Transnational progressivism

Transnational progressivism is an umbrella term coined by American conservative writer and Hudson Institute fellow John Fonte in his 2011 book Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or Be Ruled by Others? to describe a broad movement that, he argues, seeks to transfer political power away from elected bodies in sovereign states and towards courts, bureaucracies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and various other largely unelected transnational bodies. To him, it is a global movement, calling for change in institutional values so that "the distinct worldviews of ethnic, gender, and linguistic minorities" are represented within dominant social and political institutions.

This term is mainly used by Fonte and other "American sovereigntists", following a 2000 American Enterprise Institute conference organized by John Bolton, entitled Trends in Global Governance: Do They Threaten American Sovereignty, to promote the idea that American sovereignty was at risk of being undermined by "globalists" in academia and in international humanitarian and environmental NGOs. To Fonte, global governance—with its increasing role through international organizations such as the International Court of Justice—threatens to usurp American exceptionalism and to weaken the role of the American Constitution and democracy.

Fonte's use of the phrase is not to be confused with its use by academics in the 2008 edited book Britain and Transnational Progressivism, where, for example, historian Ian Tyrrell refers to the United States' Progressive Era from 1896 to 1917 during which "transatlantic progressivism" thrived, in the form of the women's temperance and suffrage movements.