How Did The Role Of The Federal Government Change During The Great Depression?

The President and the Economy during the Great Low

When the stock market crashed in October 1929, President Herbert Hoover encouraged business concern leaders to accept an interventionist approach to combat the impending economic emergency considering "it is action that counts."^ane Over the next three years, withal, Hoover worked unsuccessfully to mitigate the economic crisis of the Keen Depression. Corporate welfare promises failed. State relief efforts dissipated. Not only was the federal government too small to handle the crisis, individuals and businesses across the political spectrum opposed federal intervention. Even so-governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt, wrote privately, "I am very much opposed to the extension of Federal activity in most economic system social bug."ⁱⁱ

But when running as the Democratic presidential candidate, Roosevelt offered a unlike message—he promised that the federal government would reshuffle the deck to give individuals a "New Bargain." One time elected, Roosevelt's New Deal programs expanded the role of the federal authorities and the executive branch in the economic, social, cultural, and political lives of Americans. The shift in power from the courts and political parties of the nineteenth century to the administrative state and from Congress to the executive branch, which had begun during the Progressive Era, intensified. Franklin Roosevelt worked to establish what historians have chosen the New Deal Order—the xl-year period from the early 1930s through the early on 1970s when labor, capitalists, and authorities shared a Keynesian belief in using the federal authorities to stimulate economical growth through monetary policies and the promotion of a "consumer citizenship" for all.^three

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This section investigates both the means in which the human relationship between the people and the president changed during the 1930s and the debates about the function of the president in initiating and narrating solutions to economic crises. As Lizabeth Cohen notes, Roosevelt "personalized federal ability," transforming the president into a cultural, likewise as a political, icon.^four Past focusing on the New Bargain'south programs and ideology, this section provides insight into twentieth-century debates about the role of the federal government in the economy, the collective country versus individual rights, the place of interest groups in policymaking, and the growing importance of media messaging to political leadership.

Though historians similar Arthur Schlesinger Jr. have previously pointed to FDR's powerful personality every bit driving this reform, recent scholarship in political history shows Roosevelt responding to grassroots campaigns from consumer activists groups, pressures from Southern congressmen, and demands from interest groups—from the American Federation of Labor to farmers. Ordinary Americans penned the president letters asking for relief, and similar his predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt used new media engineering science to connect to individual voters on a personal and emotional basis. Equally Margaret O'Mara notes, "Roosevelt was non a revolutionary, but an experimenter."⁵ His presidency offers an opportunity to examine the means in which Americans pushed for economical rights and opportunities.  The New Deal generated political debates over collective security and private rights that shaped the contours of modern liberalism and conservatism over the residue of the twentieth century.

Creating a New Bargain Order:

According to historian Meg Jacobs, "The Swell Depression solidified the link between eye and working class interests by seemingly exposing 'underconsumption' as the land's major problem."⁶ The New Deal establish means to promote consumption through regulation that lifted wages and set prices, legislation that provided jobs and security, and Keynesian monetary policies to fight deflation. Rather than merely focusing the New Deal effectually FDR's personality, this department draws on new studies in political economic system to evidence the influence of interest groups and intellectuals in shaping Roosevelt'due south agenda during both the Great Low and WWII.

Moreover, historians take recently emphasized how World War Ii became an opportunity to extend the New Deal land and further embed it into the lives of Americans.⁷  During WWII, promises of consumer rights, or "liberty from want," intensified as the nation causeless its global place every bit the "arsenal of republic." This section shows how presidents became leaders in economic policymaking and examines the new collaborative human relationship that developed over fourth dimension between corporations and government. It encourages students to think about the ways this economic role of the presidency reshaped Americans' human relationship to and expectations of the land during low and war. These primary and secondary sources illuminate how FDR responded to activism on the ground from citizens and labor groups, equally well as the newly popular economic theories voiced past the British economist John Maynard Keynes.

Recommended Reading on Monetary Policy

SECONDARY SOURCE

• On combating deflation with monetary policy, see Eric Rauchway, "Reflation and Recovery in the 1930s and Their Implications for the 2000s," inMaking the American Century: Essays on the Political Culture of Modern America,ed. Bruce Schulman,(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 215–27.

PRIMARY SOURCES

• Franklin Roosevelt'southward commencement Fireside Conversation, "On Banking" delivered on March 12, 1933. Text of speech at https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-12-1933-fireside-chat-one-banking-crisis
• Individuals across the country responded to Franklin Roosevelt's groundbreaking annunciation to take the country off the gilded standard, which had been deemed a sacred component of our nation'southward monetary policy since its founding. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8126
• "Confidence in Your Doctor Is One-half the Battle," Kaiser, inThe Houston Post,Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library.
• "Stopping a Run on an Old Financial Institution," S.J. Ray, inThe Kansas Urban center Star,Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library.
• "An Open Letter of the alphabet to President Roosevelt," John Maynard Keynes,The New York Times,Dec 31, 1933.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt message to Congress, January 4, 1935.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• How is Franklin Roosevelt influenced by the ideas of John Maynard Keynes?
• How does FDR use monetary policies to promote economic solutions that also promote "the strength of a nation'south institutions and the soundness of its values"?
• How do economical bug become moral issues that the president has authority over?

