Equally as important was that of Roosevelt’s part in changing the role of the American President forever. Many people believe Roosevelt changed the role of the President of the U.S.A tremendously, to see whether he did or not we first have to look at the role of the President.
The President is part of the Federal Government which governs all the 50 states of America. The Federal Government is divided 3 ways; the 3 parts are Congress, President and the Supreme Court. Congress is legislative and their job is making the laws, The Presidents job is to lead the Federal Government and make decisions, he is the Executive in charge of the Government, The Supreme court’s job is Judiciary it looks over the law’s and protects the U.S constitution, it basically polices the Federal Government. The reason behind the 3 part Federal government is to over look each other and prevent any drastic decisions, this is sometimes called ”checker and balance.”
The Federal system is duplicated in every state however each state also has their own responsibilities, the states responsibilities are as follows; Each state makes it’s own decision on law and crime and punishment for example some states have the death penalty as a punishment for murder and some states have life imprisonment, they also decide on roads and traffic, education, welfare and their health system i.e. some states have free health care some don’t.
The Federal responsibilities include decisions on Foreign Policy, Currency, Federal taxation, Import Duties, National Security and the F.B.I, which polices across state borders to stop criminals getting away to other states.
When Roosevelt came into power he made many changes for example he increased the size of the White house employing more workers and advisors this allowed for many letters sent to the president to actually be replied to by the presidents staff this helped to improve public opinion of Roosevelt, many of the advisors were not all regular politicians as well, some were academics, thinkers and businessmen this allowed for varying and wiser advice. He also was the first president to directly address the people; he did this by having his trademark “Fireside chats,” where he talked for 30 minutes during a radio broadcast on regular occasions, this also helped to make him feel like such a more approachable figure; who replied to his people.
During his Presidency he also strengthened relationships with Congress, this allowed for Roosevelt to devise a programme of legislative ideas- e.g. The Hundred days, this is a major reason for people’s opinion’s about Roosevelt changing the role, when he frantically passed a series of bills in one hundred days. Also he began to use the “caucus system,” that he cultivated groups of key supporters in Congress.
Some might say that the most important reason for thinking he tried to change the role of President would be the dispute that he had with the Supreme Court in 1936-37. This began when the Supreme Court rejected some of his idea’s saying that they went against the U.S. constitution. Roosevelt’s reply to this was that he decided to try and increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court from 9 to 15,even though his advisors were against this think Roosevelt had taken his ideas of interventionism to far, this would give him at least 6 judges so he could get total control. He never went ahead with this plan however they finally came to an agreement on his alphabet agencies.
And Finally Roosevelt’s economic policies, and how different they were to his Republic predecessors. In order for Roosevelt to become American President he promised a New deal, this made him extremely popular among the American public as the country had just plunged into the great Depression due to the Wall Street crash. Roosevelt’s New deal consisted of 3 R’s, Relief, Recovery and Reform. The Relief aspect of his new deal consisted of the Work’s admission, Home owners loan cut, Social security act and many more. Its purpose was to bring the country back to its previous booming economic wealth; the Recovery aspect included the Emergency Banking Relief, Federal security act, Federal Emergency relief and many more. The Recovery aspect was to provide instant help for the American public and get them back on their feet. Finally the Reform aspect included the Social Security Act and many more, its purpose was to change the country and help and prevent an event such as the crash from occurring again. Some people say Hoover helped partially to get America out of the Great depression; this is true, he did set up the emergency committee for un-employment to raise money for the un-employed; however Roosevelt played the biggest role by far, by setting up his many Alphabet agencies, his method of intervening politics far out-weighed the lethargic efforts of Hoover. However Roosevelt’s Presidency didn’t bring a complete change some things stayed the same for example; Import Duties, Low taxation, Raw material’s, Mass Production, Hire purchase and High tariffs. The reason behind the wall street crash was before it happened America’s economy was booming this was due to six factors; Raw materials, the government was in no way responsible for this, this is just luck, Mass production, the government also had nothing to do with this, this was due to the factory’s, Hire-purchase, the government did not start this however neither did they intervene, Advertising, the government had nothing to do with this, Import Duties, this was started by the government to try and make American’s buy American product’s, and finally Law Taxation, this was started by the government to try and make large company’s grow larger. However overall his many policies provided great reform and changed America forever.
In Conclusion Roosevelt’s new and highly welcome Democratic Government was like nothing before compared to the actions of the leaders from the 1920’s his action’s were extremely drastic, but called for.
Roosevelt’s economic policies brought about great change however in this section I shall be studying what immediate effects these policies had. Out of Roosevelt’s 3r’s the Recovery aspect is the one responsible for the immediate effects on the economy.
