Work in progress — cycles are added one at a time. Every quote is machine-verified against an archived source; follow the links to read it.
1936 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Concentrated economic power vs. the average citizen (rhetorical framing)
Take power from the 'economic royalists': the mandate of 1932 is to end economic tyranny
pledge_forwardvague_gesturecandidate_directevidence A Elections & SuffrageIndustry, Business & Regulation similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Use the organized power of government to give the average citizen 'equal opportunity in the market place' against concentrated control of other people's money, property and labor.
Rationale
Political equality won in 1776 was 'meaningless in the face of economic inequality'; 'freedom is no half-and-half affair.'
Statements (3)
For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things.
Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.
A dangerous thing was happening. Half of the industrial corporate wealth of the country had come under the control of less than two hundred huge corporations.
Follow-through
partialcontested among sources
Rhetoric became inquiry rather than structural change: the TNEC studied concentration for three years and Arnold's Antitrust Division prosecuted, but no legislation restructured corporate power and the 1938 recession shifted the administration toward accommodation with business.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1938-04-29 | message | Message on curbing monopolies | Asked Congress for a study of concentrated economic power. | yes | Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies. |
| 1938-06-16 | statute | Temporary National Economic Committee | Hearings 1938-41; no structural legislation. | partly | Temporary National Economic Committee - Wikipedia |
Assessments
The TNEC's work was 'defunded' in 1941 with its records sealed; the royalists were investigated, not mastered.
Other positions on this issue
- 'I welcome their hatred': a second term in which organized money meets its master — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 vague_gesture
1936-fdr-economic-royalists-restrain-concentrated-power · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed