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1932 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Overall role and scale of the federal government
Remove government from private enterprise except public works and natural resources
pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A Executive PowerIndustry, Business & Regulation similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Government to withdraw from all fields of private enterprise, with the exception of developing public works and natural resources in the common interest.
Rationale
Limited-government orthodoxy; aimed at the Farm Board and Hoover-era interventions.
Sits uneasily with the same platform's public-power and regulatory planks and with the candidate's planning rhetoric; a useful test case for contradiction queries.
Statements (4)
The removal of government from all fields of private enterprise except where necessary to develop public works and natural resources in the common interest.
That admirable document, the platform which you have adopted, is clear. I accept it 100 percent.
Blanket endorsement of every plank.
You cannot go very far with any real Federal economy, without a complete change of concept of what are the proper functions and limits of the Federal Government itself.
Ever since the days of Thomas Jefferson, that has been the exact reverse of the democratic concept, which is to permit Washington to take from the States nothing more than is necessary to keep abreast of the march of our changing economic situation.
Follow-through
reversedcontested among sources
The TVA generated and sold power, the RFC expanded into direct lending, the NRA licensed industry and the AAA managed agriculture. Roosevelt described this as 'partnership,' not control; by the platform's own words the government entered fields of private enterprise well beyond public works and natural resources.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933-05-07 | message | Second fireside chat: 'partnership,' not control | It is wholly wrong to call the measures that we have taken Government control of farming, industry, and transportation. | partly | Second Fireside Chat |
| 1933-05-18 | statute | Tennessee Valley Authority Act | Federal corporation in the power and fertilizer business. | no | Message to Congress Suggesting the Tennessee Valley Authority |
Assessments
The New Deal recreated the federal role in economic life.
In carrying forward this agenda, FDR began to recreate the role of the federal government in American economic and political life.
Other positions on this issue
- War on any candidate who makes 'demagogic appeals to the masses' setting class against class — Alfred E. Smith, 1932 directional_stance
- An "economic declaration of rights" — the right to make a living and the right to safe savings — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 directional_stance
- Government as a check on concentrated economic power — "individualism" redefined as equality of opportunity — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 directional_stance
- "A new deal for the American people" — work and security through liberal, planned government action — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 vague_gesture
- Preserve 'ordered freedom' and equality of opportunity; reject a state-controlled or state-directed economy as 'tyranny' — Herbert Hoover, 1932 directional_stance
- Restore confidence by 'unshackling initiative': steady, open, non-partisan administration that stops 'fumbling with recovery' — Alf Landon, 1936 vague_gesture
- Fair, honest, economical and efficient government; preserve free enterprise against 'amateur economic planners' — Frank Knox, 1936 vague_gesture
1932-fdr-government-out-of-private-enterprise · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed