948). The New Deal solutions to unemployment and poverty were “comparatively innocuous” in relationship to developments in other parts of the world at the time. Cochran and Malone (2010) note that social turmoil in Germany led to the rise of Adolf Hitler (p. 124). Economist John Maynard Keynes viewed New Deal policies as having saved the free market system from “the growing attractions of communism” (p. 129). Moreover, they were tempered in ways to satisfy the ruling elite. Cornerstones of the New Deal, Social Security and unemployment, are examples of social insurance, provisions available to those who work. Beland (2010) explains that the relationship between these benefits and work allowed Americans to view them as “earned rights,” aligning with the American value of self-reliance (p. 24). He also writes that Social Security originally did not cover domestic and agricultural workers; in this way, President Franklin Roosevelt gained the support of powerful Southern interests by excluding blacks (p. 77). Of all the possible options in what Birkland (2015) calls the agenda universe (p. 170), the policies that rose to the national agenda during the Great Depression amounted to the most palatable means to preserve the U.S political system and free market, which – given income distribution at the time – provided the greatest benefit to the wealthy. The elite theory of power views elites as dominating policy agenda (p. 169), not ruling unilaterally. New Deal policies may have rescued the disadvantaged, but they also preserved the position of the
948). The New Deal solutions to unemployment and poverty were “comparatively innocuous” in relationship to developments in other parts of the world at the time. Cochran and Malone (2010) note that social turmoil in Germany led to the rise of Adolf Hitler (p. 124). Economist John Maynard Keynes viewed New Deal policies as having saved the free market system from “the growing attractions of communism” (p. 129). Moreover, they were tempered in ways to satisfy the ruling elite. Cornerstones of the New Deal, Social Security and unemployment, are examples of social insurance, provisions available to those who work. Beland (2010) explains that the relationship between these benefits and work allowed Americans to view them as “earned rights,” aligning with the American value of self-reliance (p. 24). He also writes that Social Security originally did not cover domestic and agricultural workers; in this way, President Franklin Roosevelt gained the support of powerful Southern interests by excluding blacks (p. 77). Of all the possible options in what Birkland (2015) calls the agenda universe (p. 170), the policies that rose to the national agenda during the Great Depression amounted to the most palatable means to preserve the U.S political system and free market, which – given income distribution at the time – provided the greatest benefit to the wealthy. The elite theory of power views elites as dominating policy agenda (p. 169), not ruling unilaterally. New Deal policies may have rescued the disadvantaged, but they also preserved the position of the