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Social progressivism is the view that the basic concepts of social mores, human nature, and morality are not fixed throughout history and should be revised to suit the times. Social progressives tend to be secularists, and believe that science and rationalism have rendered traditional beliefs to be obsolete. Thus, all current interpersonal social constructs, such as marriage, the family, monogamy and gender roles and gender identity, must be legally challenged whenever such a change is deemed to be for the greater good of society or is desired by those who wish to engage a social arrangement not currently sanctioned by law. Social progressives are opposed by social conservatives who contend that radical changes to longstanding traditional institutions, particularly when imposed by a court system, are undemocratic, destabilizing to society and potentially may entail reverse discrimination against religious believers.
In the United States, social progressives advocated the abolition of slavery, Women's suffrage and civil rights reforms. Different groups of Progressives advocated the passage of prohibition and later worked towards its repeal. Current positions associated with social progressivism in the West include legal recognition of same-sex marriage, distribution of contraceptives, public funding of embryonic stem-cell research, and federally funded abortion on demand. Public education is a subject of great interest to social progressives, who support comprehensive sex education in public schools and the distribution of condoms to high school students, but are strongly opposed to school prayer, school vouchers. Most are opposed to faith-based initiatives, the Patriot Act and the death penalty.
Throughout the world, different groups calling themselves social progressives may oppose each other due to the competing nature of positive liberties. For instance, social progressives may be either left-wing or right-wing, depending on the kind of social mores they wish to change vis-à-vis the status quo. A social progressive advocating drug legalization in the United States may be seen as left-wing (anarchist) or right-wing (libertarian), whereas a social progressive campaigning to outlaw recreational drugs in the Netherlands would be seen as right-wing. In Canada the former federal Progressive Conservative Party often combined a social progressive agenda with a right-wing economic agenda, such as Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's advocation of action on environmental issues, such as acid rain, and support of multiculturalism, while advocating a neoliberal economic agenda.
The term social progressivism is not to be confused with social liberalism. Even though both ideologies overlap considerably, the former is primarily concerned with civil liberties and the latter with centrist liberal ideology.
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