When Roosevelt first came into power in 1933 almost 25% of the entire population were un-employed and national expenditure had halved compared to 1929, drastic action was needed and this came in the way of the Alphabet agencies. Roosevelt set these up as soon as possible, this new action employed 4.3 million people in 33. However most of these jobs were completely unnecessary, for example planting a line of tree’s across the whole west coast of North America in order to prevent soil erosion. Although unnecessary these job’s brought down the Unemployment percentage from 30% in 1932 to 25% in 1933. On the other hand by 1934 the number of Federal employees had dropped from 4.3 million to 1.1 million. This is because most of the jobs were short term projects and the government weren’t able to pay them as Roosevelt refused to raise taxes. Also although Federal Employees fell so did the national unemployment percentage by almost 3%, this means although less people were employed by the government more were taken on by private companies. Overall over Roosevelt’s time in office from 1933 to 1942 national unemployment went from 25% to 5% making his time in office extremely successful in battling unemployment.
The Alphabet agencies played a fundamental role in lowering unemployment by creating vast amounts of jobs for America’s unemployed therefore I think the Agencies were one of the main reasons for the drop in unemployment. Not only did they supply American’s with jobs but they created new jobs and raised national moral.
During 1937 Federal employees dropped almost by 1 million compared to the previous year. The reason for this is the Supreme Court; during 1937 the Supreme Court deemed that many of the Alphabet agencies were breaking the law according to the US constitution. Roosevelt’s answer to this situation was to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court from 9 to 15; this would give him at least 6 judges inside the Supreme Court so he would have total control. Many of Roosevelt’s advisor’s were against this decision and advised against it, this proves how determined Roosevelt was to reform the Country. However Roosevelt never actually carried out this decision and by 1938 he had settled his dispute with the Supreme Court and Federal employees rose once again to 4.3 million.
By looking at the figures for GNP and GNP capita you can tell when the economy started to recover. After studying the table I can say that the economy began to recover during Roosevelt’s second year in office, I think this because during 1934 the GNP and GNP per capita begins to rise from 77 billion to 84 billion and $615 per capita to $666 per capita.
When Roosevelt came into office he began to spend more and more as his time went on, for example in 1932 Government expenditure was at $4.7bill and by 1934 it was at $6.7bill. This proves that Roosevelt felt the answer to the Great Depression was Interventionism; he felt the Government should intervene and sort out the problem like a nanny state instead of the views of the Republicans who preceded him. The graph also shows government expenditure shooting up to $13.3bill in 1941 and $34bill the reason for this is WW2 this also helped greatly to create even more job’s however these job’s contained some significance in helping the War effort greatly.
Overall by looking at the table I can say that Roosevelt’s tactics of Interventionism were highly successful in bringing America out of the Great Depression. The table shows that by increasing Government expenditure and ploughing more money back in the economy that Roosevelt has managed to create more jobs for people. This is demonstrated in 41 and 42 as mentioned earlier during the War, it shows us how far Roosevelt was prepared to do and what length’s he was prepared to go to in order to create jobs for his people.
The table also show’s some interesting information, between 32 and 33 the population of unemployment falls but the numbers hardly change, this is due to a drastic increase in population. The new citizens however are not American’s but mainly Europeans this shows that although America’s economic situation was terrible people were still prepared to emigrate there as their country’s situation was even worse. Compared to other country’s America’s situation wasn’t that bad.
Roosevelt’s ideas greatly influenced the policies that he carried out whilst in office. A major influence on his ideas was Norman Thomas. Norman Thomas influenced him with the idea of a fairer society, this involved helping those who suffered from disabilities and the underprivileged and using his power as president to help them. This is typical of Roosevelt’s socialist ideas.
Interventionism also plays a major role in Roosevelt’s ideas affecting his policies as president. Ideas from Keynes policies of “priming the pump,” prove this. Keynes ideas greatly influenced Roosevelt policies of Interventionism which led him to create the several Alphabet agencies and his New Deal legislation.
Another aspect influencing his ideas was his election results. Roosevelt’s large mandate in the 1932 and 1936 elections gave him great confidence which influenced his idea’s and in most cases made them more radical. This is proven when Roosevelt challenges the Supreme Court when they begin to interfere with his Alphabet Agencies, he even goes against the advice given to him by his advisors, this shows how willing he was to go to any extent to apply his ideas of Interventionism. Overall he won his 32 election because of his ideas and the New Deal he promised and his mandate gave him great confidence. He won the 36 election from the policies he enforced from his ideas and the way in which he changed the role of the President.
When Roosevelt was in office he changed the role of President dramatically and since then it has not changed, by making the role of the President a more approachable figure he gained a large number of votes. The most significant step towards him changing the role of the President would probably be his fireside chats, during these he would address the nation using radio broadcasts, and to each listener it would sound very personal as it was just him talking to them. This made him sound very approachable and not like a figure of high authority. Below is an example of one of Roosevelt’s fireside chats, although it is only a small extract you can still pick up the very informal and personal tone.
May 7, 1933
Radio Address of the President
On a Sunday night a week after my Inauguration I used the radio to tell you about the banking crisis and the measures we were taking to meet it. I think that in that way I made clear to the country various facts that might otherwise have been misunderstood and in general provided a means of understanding which did much to restore confidence.
