A liberal pursues change in the government whilst conservatives seek to preserve the status quote. The Great Depression redefined liberal and conservative policies. Herbert Hoover was deemed a liberal president at the start of his presidency and was considered a conservative when he left office. While by todays’ standards Herbert Hoover would be considered a conservative. His divergence from the public purpose oriented policies of Teddy Roosevelt, and support of laissez faire economics made him a liberal in his time. Therefore, to state that he was conservative throughout his presidency would be a false generalization. In contrast, FDR was considered liberal during his presidency as well as by modern day standards due to the shift in ideology …show more content…
This allowed new markets to open and helped businessmen like Henry Ford provide automobiles to the working class for the first time. Due to the increase in the standard of living and increased buying power people received during the 20’s, the liberal policies of president hoover were embraced. However even prior to the Depression, Herbert Hoover displayed some conservative tendencies. In his candidacy speech he showed contempt for liberalism because it would limit the liberties of people. He also believed that less government intervention would be in everyone’s best interest (Doc A). He believed in the personal and states rights which was shown in his lack of intervention during the Great Depression. He stated that the only way to pursue change was to promote people to do what was best in their communities (Doc B). One of Hoover’s goals during the Depression was to retain a balanced budget (Doc F). However his support of businesses made him reject the plea of the public to increase inflation so that they could pay of their debts because he believed it would stop businesses from investing money. This led to a large burden being placed on trading partners as well as american workers, although he did try to give money for the creation of public works jobs (Doc C). To help the economy Hoover passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which was the highest tariff in US history. This resulted in higher public debt and deficit which reached 22.5 billion by the time FDR was in office (Doc
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan helped make the economy get stable through programs that he started, helping create more jobs for the unemployed. He passed bills that helped both the American people and its environment. For example, new roads and bridges were built. Another one of FDR’S efforts to get out of the depression was to enter WWII. Document 6 shows a cartoon of how much was produced for the war and shows Uncle Sam working, too. Overall, FDR’s decision to enter the war was the greatest impact on the Great Depression because they got out of it. Herbert Hoover was a terrible leader in many Americans’ views because they believed he did not do enough for the people and was more supportive toward big businesses. He gave money to the rich so that they would pass it down to the poor but instead the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Another downfall of Hoover was Hoovervilles. These were a collection of poor people without homes. The name was given as a disgrace to Hoover. In result, FDR was a more favored president during the Great Depression than Hoover.
Theodore Roosevelt's 'Square Deal' and Woodrow Wilson's 'New Freedom,' were both programs of reform. Roosevelt covered more areas of reform than Wilson (who focused mainly on economy), and was more of a progressive than Wilson was. As a governor and the first president of the era, Roosevelt set a terrific example of what a president of this time should do. 'Progressing' from bad, and implementing various reforms to do so defined the era. These two programs are comparable in the areas of antitrust, tariff, and labor reform. Though Wilson seemed to have many more acts in each category, mostly economic), he only acknowledged these few areas, unlike Roosevelt who acknowledged a whole array of areas such as labor, economy, politics, consumer
President Herbert Hoover was the president in office during the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover did not recognize the stock market crash as severe as it was. During the tragedy President Herbert Hoover made many unsuccessful attempts to fix the economy. President Hoover’s response to the Great Depression was insufficient in the ways that he took little to no government action. President Hoover loaned money to corporations and state businesses, at the same he advised corporations to not cut wages or lower the production rate, considering that it was highly necessary. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a plan set that would throw Hoover out of office and to fix the economy, which Hoover had limited
Towards the end of the 1920’s the economy in America took a drastic turn. This was when Calvin Coolidge’s presidency had ended and changes in the government began to take place. “Just seven months after Herbert Hoover entered the White House, economic trouble mocked his campaign statement about being near ‘the final triumph over poverty.’ On October 24, 1929 panic swept the New York Stock Exchange as nearly 13 million shares changed hands” (Hamilton). The start to Hoover’s presidency was also the start of the Great Depression. His term consisted heavily on working on taking steps to bring America out of the drastic economic fall that they had just entered. He began taking action by launching public works programs, tax reductions, and the formation
D. Roosevelt in 1933 in direct response to the unemployment, poverty and economic deflation caused by the Great Depression (Romer, 2003:2), was a system of policy adjustments for which “Keynesian economics form the basis” (Henretta, et al., 2011:368). Before Roosevelt’s election, President H. Hoover had adopted policies based largely on classical economics – an essentially laissez-faire approach which favoured minimal government intervention (Dautrich & Yalof, 2013:426). The “Keynesian View” (Parkin, 2009:634), adopted by Roosevelt, “attempts to alleviate the pain of economic downturns, hold down the unemployment rate, and boost the disposable income of the worst off” (Boix, 1997:816) with government-implemented policy at its
The late 19th century to early 20th century is characterized as the Progressive Era. This is when reformers strived for better welfare policies and more rights for the people. Although three presidents reigned during this movement, only two are known for their policies. Theodore Roosevelt, the arrogant and egomaniacal president spoke out of ambition, whereas Woodrow Wilson, the more morally inclined leader spoke out of actual desire. Both had similar ideas, but their means of displaying them, and actually carrying through were different. Roosevelt was militaristic and felt war solved everything. Wilson was a pacifist and felt America should try to help their own people first before going to war. Roosevelt fought for the protection of the
The Great Depression quickly altered America's view of liberalism and therefore, Roosevelt can be considered a liberal and Hoover a conservative, despite the fact that they did occasionally support very similar policies. The United States experienced political shifts during the Great Depression, which are described by Arthur Schlesinger’s analysis of eras in which public objectives were placed before personal concerns. It seems that the public view of what constitutes as liberal beliefs versus what is thought to be conservative beliefs shifts in a similar way.
