Wilsonian idealism
political ideology of United States President Woodrow Wilson
Wilsonian idealism (also Wilsonianism) is a type of foreign policy that comes from the ideas and proposals of United States president Woodrow Wilson. He issued his famous Fourteen Points in January 1918 as a basis for ending World War I and promoting world peace. He was a leading advocate of the League of Nations to enable the international community to avoid wars and end hostile aggression. Wilsonianism is a form of liberal democratic internationalism.
Wilson's 1887 essay "The Study of Administration" is a foundational text in American liberalism and progressivism that covered elevating "administration" – the practical execution of government work – to a distinct field of scientific inquiry. Writing during the late 19th century, Wilson aimed to professionalize a government system he viewed as increasingly inefficient, corrupt, and hindered by the "spoils system". Wilson drew on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's treatment of law and the state in Elements of the Philosophy of Right, especially Hegel's picture of how public institutions arise and mediate social conflict.
Principles
Common principles that are often associated with Wilsonianism include:
Advocacy of the spread of democracy. Anne-Marie Slaughter writes that Wilson expected and hoped that "democracy would result from self-determination, but he never sought to spread democracy directly." Slaughter writes that Wilson's League of Nations was similarly intended to foster liberty and democracy by serving as "a high wall behind which nations", especially small nations, "could exercise their right of self determination" but that Wilson did not envision that the United States would affirmatively intervene to "direct" or "shape" democracies in foreign nations.
Conferences and bodies devoted to resolving conflict, especially the League of Nations and the United Nations.
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