Roosevelt and the New Role for Government
There are conflicting assessments of Roosevelt. Many of the problems facing this country started during or right after his administration, and yet the tasks he faced were so incredibly large and difficult that it is surprising he did as well as he did.
It was stated earlier that the purpose of government was to extend the freedom of the individual. Different situations require different responses from government to fulfill this purpose. At the time of the founding of this country, America was essentially agrarian, a nation of farmers. To guarantee freedom in this situation the Founders chose, essentially, a negative role for government; government could best insure freedom by doing as little as possible. At the time that was well suited to America's needs. There was little the government was required to do, very few responsibilities for it to fulfill.
Industrialism, however, drastically changed the situation. The potential for good is always accompanied by the potential for evil. Industrialism brought the potential for greater self-determination, allowing people a wider range of freedom. With this potential for increased self- determination also came the potential for decreased self- determination. As our economy industrialized, becoming more interconnected, the degree of control over individual lives which the Founders had not trusted to government, came to rest in the hands of the industrialists who controlled the economic resources, and even more in the dynamics of industrialism itself. The situation had changed, and the negative role for government which the Founders had chosen was no longer suited to dealing with the new situation.
Extending freedom requires giving the individual as much responsibility and control over himself or herself as possible. Ideally, individuals should have complete control over everything that affects their lives. An industrial economy affects people's lives, yet it is beyond the power of the individual to deal with this effect; a single person cannot police the economy. To allow individuals to enjoy the increased freedom of industrialism, it is necessary for the government to take some responsibility for overseeing industrialism. Industrialism created a situation which demands a new response from government: it must do that which the individual is unable to do. It must fulfill the responsibilities which are beyond the abilities of lone individuals. Instead of negative government, government insuring freedom by its inaction, the need had arrived for positive government, government extending freedom through its actions.
This was the role FDR embraced, which is essentially the middle path between utopian "Rational Socialism" and utopian Social Darwinism and Laissez Faire. Government was assuming greater responsibility, yet was not taking responsibility from the individual. Roosevelt established an economic role and brought compassion to the system, adding a safety net to insure some level of minimum physical needs.
This new role was created from bits and pieces of advice from different factions, with many suggestions coming from the utopian socialists. He turned to them because there were few viable answers forthcoming from holders of different beliefs; generally, he had a choice between the suggestions of the rational socialists or advisors who told him that government should do nothing, that in spite of the evidence of the Depression the economy was still self-correcting. Yet despite the source of his advice, Roosevelt did not embrace "Rational Socialism"; he did not change the purpose of our government. Many of those responsibilities he did take for government can be seen as extending the freedom of individuals. However it was his actions which did eventually lead to the changing of the purpose of the U.S. government. By making the transition to positive government, he had opened the door to utopianism and government intervention.
Positive government is a difficult role for government to maintain, unlike the old role of negative government. Governments are creatures of habit. With the old negative role, government was in the habit of doing nothing, which is fairly easy to maintain and does not pose an active danger to freedom. Positive government, however, requires government action and tends to create the habit of action as the government constantly addresses new concerns; positive government inevitably becomes activist government.
A government in the habit of acting poses a danger, because it possesses a tendency to increase its level of responsibility. Government assuming greater responsibility can even become an automatic reaction. It is important to guard against this tendency because it is very easy for government to go beyond doing that which the individual cannot do to taking responsibility from the individual and so limiting freedom.
Roosevelt managed to increase the government's responsibility without totally usurping individual responsibility. Yet he had set the pattern of activist government which continues even today. Once government was in the habit of assuming more responsibility, it was inevitable that it would soon begin taking responsibility from the individual and so limiting personal freedom. And with that increased responsibility came increased taxation; as well as taking away freedom the government was now also taking more of its citizens' money.