Alternate "Most Progressive" Nations

NKVD

IOTL, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Canada are considered to be at the height of social progress, with really nice social welfare systems, high levels of transparency and social justice, etc.

What are some possibilities for ATL nations that are widely considered to be the most progressive?
 

pa_dutch

Latin America has potential, especially in the realm of sustainable development and environmental conservation. Costa Rica is on top of the Happy Planet Index, of which half of the top 20 countries are from Latin America and the Caribbean. Ecuador's latest constitution even grants human rights to nature! Take burgeoning developed countries like Costa Rica and those of the southern cone, make them just a bit more successful than in OTL, promote them as model economies for the rest of the region, and there's a good recipe for progressiveness.
 
Plumber

Plumber

Honestly, I think Korea and Japan are near the bottom of the list if we want to spread the Amsterdam.
 

The Uchronian

MKN said:
IOTL, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and Canada are considered to be at the height of social progress, with really nice social welfare systems, high levels of transparency and social justice, etc.

What are some possibilities for ATL nations that are widely considered to be the most progressive?
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New England in DoD under Abbard, perhaps........
 

Henriksson

The US should've been in perfect position, and was indeed the most progressive one in the days of Toqueville. It has both large industry and resources. It's both large and has an ethnically homogenous population*. But something went pear-shaped along the way. Part of what I would blame that on is a (comparatively) fragile working class and an extremely powerful capitalist class, and religious institutions grew at the cost of secular institutions.

*In the way that actually matters, hollering about "ancestry" aside.
 
Plumber

Plumber

Henriksson said:
The US should've been in perfect position, and was indeed the most progressive one in the days of Toqueville. It has both large industry and resources. It's both large and has an ethnically homogenous population*. But something went pear-shaped along the way. Part of what I would blame that on is a (comparatively) fragile working class and an extremely powerful capitalist class, and religious institutions grew at the cost of secular institutions.

*In the way that actually matters, hollering about "ancestry" aside.
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The US is doable, but OTL the lack of backlash against a state religion and ethnic diversity favors a (maybe not quite as OTL) Religious Right dedicated to keep the welfare state down in the name of the Lord. It's easier to have a welfare state when the population is homogenous.
Best way is Humphrey '68. No modern Republican Party built on the Nixonian divisive mottos of fear and loathing.
 

Alexpira

Uruguay and Argentina were in path to become rich welfare state in the begging of 20th. Century....maybe those countries could remained in that path without the internal chaos of the 30s in both countries.
 

HeavyWeaponsGuy

Banned
Alexpira said:
Uruguay and Argentina were in path to become rich welfare state in the begging of 20th. Century....maybe those countries could remained in that path without the internal chaos of the 30s in both countries.
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It would have required economic diversification that didn't happen OTL.
 

carlton_bach

I think Central and Northeastern Europe have some possibilities. Prague and Budapest had something of a liberal, libertine reputation before the Stalinist social attitudes freezeframe came down. The whole area tends to be underrated due to Warsaw Pact fatedness syndrome. Politically, they had plenty of third-wayish thinking going on.

I think a China surviving the nineteenth century more intact could also have produced something like that, though at a lower economic level.
 
Meadow

Meadow

arsemonkee said:
Germany with no hitler.
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Still a lot of social conservatism to be worked through, from both religious and social conditioning. Not enough soft-touch Lutherans (unlike Scandinavia) to make people just get over abortion, homosexuality and so on.
 

The Uchronian

Why not Japan? Sure, that country had been basically a fascist state during WWII, I know, with all the hatred of the 'gaijin' that came with its ascension(and before, to an extent)....these days, however, Japan is under a much more civil government(and a much more open society for that matter!). A POD after 1945 shouldn't at all be hard to work with.

China, on the other hand? You'd be hard-pressed to even come close to a progressive state, I'm sorry to say. Same with Korea as well.

Other potential candidates I can see would be Argentina, Cuba, Italy(after WWII, or without Mussolini), and New Zealand(there was a major crackdown on corruption in the '80s IOTL, from what I know, so it's a possibility. It may or may not require leaving the British Commonwealth, though, depending on the POD.).
 

The Ubbergeek

You guys forget an evident contender for the Numéro Un title - our cousins, France.

There is some issues in the way of Fraternité, Égalité and cie - a certain racism from somes, machism, but it start pretty far off; there is also the issue of colonialism, I admit...

But guys, the nation of the rights of citizens and all... It could be perhaps easily improved with some PODs.

Maybe the Restauration of Monarchy, or Napoléon 3 where part of the problems..
 
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