-minded.

The word liberal is also associated with nationalism as well. This means there will be individual freedom. In history, liberalism means they believe in democracy. 

What is Progressive?

Progressive is a term that is used to represent ordinary people’s interests. Here people will have some favourable attitudes towards the urban industrial society.

An antonym, progressive means regressive. In a progressive state, the thing that we discuss or see will get more improvement and change in a good way.

But in regressive, whatever we discuss or see will get worse. To know the opposite of it, we should first understand the word progressive.

Progressive culture used to get more attention all the time. For example, in a company, the employees used to get a progressive cultural experience.

In the government sector, progressive people used to establish a transparent and accountable government. Progressive will also be applied in the classroom as well.

In Classroom, students used to learn actively. This will account for being progressive. The students also speak with other students, creating interaction between them.

When they cooperate and interact, they will learn to know more about tolerating policy as well.

Also, they will solve real-time problems in school, which are sometimes unrelated to studies but will be applied in the future.

This practice will help them to tackle those problems easier without getting stuck in between. Progressive can be stated in tenses as well.

Such as in the present, past, and future. If something is old-fashioned and out of date, then that doesn’t come under progressive. 

Main Differences Between Liberal and Progressive

1. Liberal people will be open-minded and accept other people’s opinions and behaviour. On the other hand, Progressive people used to take other people’s interests into consideration.
2. The word liberal is derived from Old French. On the other hand, the word Progressive is derived from Latin Progredi.
3. If you carefully observe liberal people, they won’t say yes. On the other hand, if you observe progressive people, they used to say yes.
4. When you speak with liberal people, they used to say no. On the other hand, progressive people won’t say no.
5. Liberal people always put equality before the law. On the other hand, progressive people don’t put equality before the law. 

References

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305498910170106
2. http://faculty.georgetown.edu/hcn4/Downloads/BCMN_Progressive.pdf