Essay On The Expansion Of The Government's Power

The New Deal era is often cited as the time when the federal government began to assume its modern form. It was a time of unprecedented government intervention and in many ways changed the way Americans viewed government. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, it was clear that the government was going to take immediate action. Anthony Badger’s The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940 is an outstanding summary of some of the most difficult, yet important, years in American history.

Throughout the rigmarole of political history of the United States of America, the growth of the “fourth branch of government”, the Bureaucracy, has been a prominent, controversial topic. Peter Woll, in his article “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, and James Q. Wilson, in his article “The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, discuss this developing administrative branch. The Constitution has no written mention of an “administrative branch”, and today’s Bureaucracy is often tedious, corrupt, and even undemocratic. But such a branch’s development and expansion is necessary in order to keep par with an evolving and changing society.

The federal government actively promoted industrial and agricultural development. It enacted high tariffs that protected American industry from foreign competition, granted land to railroad companies to encourage construction, and used the army to remove Indians form western land desired by farmers and mining companies.

The new government views in the late 1800’s helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth because not one party controlled the government anymore; so all views were used to formulate new ideas.

In general, the government helped promote and support businesses in order to advance the U.S.’s economy. Some examples would be the fact that they limited liability and incorporation laws using charters to protect businesses, provided easy credit for loans, and supported entrepreneurs. This type of involvement is what closely relates the changes in politics to the changes in economy. Most of the government’s involvement came through the American System. Developed by Congressman Henry Clay, this system was meant to protect the U.S. industry with tariffs, initiate internal improvements, and stabilize the economy. Clay’s first part of the plan was to put protective tariffs primarily on European goods. The total value of foreign exports to the U.S. escalated dramatically in only two years, going from about $13 million (1814) to $151 million (1816). British goods had unbeatable prices and the competition threatened to eliminate American businesses. In order to prevent this from happening Clay decided to place taxes on imports which would ultimately raise European costs to American consumers, shielding the U.S. so they could survive the competition. Now that Clay had established a safer way to have the government support the U.S.’s foreign affairs, his second part of the system involved domestic improvement. By the 1820’s, the controversial issue on whether Congress had the power to nationally finance roads, bridges, harbors, canals, and railroads had finally eased up. Skeptics like Presidents James Madison and Monroe had finally softened up and agreed that the government “should play a larger role in building the nation's infrastructure” (Politics in the Market Revolution). They did this by making funds accessible to the states as well as coordinating the projects, a good example

From 1865 to 1900 the federal government ignored a lot of economic affairs (also known as Laissez-faire) simply because they could and it made running the government much easier. This became a big issue when: railroad land grants, control of interstate commerce, and antitrust activities began to become very competitive in the market place. You may wonder what laissez-faire is; the dictionary definition is the theory or system of government that upholds the autonomous character of the economic order, believing that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs. This is the reason why larger companies could buy out smaller companies and raise the price of the product because they owned everything so to a large extent the government play a large part in the violation of laissez-faire.

Franklin Roosevelt vastly expanded the powers of the presidency beyond anything before seen. The New Deal expanded the federal government 's authority over the economy in response to the emergency of the Great Depression. Less well known, FDR enhanced the executive branch’s power relative to Congress and the Court. This proved to be an expansion going far beyond a war emergency. FDR worked closely with Democratic majorities in Congress to pass broad delegations of lawmaking authority to new federal agencies to exercise virtually all of Congress 's lawmaking powers, subject sometimes to the requirement only that the agencies ' decisions promote “the public interest.”

