14 2.5 – EVOLUTION OF POLICY MAKING IN THE UNITED STATES

EVOLUTION OF POLICY MAKING IN THE UNITED STATES

Since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the principle source of political discord in America has focused on the proper amount of influence the federal and state governments should have over public policy. Put another way, the primary political argument in American history involves the nature of federalism. The distribution of policy making power between the federal and state governments has been driven by the changing expectations of the American people regarding government services.

From the nation’s birth in the late eighteenth century through the 1930s, most Americans did not expect the federal government to provide a great deal of public services. During this period of U.S. history, the state governments were more powerful and influential in most domestic policy areas than was the federal government. The federal government was primarily involved in national policy making activities, like building the nation’s transportation infrastructure, providing subsidies for westward expansion, protecting domestic commerce by placing tariffs on imported goods, protecting patents, and providing a common currency. Importantly, very few federal government policies were intended to coerce the American population. In short, the federal government’s principle policy responsibilities involved assisting economic growth, not regulating the actions of the American people (Ginsberg et al., 2019).

However, after the Great Depression and World War II, the American republic emerged as an economic and military superpower on the global stage. This new international position of strength, along with hard-learned lessons from the Depression illustrating the need for federal government regulatory policies, changed American expectations regarding the role of the federal government. Post-WWII America witnessed an increase in federal government policy making power that, in many ways, continues to this very day.

Many variables were involved in the growth of federal government policy making responsibilities. In addition to the U.S.’s emergence as a global military power, some of the more important elements involved the increased complexity of the U.S. economy, the economic integration of the global economy, and a movement to protect civil liberties for minority groups and women. In short, as the republic changed, the distribution and use of policy making power in the federal system changed with it. The government’s regulation of the economy, development of social safety nets, and the protection of civil rights were driven by a population that sought more government services.

As the nation’s economy expanded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, state governments became increasingly unable to provide services they had made available in the past. For example, in the early decades of the republic, the primarily agrarian economy required minimal guidance from state governments. However, the development of a national economy required national  government policies to solve national problems. In the 1870s, technological advancements and the development of natural resources dramatically increased the yields of American farmers. At the same time, a new national network of train tracks was connecting the American heartland with the east and west coasts. Due to a lack of federal government regulations and the inability of state governments to regulate interstate commerce, railroad corporations began charging unusually high rates to transport agricultural commodities to foreign markets. In order to obtain redress for these new economic grievances, American farmers turned to the federal government which responded by creating the Interstate Commerce Commission to better regulate the growing economy. This represents an example of federal government initiated constituent and regulatory policies that protect the American population from the damage caused by natural monopolies, a form of market failure that will be discussed later in the text (Kernell et al., 2018). 

2.5.1.

The New Deal

Early in the 1930s, the maturing republic once again found itself in need of a strong central government if it wished to continue to survive and prosper. The American economy had proved its ability to grow to previously unexpected heights, but it had failed to ensure the success and prosperity of all Americans. Monopolies, low wages, poor working conditions, consumer debt, unfair trade practices, a struggling agricultural sector, and impure foods were some of the national problems associated with the growing, though unregulated, American economy. Consumer spending slowed in the summer of 1929 and unsold goods began to accumulate, leading to a suspension of factory production. Nevertheless, stock prices continued to rise, and by the fall of 1929, nervous investors began selling, resulting in a stock market crash that crippled the world economy.The devastating global economic depression of the 1930s provided the necessary political capital for President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) to make dramatic changes in the relationship between the national economy and federal government regulatory policies. The programs he adopted are referred to as the New Deal, comprising a series of federal government programs intended to reverse the damages of the Great Depression (Simon et al., 2020).

The complexities of the Great Depression and the New Deal policies prevent a quick summary. However, it is accurate to say that the New Deal dramatically changed the federal government’s relationship with state governments, the American people, and the national economy. The federal government-initiated policies attempted to improve the economy by regulating prices, creating jobs, regulating banks, and securing the right of labor to collectively bargain with employers. Federal government policies were created that set a minimum wage and established retirement income through the Social Security Act as well as unemployment compensation when jobs were lost. The Roosevelt administration’s decisions on these matters were the beginning of many distributive federal policies aimed at increasing economic equity within the American population (Simon et  al., 2020).

Overall, the New Deal legislation of the 1930s inaugurated a new era for American federalism in which the federal government gained significantly more policy making powers and assumed a much greater role in many aspects of American life. 2.5.2.The Great SocietyThe Great Society was a series of federal government initiatives during the 1960s and 1970s that increased the federal government’s power and allowed it to pass regulatory and social policies resembling the New Deal. Democratic majorities in Congress assisted, and in some cases forced, presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon to enact federal government programs designed to alleviate social inequalities regarding poverty, health care, education, and housing. These policies included the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act, the establishment of Medicaid and Medicare, and the Head Start program for low-income children.

One unique characteristic of the Great Society programs, compared to the New Deal legislation a generation earlier, was the extent that the federal government worked with state and local governments to carry out the new policies. The federal government provided increasingly larger amounts of grants- in-aid, money given to state and local governments by the federal government, to improve transportation infrastructure, inner city living conditions, public education, health care, and racial integration (Kollman 2015). The Great Society programs represented an increase in shared policy making powers between the federal and state governments.

Since the passage of the Great Society programs, the federal government has passed many additional notable policies. President Ronald Reagan initiated the War on Drugs, a set of policies meant to reduce the illegal drug trade. President Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in an effort to increase trade between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. The No Child Left Behind Act was signed in 2002 to improve student performance and direct additional federal funding to low-income schools, although the policy is best known for requiring standardized testing in public schools. The Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, was signed in 2010 and is discussed in the running case study at the end of each chapter in this text. Meanwhile, state and local governments continue to pass meaningful policies addressing elections, the environment, public safety, taxes, and other social issues. U.S. policy making at all government levels has resulted in a diverse and influential group of laws and rules that guide almost every aspect of how the American public lives and works.