In our Government and Business American Politics book with Richard Lehne he introduces the topic of Positive Government. The term Positive Government is another word for big government and explanation would be that it’s more public and private. In Lehane's book he mentions the emergence of positive government and how it changed federal government permanently. Positive Government emerged in the late 1920 when the stock market had crashed and created the Great Depression. Although economic professionals attributed the great depression to many things not just the market it did have a negative impact on our economy and caused for many problems throughout the nation. Due to the depression the citizens turned to the federal government for help which …show more content…
in turned was important to the emergence of positive government. Since the beginning of positive government it was meant to help the growth of big government. When this growth started it has made it hard to ignore the government and any policies that were being placed. In the early 21st century it showed that the growth has come due to the providing of popular social services that help the citizens. As for the second decade we see that people are opposed to bigger government and are leading to making everything more private than before. For example the current presidential administration is in favor for a tax break on the rich which these big corporation are all in the private corporation.
Being that here are people against a bigger government it doesn’t mean that certain services that are given to the citizens aren’t beneficial to all American. As for the constitution role in the distribution of political power. When it comes down to who needs what it is very complicated to see what branch has the responsibility either the state or the federal government. In recent years there has been natural disasters that have destroyed communities and hurt the citizens during Hurricane Katrina the United States saw the way the both governments didn’t communicate with one another leaving a the city of New Orleans to fend for itself. Seeing that in Article 5 of the constitution both the state and federal must care for its citizens. I believe that it was very important in the first decade because after being in a recession in 2008 we saw the decrease of jobs and an increase in unemployment creating uncertainty within the country. Its was important for everyone to work together and like before we looked for help within the federal …show more content…
government. As for the later decade now that we have seen an increase in jobs along with the uplift of the American economy more people are in the business for privatization and a smaller government opposing the definition of positive government. Overall the importance of a strong government is being able to locate where help is needed what type and how will it work .
I believe that it's’ important to use our constitution as a guiding tool to help appoint the correct people for the job.John Maynard Keynes was a British economist where he fundamentally changed the theory and practices of macroeconomics and economic policies of government. Although he was revolutionary most of his policies were controversial and used Keynesianism economic to get people to stay away from them . His approach to macroeconomic management was different since the previous traditional laissez-faire economists believed that an economy would automatically correct its imbalances and move toward a state of equilibrium, They expected the dynamics of supply and demand to help the economy adjust to recession and inflation without government action. Laissez-faire economics thus regarded layoffs, bankruptcies and downturns in the economy not as something to be avoided but as elements of a natural process that would eventually improve. However that was not the case for the great depression. Keynes also believed that a given level of demand in an economy would produce employment however he insisted that low employment during the depression resulted from inadequate
demand. Keynesian made its debut in the 1960 here in America where John F. Kennedy became president he campaigned in1960 on the promise to create a full-employment economy and to get the country moving again however he was faced with a problem due to the recession. He later decreased taxed instead of increasing federal expenditures. This tax cut helped a large amount of people thus Keynesian was introduced into American policies. This approach was very clear in what it expected and how to work with each economy. Although not all countries used this approach it was recognized for it practical and efficient use when it was used. In many cases such as in President Kennedy’s it was very successful and helped many economies however it isn’t the same due to the constant change of politics and beliefs that can change and affect the economy. As for advising the government in telling them the approach they should take it’s very carefully due to the fact that although it might be appealing it doesn’t always work due to the many difference society faces. In reality it would be great for the people to get a tax break. Throughout the years people have been spending a lot of money on taxes however as we can see in this administration they are interested in a tax break however this won't benefit the poor or middle only the top one percent of the rich and wealthy. I also believe that the current debt we are going towards there needs to be a decrease in spending . There are certain things that are currently having their funding decreased such as school and education while we see the increase in military spending increase. I believe that the new administration will in fact have more keynesian approach due to the promises they have made not only on the campaign road but as while in office. The administration is eager for tax breaks and believes in further funding of certain programs to push their agenda.
