Historians often consider Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program to have been centered around the three concepts of reform, relief, and recovery. Though all three accurately categorize the Roosevelt's policies, reform is the major theme of his New Deal.
When the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act was passed in 1935, Roosevelt gained access to $4 billion to spend on government programs. These programs included agencies such as the Rural Electrification Administration, National Youth Administration, and Farm Security Administration. While it could be argued that most of these resulting government programs were all made in the name of relief and recovery, it is much easier to argue that reform played a much bigger part in all this. A president controlling $4 billion during peacetime was unprecedented, and his government programs similarly challenged the status quo. Roosevelt's fight to have unprecedented control over government and his subsequent creation of government agencies demonstrate the extreme liberalism and reform of his New Deal policy.
The Social Security Act was possibly the most important and long-lasting aspect of Roosevelt's New Deal. It represented a large victory for elders, who were now able to retire without having to worry as much financially. It also allowed for more general employment, as younger people were able to take up positions of old people. Roosevelt's Social Security was also a major victory for liberalism and reform. It had been attacked for decades by conservative, traditionalist American thinkers who regarded such measures as Marxist or Leninist. By pushing Social Security through, Roosevelt defeated these conservative ideals and won the battle for reform.
Roosevelt had previously admitted that the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act and all its resulting job-creating agencies were the temporary portion of his New Deal, and the Social Security Act represented the long-term solution. Therefore, the New Deal's legacy, and its most historically relevant component came in the form of Social Security. This meant that, combined with his successful fight to become America's most financially powerful peacetime president, Roosevelt acted as a president who represented drastic reform, and his New Deal reflected this.
I think this is a well argued post with a lot of specific examples. However, I would argue that although they may have taken the form of major political reform and represented unprecedented political power, the purpose of New Deal policies as seen from the perspective of Roosevelt had a more short term goal, either recovery or relief, as seen by the hurry with which many of these policies were passed.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really well written. Shows a lot legislation that were passed to supposedly help the nation. How do you think social security helped the nation get out/give a push out of the Great Depression they were stuck in?
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