John Stuart Mill and his essays "On Liberty" and "On Socialism." The essential authoritarian-collectivist thesis was taken up by the organized forces of post-Great-War America; they did not originate them.
The core ideas that united those progenitors and their propositions were simple and stunning:
That the proper end of politics is "the greatest good for the greatest number;"
That this can only be achieved by centralizing essentially all human enterprise and centrally apportioning its benefits;
Therefore, that such centralization is morally mandatory;
Furthermore, individuals, who act to to maximize their own good rather than that of "the greatest number," cannot be trusted with freedom;
Therefore, individuals must be controlled to bring about that end.
That there exists in any society a "wise minority" intellectually and morally qualified to do so, which should be trusted with all the necessary authority to do it.
In other words, those proto-Progressives posited superior intellectual and moral qualities for themselves, that others don't share and are not capable of appreciating. Their later inheritors perpetuated that postulate without explicitly saying it...and they continue to do so to this day.
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