Thesis: Because the Great Depression quickly changed America's view of liberalism, Roosevelt can be considered a liberal and Hoover a conservative, despite occasionally supporting similar policies.
Because of the different meanings associated with the terms liberal and conservative, neither President Hoover nor President Roosevelt can strictly be characterized as one term or another. Today, President Herbert Hoover would likely be characterized as a conservative. He believed in less government participation in the people’s daily life. In his 1928 election speech, Hoover stated that “Every step of bureaucratizing of the business of our country poisons the very roots of liberalism.” As government gets bigger, more offices, agencies, and rules are needed to allow the government to run its affairs. This bureaucracy, he said, would necessarily take away the American people's freedom to rule themselves. He renounced the new liberalism because it set bounds to the liberties of the people. He want
Contrarily before the Depression, there were signs that pointed to President Herbert Hoover becoming more conservative. Document A suggests that Herbert Hoover didn't want' do be considered strictly laissez-faire. Document A proposes that Herbert Hoover wanted to liberalism to be found not " in striving to spread bureaucracy but striving to set its bounds, " but also wanted The United States to know that, " he doesn't want to be misinterpreted as believing that the Untied States ins a free for all, or system of laissez-faire." Hoover appeared as if he was less determined to preserve the capitalistic society of the 1920's seeing that he argued that capitalism also has social obligations. However, the success of the American economy under presidents Hading and Coolidge who believed in private interest beliefs required him to make sure that the lack of intervention in the economy would be maintained. Also Hoover began to sense of the public disapproval and transformation of the working masses and public views. The public mass began to start looking favorably on restriction of unfair business practices. This transformation of the public opinion gave president Hoover trouble since he wasn't completely dedicated to the private interest or public purpose.
Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were both presidents during one of the most difficult times in American history, the Great Depression. To try and ease the hardships that many Americans were facing, each President developed many different programs. The different actions that each took to lessen the blow of the depression classified them as either a liberal or conservative. If their actions focused on helping the economy, they would be considered a conservative. If they were more focused on helping the lives of the American people, they would be classified as a liberal. Neither President can be labeled as strictly one. Although Franklin Roosevelt was
Liberal vs. Conservative During the time period known as Franklin Roosevelt’s First Hundred Days, the people of the nation were divided in two halves based on their opinions of government involvement in the economy and society. When Roosevelt was elected, he put together a plan to restore the nation’s economy called the New Deal, which was designed to put the nation back to work through more government intervention in the economy. The segment of the population wanting the government to be less involved was known as the Conservatives while the people advocating for more government based action were called Liberals.
During Herbert Hoover’s administration any mistakes were made after the Stock Market crash. After the crash during the depression Hoover took action but made a few mistakes along the way. Many of Hoover’s acts were passed by congress and signed by Hoover himself. His worst offense was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which raised tariffs. The raising of tariffs was the worst possible thing that could have occurred. Hoover tried his best to reassure the country that the economy would become improved, although it actually worsened. To improve things after the crash Hoover prepared all Federal Departments to speed up public works. He did this with hopes to generate supplementary jobs and bring back the economy. As well, Hoover asked congress if they would reduce spending, and use what was no longer required to restart public works. Unfortunately for Hoover a collapse in Europe and a change in foreign trade caused prices for United States manufactured goods and farm equipment. After this occurrence President Hoover asked congress once again for more money, his time he wanted the money for farm loans and to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which would be used to help buildings in need as well as banks and railroads. With all of Hoovers efforts by July 1932 the Depression began
It can be argued that Richard Nixon was the last liberal president and that his presidency ushered in a conservative era. Both of these arguments are true, however I believe it is more correct to say that his presidency marked a new conservative era. During his time in office, Nixon expanded Great Society legislation, created new and significant federal agencies, and his foreign policy with communism emphasized détente. However, he did not always agree with the liberal ideologies that he was implementing and, in regards to the anti-war protestors, his administration showed little concern for civil liberties. In comparison to the administrations that followed, he was much more liberal and was the last president to significantly increase
When the Depression first started, Herbert Hoover, the president at the time, believed that the Federal Government should leave the economy alone and adopted a laissez-faire (free market) policy. Most American citizens disagreed with this policy as it proved to not help the Great Depression and more citizens faced unemployment, this caused Hoover to loose the re-election in 1933 to Franklin Roosevelt who advocated for government involvement. Roosevelt attempted to fix the Great Depression in America by developing the New Deal program which increased government spending in order to decrease unemployment. He was successful in that he employed 8 million Americans, however Conservative Right Wing citizens opposed the New Deal programs accusing it of being too aligned with Socialistic views. Another way that the Great Depression affected politics in America was that it caused America to stop being involved with other countries and instead focus on domestic issues.