Federal Government Activism During the New Deal

¶ … Federal Government Activism During the New Deal With That Which Came Before Progressive Reform/Red Scare

The New Deal seems to have been in many ways a border between the federal government activism of the period before the Great Depression and the period that followed after. According to many writers, "the New Deal represented activism in contrast to the inaction of the federal government under Hoover" (Abderrahmane El-Moudden, Ruby Maloni and Mustafa Turkes. The New Deal. On the Internet at (http://www.salzburgseminar.org/ASC/csacl/progs/reform/newdeal.htm).Besides the change in activism, all this was reflected within the masses of voters, with an increased involvement on their part during the New Deal period and an additional worker support for the Democratic Party.

Many of the sources consulted lean towards the general opinion that before the New Deal, "the Republicans were the party of government activism and the Democrats the party of conservatism" (Randall G. Holcombe. THE GROWTH OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE 1920S.). This assertion is backed up by the fact that the Republican federal government in action before the New Deal advocated a strong federal government with increased powers, while the Democrats generally sought a smaller federal government, with increased powers for the states.

The progressive policies that had been begun before the war by the Republicans were continued during Coolidge's presidency, starting in 1923. The Progressivism Movement was identifiable with a large period of time, starting with the Civil War, but the increased industrialization and urbanization sped up the movement. The general belief that people could do a lot to improve the society in which they lived was the igniting element. Stories of city slums, Charles Dickens atmosphere in the cities, not to mention the increasing threat of Communist and Socialist movements, influenced by the Russian Revolution- all contributed to an increased desire to level the social differences brought by Capitalism and to remove corruption. A general effort to include more people in the political process was another goal of the Progressive Movement. We need to take a closer look at each of the pillars of the Progressive Movement, in order to evaluate how governmental activism evolved before the New Deal.

As I have mentioned in the lines here above, industrialization brought a new feeling within the working class. The many initial capitalist flaws, including bad management and low working conditions, were a spur for the working class movements. Unions were not something out of the ordinary, but the step from unions to Communist movements and uprisings was but a small and dangerous step and it did not fail to occur with the Big Red Scare. The Communist threat was more present than ever: the conditions were excellent for the development of a strong Communist movement and the Bolshevik Revolution still lived its moment of glory, when people actually believed something could be changed in favor of the working class.

As a response to this threat, both the Democrats and the Republicans "moved to the right and the Progressives among them were losing their faith" (Cohen). It is clear form this statement, as well as others, that the Progressive Movement began to lose ground when confronted with new demands from the working class. We may consider the Big Red Scare as a sort of terrorist, blackmailing action, when the workers did not hesitate to bring forth Communist as a threat in helping them gain more favorable positions and working conditions. The response to such an action could only be a move towards the right and an increased inclination towards a circumspect attitude. It is noted that many of the supporters of liberal causes began to see every strike as a prelude to a revolution and it is obvious that the interaction between the workers and the government took volatile aspects.

The New Deal brought the government and the workers/voters closer together, mainly because the New Deal was seen as a direct implication in the population's many problems, brought about by the Depression and, in many cases, existing before it. There was a swift move in the workers' attitude from the revolt position, adopted before Roosevelt, to the government support that followed. As we have seen from Heale, the best proof of such an action came from the increased number of voters. As such, we can consider that the revolted participation to the political life (strikes, demonstrations of force, etc.) moved towards the democratic participation, namely an increased number of voters.