Enhancing the government was something that the New Deal was able to accomplish, however not without criticism. Through New Deal policies, the government became more powerful than it had previously been, and was now given more of a parental role over certain aspects of the economy. It had been given a much larger role in the stock market, which is still in place today, though it had previously been removed. This role was considered largely controversial by many people, and it continues to be to this day. Without the government’s help in these matters, which was proven in the 2008 recession, the stock market would crash again,

There was a certain big change in economic and social changes in the United States since 1800. The election of 1800 was between John Adams and Andrew Jackson, which was an emotional and hard-fought campaign. Each side in this campaign thought that the opponent in which would victor, would ruin the nation. Federalists had actually attacked Jackson as an un-Christian deist because they believed his sympathy for the French Revolution would bring similar bloodshed and chaos to the U.S. Overall, the Federalists wanted strong Federal Authority to restrain the excess of popular majorities, while the Democratic-Republicans wanted to reduce national authority so the people would be able to rule through state governments.

the government needed to take such radical moves to solve problems of the Great Depression  the government is the main key to helping the nation through the Great Depression  changing the Supreme Court and adding new justices  bettered the Supreme Court

President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader of progressivism was highly in favor for a reform at a national level. He believed it was the governments duty to regulated businesses and improve the life's of the people. While the second industrial revolution brought major industrial achievement it also gave corporate bosses excessive amount of power, which they used to bend political parties to their favor and progressives such as president Wilson hoped to rectify this(Document 2). During this progressive movement many Americans focused on reform the country in ways that would creating a limitation on major business, such as Rockefeller Standard Oil, that used a unfair monopoly system to build their empire, which was damaging the economy. Roosevelt being the first to take signification action on trust-busting, such as passing the Hepburn Act which was enacted in 1906 set a precedent for the power of the federal government. The Hepburn Act set a maximum price for the freight rates on the railroads and it extended the reach of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulation of pipelines, freight companies, sleeping-car companies, bridges and ferries. During this period the federal government passed an incredible amount of legislation that mainly regulated the problems in the society to provide a greater sense of regulation and protection for the people. Problems such as overbearing freight prices, vile food preparation and inconsistent economic status were issues that needed to be amended. Roosevelt also focused of the conservation of natural resources to help further developed the nation land and it's usefulness(Document 6). Anti-trust acts, Federal Reserve Acts were also established to break trusts to help improve market rates and improve the quality of life for the working class through more regulations on businesses by the federal government. Roosevelt trust-busting helped

The federal government role in America from the late 1800s during Reconstruction, up to the early 1900s during the Great Depression, often expanded and contracted in response to the demands of the American public. During this time frame, the nation underwent major changes and faced many challenges in order to get where we are today. As a country, our priorities shifted from being concerned about encounters right in front of us, to encouraging and pursuing a better future for everyone. After years of hard work and dedication, with the help of the federal government, our nation was finally focused on a greater life for all people. Therefore, without both the high and low points of the federal government throughout this period, we would not reside in the homeland we have today. To conclude, the role of federal government has changed over time in many ways, including but not limited to: protecting rights, promoting economic development, encouraging expansion, and providing financial support.

With more wealth, more ideas were beginning to surface on how to better the American lifestyle amongst the states; one of those ideas was “The American System” brought up by Henry Clay. The goals of this system was to increase the country’s wealth with an effective banking system, creating a set of roads and canals throughout the country to unite the states and spread information further, and do all that in correlation to another protective tariff placed on oversea trading. So as you can see because nationalism manifested itself in American politics to unite the country even more, different methods were proposed and carried out to better American lifestyle. Even when congress deemed some methods unconstitutional, the states sought individual ways in which they could improve the U.S like New York’s construction of the Erie Canal. Nevertheless, the country began to undergo positive changes as a result of the political nationalism rising in the country.

I believe the expansion of the Federal Government was necessary in every way to ensure the future of US. Before the civil war the states had most of the power dictating state laws and each was concerned with better its own states not looking at the nation as a whole. This led to issues such as the south having slaves and the north not allowing slavery. Eventually this led to the civil war. The federal government is necessary to regulate the powers of the states. Acts such as the civil rights act of 1964 led to equal treatment of individuals regardless of race or color. Even after the act the federal government had to enforce the laws on the south and rebuild the south’s state governments.

The relationship between the federal government and the American people changed radically. The government now had a more powerful affect on people’s social and economic lives.