Tonight, eight weeks later, I come for the second time to give you my report -- in the same spirit and by the same means to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do.
When it came to his re-election in 1936 the fact that he had made the president’s role into a very approachable one made him extremely popular allowing him once again to win by a huge margin. His large mandate gave him the confidence to go ahead with his policies as he knew his public were behind him, this works both ways as in 1936 his landslide election was affected by his New Deal policies, the 3 R’s. Although his huge mandates mainly brought about good outcomes he does try to hard when he challenges the Supreme Court, as even his advisors are against this.
Roosevelt’s election results helped to encourage and allow him to bring about such radical reform. The large Mandate meant that he had a larger percentage of the population voting for him therefore he had more of a right to carry out some of his more radical ideas, this also meant that more of the people want the ideas that he speaks about. The results also gave him great confidence as he knows the people are backing him therefore he has every right to carry out what ever decisions he feels are necessary to bring the country out of a state of depression after the wall street crash. However by 1936, once he win’s again by a huge mandate, he begins to start becoming a little to confident when the Supreme Court shut down some of his alphabet agencies as they go against the US Constitution, he challenges their decision. Overall almost all the time he was justified in his radical decisions of reform as most of the countries were behind him in his decisions. The large mandate gave him the right as this is what the people wanted, they showed this when they voted for him.
Roosevelt’s aspects influenced and changed many of his other’s and vice versa in one way or the other. I shall now list the aspects that had a greater affect on the other’s in order of the most important.
First of all I believe that Roosevelt’s ideas is what affected the others most as I was the first of his ideas and the most crucial. Firstly the great mandate’s he won and his election results are all down to his ideas, as he sold his ideas to the American public in order to win, when he promised the New Deal, however one may argue that his election results influenced some of his ideas e.g. challenging the Supreme Court, my argument to this would be that his ideas came first. His ideas also affected his policies, as his ideas on Interventionism led about the creation of the Alphabet agencies and the New Deal legislation, although some of his ideas did change with experience, as not all agencies carried on.
Secondly I believe the policies to be an important aspect when it comes to their affect on others. First of all his policies helped to change the role of president, when he increased the size of the White House staff. Also his use of the caucus system is another example of his policies affecting the role of the President, by using this system to get his points across in congress he managed to change the role of the President. His policies also affected his ideas as his policies helped to influence his thinking on ideas and some alphabet agencies where shut down. His policies also affected his election results because the 1936 landslide election was affected by the popularity of the New Deal policies.
Thirdly I think that his Election results are the third most important aspect as they had a good influence on the other aspects. First of all his election results did have and influence on the role of the president as they helped to give him confidence and eventually challenge the Supreme Court. They also affected Roosevelt’s thinking on his policies they helped to give him confidence to carry out some of his drastic policies due to the huge mandates.
Finally I think the role of the president affected the other aspects least. I think this because they only influenced the Election results, by changing the role of the President; this made him more popular (Fireside chats) and allowed him to win by bigger mandates.
Roosevelt’s government drastically effected the government at the time, however the revolutionary change did not last all that long. I shall now talk about each aspect of the presidency, in order of the most important effect it has made.
First of all without doubt is how he changed the role of president. His idea of making the role of the president more personal has lasted to the present day. By making regular appearances on the radio and speaking to his public personally he changed the role of president for the better, this technique of making the president seem more personal by using the media is even used to the present day.
Secondly I believe that even some of his ideas have lasted to the present day. The basic idea of Interventionism used by Roosevelt has been adopted by some present day parties. Although it was not Roosevelt’s idea, it was Keynes, he was the first leader to apply this way of thinking in government and some might say this changed America for the better. That evidence of Roosevelt’s ideas can still be found in today’s society.
Thirdly I believe that his policies still have an effect over how the American government runs today. Firstly he increased the size of the White House staff to allow the government to run more effectively and productively, this not only created more jobs, a short term advantage, but also changed the way in which a government runs. This is still in place today and this is another example of how he changed the government for good. His use of the caucus system can still be found today in the American government another example of how he influenced things in the long term.
Finally his election results. These have in no way influenced or changed how the modern government runs or functions. Evidence of his results having an impact on today’s government is very hard to find.
In Conclusion to the question “What was the most significant aspect of Roosevelt’s Presidency and the New Deal,” I believe there is no one significant answer as each aspect not only affected each other but each aspect is the most significant in different area’s, The role of the President is probably the most important long lasting aspect whereas at the time his policies were the most significant as the brought about the New Deal and the 3 r’s. His results were just as important at the time as these influenced many of his ideas which in turn affected his policies and the way in which he changed the role of President. This is why I believe it is impossible to state on single aspect as they are all interlinked and affect each other. In my opinion they are all as important as each other.
David Cuthbertson 11 WAT page