To what extent were Woodrow Wilson’s, Frank J. Goodnow’s, and Mary Parker Follett’s ideas about public administration informed by Hegelian political philosophy? From a history of ideas perspective, this case study examines the Hegelian roots of these three progressive authors by analyzing and comparing both American and German primary sources. On the one hand, it is argued that the Hegelian account of the state helped the considered American authors to deal with the intellectual challenges of the progressive era. On the other hand, it is argued that the importance of the three author’s Hegelian background has sometimes been overstated. Scrutinizing the intellectual relationship between progressive scholars and Hegel is particularly interesting, since historians and political scientists have recently debated over whether the progressive body of thought and its idealistic background represents an appropriate bête noire for today’s American conservatives.
