The radicalism of the Great Depression was justified by the difficult economic situation and the need for a dramatic reformation of society. Therefore, the political changes in various legislative institutions aimed to end the American economy’s crisis. The politics of the New Deal provided financial support for the vulnerable social groups, including the elderly, the young people, and the farmers (Deverell, Hyde 179). In general, the New Deal politics aimed at alleviating the problems of the poor population and the unemployed Americans, returning the American economy to the norm, and the profound reformation of the financial system that might allow politicians to avoid the repetition of this depression.
Many policies introduced during the Great Depression were controversial and had little effect on the United States. For instance, the Economy Act ratified in 1933 as part of the New Deal policy reduced salaries for workers and veterans, making thousands of people poor (Deverell, Hyde 180). Fiscal conservatism affected the population negatively, making people oppose these political changes. Working people had an active political position in response to the Great Depression, which led to the formation of unions and strikes against unacceptable conditions. The government heard their efforts, and the New Deal politics supposed the introduction of the social security insurance, the financial help to the unemployed, the establishment of the minimum wage, the regulation of the working hours, health insurance, and the ban on child labor (Deverell, Hyde 180). As a result, the opinion of the working-class population was critical in the reformation of the state institutions and allowed the policy-makers to make the United States more socially oriented, and this tendency preserves modern American society.
Works Cited
Deverell, William, and Anne Hyde. Shaped by the West, Volume 2: A History of North America from 1850. University of California Press, 2018.