To What Extent Does the Second New Deal Go Beyond the First?

To what extent did the Second New Deal extend the provisions of the first?

Sarah Parker

To an extent the Second New Deal did extend the provisions of the first, but not all of FDR’s agencies were successful as others. In 1935 FDR introduced the proposal of the Second New Deal in his State Union of Address to the people of America. In this speech he outlined and justified his plans to broaden the work of the New Deal, stating such things as enlarging the scope of federal relief, tax the rich more heavily and support workers organising themselves in trade unions. However, the Second New Deal proved limited as it was argued to be repetitive and simple replacement of the first New Deal. Despite this, in the Second New Deal FDR was able to create agencies such as the Social Security Act, which have been said to be of great success. It can be argued that some of the agencies in the Second New Deal were merely tweaks of the policies FDR began in 1933, however other went further.

During the development of the Second New Deal, FDR had to chose his actions carefully as he didn’t want to jeopardize his Presidential election coming up the following year in 1936. FDR had a task of reviving the policies and agencies that had been previously opposed by names such as Long and Coughlin or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Therefore, it can be said that the creation of the Second New Deal in many ways was more radical then the first and placed an even greater emphasise on welfare. This suggestion is supported by agencies such as the Social Security Act (SSA), this was introduced as in 1931, a little number of 166,000 workers were on the unemployment insurance and in 1935 only 27 states out of 48 had introduced old-age pensions and only Wisconsin had a scheme for the unemployment insurance, which was exactly what this Act tackled. This scheme was paid out of contributions and not taxes so no payments were actually made until 1942. The benefits for the...