The problems of agriculture, Roosevelt’s policies helped some but not others. The AAA, their aim was to help farmers earn a better living by the rise of prices of food. Roosevelt helps the farmers rise the price of food but Hinders make life worse for unemployed people in the USA as they already cant afford food because they have no money, now that food costs twice as much, it is going to become a big problem. This policy of Roosevelt helped the farmers but made life worse for unemployed people, this is another act, which only helps one group of people, so this act is a failure.
Before Roosevelt became President of the USA, they had millions of people in long-term unemployment. One of Roosevelt’s aims was to reduce unemployment, which was Relief. The New Deal reduced unemployment from a high level of 1933. Then in 1938 unemployment rose again because Roosevelt cut back government expenditure for fear of the USA going in to debt and also world trade declined again. In 1938, elections to Congress returned a Republican majority. This meant that Roosevelt could not have any new laws passed combat unemployment.
The problem was eventually solved, not by the New Deal, but by: the rearmament programme and the entry into the Second World War. The New Deal did start to control unemployment in 1933 but at the end the war ended it. So here the New Deal did control unemployment but did not solve it so it is kind of a success.
Another one of the New Deal aims was the aim to create a fairer society. The NRA act and Wagner act both helped the workers to earn rights to join trade unions and to bargain collectively for their wages. The relationships between workers, government and businesses, made them join trade unions. The strikes that took place, 80 percent of them went in favour of the workers. The New Deal backed the workers and Roosevelt sympathises to their cause. This act was a success but the problems were that workers made more demands; workers go on strike, production in factories stops. In return this hindered Roosevelt’s aim of Recovery being as successful. One area in which Roosevelt was reluctant was to intervene was the civil rights of the black people. He only passed one civil rights law; in 1941 it became illegal to discriminate against black people in the employment practises of the defence industries. The New Deal itself did little for black people, since most black people in work had jobs as unskilled workers, which meant that some areas of the New Deal had less impact. In 1935, clinging wasn’t illegal, Roosevelt was against it, but if he was for it he would have lost support from the south, but the army still stayed segregated. Women in the 1930s did not have equal equality to men because women still earned less than men. But black people started to move up in society. 40 per cent of women worked but they still earned less than white women. 1920s had been a decade of experience and daring for many women. Industrial recovery set minimum wage and a set amount of hours a week, but it mainly helped men not women. Women got more jabs in the 1930s. Women do gain something in the New Deal. Roosevelt employed first women in the United States government her name was Frances Perkins. This wasn’t a complete success because Roosevelt couldn’t pass acts that he wanted due to opposition from the Supreme Court. Therefore he had to water down acts perhaps with support he could have achieved more.
The New Deal was not a complete success because it had opposition from many people who disliked it, such as the role of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the highest court of law in the USA. One of its functions was to judge whether laws ere passed by Congress are consistent with its terms of the American Constitution. If the court finds them unconstitutional, the laws cannot stand. From the start of the New Deal, it was clear that Roosevelt would have some problems with the court. As nine judges were mainly conservative by nature and politics, there was a chance that they would declare against a piece of the New Deal legislation. Eventually they started to find most acts unconstitutional. To Roosevelt it seemed as if the court was prepared to put legal quibbles before the wishes of the country. After his re-election in 1936, Roosevelt determined to reform the Supreme Court so that they couldn’t stop any of his acts. His idea was to increase the number of judges from nine to fifteen. Under normal circumstances, he would have had to wait for one of the judges to die or retire before getting the chance to appoint a replacement. It was clear to everyone that this would give him control over the court. In fact, the plan was on to Roosevelt’s biggest mistakes. Roosevelt’s plan to ‘pack’ the court with his own allies produced a storm of criticism, and made him look like a dictator. It was obvious was obvious that the Congress would never approve, and eventually he was forced to back down and withdraw the plan. However, in a way, Roosevelt still won his battle with the court. He made judges realize that they could not use their powers just to impose their own political views on the country. From then on, they were much more cautious in the way they interpreted their duties, passing Roosevelt’s acts but Roosevelt watered down acts so that they could be passed.
I agree that the New Deal was not a complete success because of the Federal Government; the New Deal used Federal powers to deal with the crisis of the Depression. During the twelve years of Republican rule, 1920-32, federal powers had been little used. Roosevelt gave the federal government a new role: dealing with a crisis, which was too big for individual states. The successes of the New Deal were that millions of poor people received relief (food, shelter, clothing). Millions of jobs were created. Extreme political movements, such as Communism and Fascism, did not take hold in the USA. Constitution work on projects such as roads and dams helped the future development of agriculture and industry. Government social security and welfare schemes, such as helping many ordinary people and continued in to the future. Workers rights and conditions were improved. Many Americans began to believe in themselves again. The weaknesses of the New Deal are unemployment was reduced but not ended. In 1938 it rose again. It was rearmament programme and entry into the Second World War that eventually solved the problem. The programme lacked total support, opposition hampered it. The programmes were least helpful to unskilled workers. This group included many black people. The programme did nothing to improve the civil rights of black people. Most women continued to be paid less than men for the same type of work. So the New deal was not a complete success.