The New Deal sought to create a more progressive country through government growth, but resulted in a huge divide between liberals and conservatives. Prior to the New Deal, conservatives had already begun losing power within the government, allowing the Democratic Party to gain control and favoring by the American people (Postwar 284). With the Great Depression, came social tensions, economic instability, and many other issues that had to be solved for America’s wellbeing. The New Deal created a strong central government, providing the American people aid, interfering with businesses and the economy, allowing the federal government to handle issues they were never entrusted with before.
What is Roche’s intention in The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action when he talks about a conspiracy of the elite:
The Great Depression was one of the greatest challenges that the United States faced during the twentieth century. It sidelined not only the economy of America, but also that of the entire world. The Depression was unlike anything that had been seen before. It was more prolonged and influential than any economic downturn in the history of the United States. The Depression struck fear in the government and the American people because it was so different. Calvin Coolidge even said, "In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope—nothing of man." People were scared and did not know what to do to address the looming economic crash. As a result of the Depression’s seriousness and severity, it took unconventional methods to fix the economy and get it going again. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration had to think outside the box to fix the economy. The administration changed the role of the government in the lives of the people, the economy, and the world. As a result of the abnormal nature of the Depression, the FDR administration had to experiment with different programs and approaches to the issue, as stated by William Lloyd Garrison when he describes the new deal as both assisting and slowing the recovery. Some of the programs, such as the FDIC and works programs, were successful; however, others like the NIRA did little to address the economic issue. Additionally, the FDR administration also created a role for the federal government in the everyday lives of the American people by providing jobs through the works program and establishing the precedent of Social Security...
The establishment of the U.S. Constitution was an action taken in order to supply federal control over the young United States of America without replicating the mistakes and flaws present within the Articles of Confederation. The idea of the Constitution was to better unify the states, something the Articles of Confederation were completely unable to do. Even during the infancy of the Constitution, its creators were divided into two major political parties: the federalists, who supported large and strong federal government, and the Anti-Federalists who supported reserving state’s rights and limiting the grasp of the federal government. Upon the establishment and the passing of the U.S. constitution, these two parties used personal party-based
Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the united states from 1933 to 1945 (and the distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt), was the first to convert to Keynes’s theories. He implemented massive public works programs to put people to work. Called the “New Deal”, an echo of Theodore Roosevelt’s square deal, it consisted of a series of programs from 1933 to 1938. As well as providing employment through massive works projects such as the Tennessee valley authority, which built dams to generate electricity. New deal programs provided emergency relief, reformed the banking system, and tried to invigorate agriculture and the economy. Many other programs were also put into place with were used to attemp...
First and foremost, the most important issue is that freedom is the most important, but also how to achieve a maximum amount of freedom. Milton Friedman best describes keeping freedom by stating, "How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect"(275). Today the conservative view may be seen as a response to social and economic programs initiated by the liberals in the past thirty years. Conservatives generally agree that the "government has grown too become to large and bureaucratic, too removed from the local control; its intrusion into our lives is creating resentment, trampling on our rights, reducing personal responsibility, and stifling the economic growth that will do more for the good of our citizens than any government programs can do" (236). In short the smaller, more local the government is, the better. For example, a town in Kansas that has a population of 750, was told that they would have to build a new ramp entering the city hall, because of the new Americans with Disabilities Act. The town has had this ramp for 20 years and it has served the disabled with no problems. The town does not have the money to pay for the $15,000 ramp, and should not be forced to come up with it when the old ramp has given everyone access to the city hall.
Perhaps Roosevelt’s greatest blunders occurred in his attempts to fix the economy. The Nation claimed that “some [of his programs] assisted and some retarded the recovery of industrial activity.” They went so far as to say that “six billion dollars was added to the national debt.” All of this is true. Roosevelt’s deficit spending, provoked by the English economist John Maynard Keynes, did add to the already high national debt while his programs did not solve the record-high unemployment rate. This “enormous outpouring of federal money for human relief and immense sums for public-works projects [that] started to flow to all points of the compass” and nearly doubled the nation’s debt also brought about many changes that were, in a large sense, revolutionary (Document C).