Recommended Reading on Consumer Rights

SECONDARY SOURCES

• On the mobilization of consumer interest groups, see 1000000 Jacobs, "Bag Politics: Republic and the Market in Twentieth-Century America," inThe Autonomous Experiment: New Directions in American Political History,eds. 1000000 Jacobs, William J. Novak, and Julian E. Zelizer, (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), 250-275.

Main SOURCES

• Franklin Roosevelt'southward statement regarding the appointment of the beginning National Labor Lath (spoken communication file 645), Baronial v, 1933. Speech file, Franklin D. Roosevelt Digital Archive. (PDF)
• President Roosevelt addresses the needs of farmers and workers in his eighth Fireside Chat, delivered September half dozen, 1936. (VIDEO) (Text of the spoken communication)
• Speech and correspondences with labor marriage leaders: Labor Day message (speech file 1067), September v, 1937. Speech File, Franklin D. Roosevelt Digital Annal. (PDF)
• This State of the Union Address, which President Roosevelt delivered every bit a Fireside Chat on January eleven, 1944, outlines a new "Economic Bill of Rights" for all Americans.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• As Meg Jacobs argues, "Labor unions sold themselves and won public support as agents of recovery and prosperity by boosting the nation'southward purchasing ability through college wages."⁸
• How do Franklin Roosevelt'south rhetoric and policies toward labor and his endeavour to secure purchasing power and economical rights for all Americans change over the grade of the New Deal and WWII?
• How does FDR cultivate relationships with labor wedlock leaders to secure the back up of workers in his Labor Day accost?
• What do these speeches tell us near the historical trajectory of the "economical rights" promise?  How does information technology alter from the Neat Low through Globe War Ii?

RESEARCH Activeness

Investigating the New Deal

Accept students research a piece of legislation from the New Deal and set a presentation of the programme for the course.  In addition to the Connecting Presidential Collection archive, take students apply these two New Bargain websites:

• http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/athenaeum/pdfs/diditwork.pdf
• https://livingnewdeal.org/

Later on selecting a piece of New Deal legislation, have students nowadays the plan and policy to the course, answering the post-obit questions.

• What was the purpose of the New Bargain program?
• What did the plan accomplish?
• How did FDR sell the program to the American public?
• How have historians debated the effectiveness of the program?
• What new expectations of government and the president arise from these piece of legislation?
• Does the legislation even so exist?

THE ROOSEVELT LEGACY: NARRATOR-IN-CHIEF

Co-ordinate to Alice O'Connor, the presidents have navigated economical crises by assuming a position of "narrator-in-main." By controlling economic narratives, successful presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan each offered the nation an explanation of "economic problems and prospects, a statement of national objectives and policy, and a vision of national identity and purpose that could rally support for his own embattled plan of economic recovery and reform."⁹ O'Connor argues that FDR and Reagan used this narrative to gain publicity and back up for their economic programs and push through "executive-centered reform."

Past examining the following speeches, evaluate what makes a successful or an unsuccessful "narrator-in-chief." What narratives did these presidents found during times of economical crises? How does each president frame the origins of the economic crisis and his solutions?

How successful were those narratives at promoting their broader economic agendas?

Franklin Roosevelt set out his economic calendar at his commencement inaugural address on March 4, 1933.

Jimmy Carter grappled with the oil crisis and stagflation during the Great Inflation of the 1970s in his televised address on July xv, 1979.

Ronald Reagan outlined his economic recovery agenda on July 27, 1981, which resulted in the passage of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 on Baronial 13, 1981.

Barack Obama delivered a spoken communication at Osawatomie, Kansas on December vi, 2011, to discuss his economic calendar that had been stalled by a Republican-dominated Congress.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Quoted in: Margaret O'Mara,Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century,(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Printing, 2015), 61.
2. ↑ O'Mara, 60.
3. ↑The Ascension and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930–1980.Eds. Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, (Princeton: Princeton Academy Printing, 1989).
4. ↑ Lizabeth Cohen,Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939(New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990),284.
5. ↑ O'Mara, 101.
6. ↑ Meg Jacobs, "Bag Politics: Democracy and the Market place in Twentieth-Century America,"inThe Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History,eds. Meg Jacobs, William J. Novak, and Julian E. Zelizer, (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), 258.
7. ↑ James Sparrow,Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Historic period of Big Government, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), iv.
8. ↑ Jacobs, "Purse Politics," 260.
9. ↑ Alice O'Connor, "Narrator-in-Main: Presidents and the Politics of Economical Crisis from FDR to Obama," in eds. Brian Balogh and Bruce Schulman,Recapturing the Oval Part: New Historical Approaches to the American Presidency,(Ithaca: Cornell University Press,) 53.

Source: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/teacher-resources/recasting-presidential-history/president-and-economy-during-great-depression

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