The New Deal
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)—a Democrat–
elected 1932
• Roosevelt’s Presidency marks a shift in philosophy from
Hoover’s “rugged individualism” to ―collective
individualism.‖ However, it’s not a handout, but a
hand up.
– The First 100 Days
• Congress passed more than 15 major pieces of
New Deal legislation, greatly expanding the role of
the federal government in the economy.
Laissez Faire
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lady
• The three principles that drove the New Deal
were the goals of: 1.) Relief, 2.) Recovery, and
3). Reform. All of its projects and policies fit
into one or more of these categories.
1. Relief programs were meant to provide Americans with
immediate assistance to help them with the basic
necessities of life including food, direct monetary
payments, and employment.
Q: What did Hoover believe about direct relief?
Examples include:
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
This provided jobs such as building roads and
schools. It provided relief to the unemployed.
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The National
Zoo
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
This provided jobs related to reforestation and
controlling erosion and flooding. It provided
relief to the unemployed.
2. Recovery programs or policies had promoting the
growth of the American economy as their primary
goal.
• Examples include:
National Industrial Recovery Act
(NIRA)
• This act made rules for major industries in an
attempt to control competition and balance out
prices to enable the economy to recover.
• It established the National Recovery
Administration (NRA), an agency that worked to
control prices of products, and regulate wages
and working conditions.
National Labor Relations (Wagner)
Act
This law protected workers rights to join labor
unions, legalized labor practices such as
collective bargaining, and outlawed unfair labor
practices on the part of employers. It also
created the National Labor Relations Board.
This reform inserted the federal government
into labor relations.
3. Reform policies or programs were designed to
ensure that something like the Depression
would never happen again.
• These led to the government being involved in
the economy in ways that it never had before.
• Examples include
Security and Exchange
Commission (SEC)
This agency was responsible for regulating the
stock market and curbing over-speculation.
There procedures changed the way the stock
market operated in an effort to avoid another
crash.
Federal Housing Administration
This agency helped provide financing so people
could obtain a mortgage to purchase a home.
The Social Security Act, Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA), and
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
all fit into all three categories. These
are also among the most
controversial of all the New Deal
policies.
Social Security Act
This law provided old-age pensions and
unemployment insurance as a form of relief for
the aged and those who lost jobs. It helped the
economy stabilize because those who were
affected continued to have an income and could
make needed purchases. It also redistributed
wealth, reforming one of the conditions that led
to the Depression.
TVA
This agency provided relief in the form of jobs
building dams and power plants across the
Tennessee Valley. The generation of electrical
power and the implementation of flood control
projects enabled the area to develop new
industries and recover from the Depression. The
government operated a utility in an area with few
private utilities changing how people received
their power. It also set a benchmark for utility
costs to measure the fairness of private utility
charges.
AAA
This agency provided subsidies (as a form of relief)
to farmers for reducing crop production and
help raise the price of crops in order to protect
farmers from bankruptcy (recovery). It also
represented reform because it engaged the
government in production decisions previously
made by farmers.
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Ground