The Great Depression was the worst period in the history of America’s economy. There is no way to overstate how tough this time was for the average worker and there was a feeling of desperation that hung over the entire country. Current political wisdom leading up to the Great Depression had been that the federal government does not get involved in business or the economy under any circumstances. Three Presidents in a row; Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all were cut from the same cloth of enacting pro-business policies to generate a powerful economy. Because the economy was doing so well during the “Roaring 20s”, there wasn’t much of a dispute
The Constitution is important because it was expressly designed to limit powers into three co-ordinate branches, the legislative, executive, and judiciary branch; none of which was to have supremacy over the others. This separation of powers with the checks and balances which each branch was given over the others was designed to prevent any branch, from infringing individual liberties safeguarded by the Constitution. I think the U.S. Constitution was a way for the U.S. to establish government which was a negotiation between the two former governments, a monarchy and total state power. I think by creating the checks and balances, people’s rights would be safer and they would feel more secure not having one branch of government with absolute power. What I found most interesting about the Constitution was how complex and detailed the framers made it, to effectively explain and limit the individual branches of power in government. In the words of Thomas Paine, "a government without a constitution is power without right". Meaning that for power to be granted, it is necessary to establish a constitution.
Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. The Framers of the Constitution tried very hard to design a system that would not allow any one person or group within the government to gain too much power. Personally, I think they succeeded. In order to guard against what one of the Founding Fathers called an "excess of democracy," the Constitution was built with many ways to limit the government's power. Among these methods were separating the three branches, splitting the legislature so laws are carefully considered, and requiring members of Congress to meet certain criteria to qualify for office. The Founders did leave a few problems along with their system.
John Maynard Keynes classical approach to economics and the business cycle has dominated society, especially the United States. His idea was that government intervention was necessary in a properly functioning economy. One economic author, John Edward King, claimed of the theory that:
One of the ideologies of America was that the best government was a small government. Our country was founded by settlers who wanted to get out of the grasp of Great Britain rule. These settlers wanted to have the natural rights that they felt were guaranteed to them by god. The Declaration of Independence was written to declare that the thirteen colonies were claiming themselves as independent states. Then U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were written. These important papers spell out freedoms guaranteed to Americans and the laws that protect those freedoms. They talk of a government that works for the people.
Even before the Constitution was ratified, strong argument were made by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in the Federalist Papers urging the inclusion of a federal form of government to replace the failed confederation. In Federalist Paper No. 9 Hamilton states, “This form of government is a convention by which several smaller states agree to become members of a large one, which they intend to form. It is s kind of assemblage of societies that constitutes a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, until they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of a united body” (Usinfo.state.gov). The people of the United States needed a central government that was capable of holding certain powers over the states.
My research in Classical Economics and Keynesian Economics has given me the opportunity to form an opinion on this greatly debated topic in economics. After researching this topic to great lengths, I have determined the Keynesian Economics far exceeds greatness for America compared to that of Classical Economics. I will begin my paper by first addressing my understanding of both economic theories, I will then compare and contrast both theories, and end my paper with my opinions on why I believe Keynesian Economics is what is best for America. Classical Economics is a theory that suggests that by leaving the free market alone without human intervention equilibrium will be obtained. This theory was the first school of thought for economists, and one of the major theorists and founders of Classical Economics was Adam Smith.
In the 1930’s, the United States fell into a great depression because of a major stock market crash that destroyed the economy for many years. When the 1933 election came, a new president was elected; Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His plan was to create a New Deal to solve the Nation’s problems. This New Deal relieved much economic troubles in the country, gave faith to American citizens in the United States’ banking system, and gave jobs to millions of people unemployed by the crash. Without President Roosevelt’s actions, the road to the nation’s recovery would be much longer.