Public Policy Since the New Deal

For next week, Johnson, ch 4.

This week: The Civil War, Progressivism, World War I, Great Depression

Find more statistics at Statista

The Long Shadow of the Civil War

Two-thirds of Civil War military deaths resulted from disease, not combat. Of those who survived, 30,000 lost limbs.

Pensions: In 1894 military pensions for wounded warriors (mostly Union veterans of the Civil War) accounted for 37% of federal spending.

Start at 1:45

Why no push for national health insurance in the 19th century?Medical education and regulation in the late 19th century. Harvard physiologist Lawrence Henderson: "Sometime between 1910 and 1912 in this country, a random patient, with a random disease, consulting a doctor chosen at random had, for the first time in the history of mankind, a better than fifty-fifty chance of profiting from the encounter”

Progressive Era

The Social Gospel
Baby steps on social welfare policy: Children's Bureau and maternal health (Johnson 86) -- not for able-bodied adult males
Federal Reserve Act of 1913
16th Amendment and the income tax (the first Form 1040)

World War I and Aftermath

Mass mobilization
Financing through "Liberty Bonds"
Budget Act of 1921
Espionage Act and Sedition Act -- attacks on civil liberties
Created many veterans
The 1918 Pandemic

Starts among US troops in Kansas
50 million dead worldwide at least 675k in the US -- killed far more than WWI combat
Wartime censorship stifles coverage
Wilson did not utter one public word even though his own case disabled him.

Immigration and Race

Nativism

In his history of the United States, Wilson described the immigrants of the late 19th century as “men of the lowest class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland, many of them men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence.”

Calvin Coolidge: “There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides.”

Racism: the Second Klan goes after blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. Powerful not just in the South:

Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson, p. 84). Immigration drops off, especially during the Depression.

The Great Depression Starts

Stock Market crash
Panic Selling
Banks had invested in stocks
Runs on banks lead to bank failures
Bank failures dry up credit
Evaporation of credit leads to business failures
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Agriculture problems and the Dust Bowl -- migrants drive through Claremont on "the Mother Road"

DRAFT: SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Public Policy Since the New Deal

CMC Government 191 Fall 2025

MW 11AM- 12:15 PM

Bauer 23

ZOOM: https://cmc-its.zoom.us/j/92228697468

J.J. Pitney

Office: Kravis 232

E-mail: jpitney@cmc.edu

Web: http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/

Student Hours:

Monday and Wednesday, 1-2 PM
If these times are inconvenient, just make an appointment for an in-person or Zoom meeting.

General

To understand the issues of 2025, we have to know how they started and evolved over time. Accordingly, this course offers a broad overview of federal domestic policy since 1932. One key concept is "path dependence," how initial decisions and events shape future policies and outcomes. Another is "the law of unintended consequences," the tendency of policies to have effects that their sponsors neither expect nor want. Yet another is the power of ideas. “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist," said economist John Maynard Keynes. "
Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."

The organization is chronological, with an emphasis on presidential administrations. This approach helps us see how different policies overlap, interact, and share common origins.

Classes

Classes will include lecture and discussion. Finish the readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news, so you must read a good news source such as Axios or Politico.

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

One three-page essay 15%
One four-page essay 20%
One 6-page research paper and class presentation 25%
Final exam 30%
Participation 10%

The papers will develop your research and writing skills. In grading, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you object, do not take this course or anything else I teach.

After fall break, student will make short class presentations on their research. These presentations will encourage early preparation and provide useful feedback.

The final examination will test your comprehension of the class sessions and readings. In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you attachments and web links covering current events and basic factual information. The final will cover this material.

Participation includes your activity in class and online. I will call on students at random, and if you often miss sessions or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. In addition, you may volunteer comments and questions. This experience will hone your ability to think on your feet.

Blog

Our class blog is right here at https://gov191.blogspot.com. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:

To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions;
To post relevant news items or videos. Remember that this blog is on the open Internet. Post nothing that would look bad to a potential employer.

Details

Check due dates for coursework. Do not plan on extensions.
As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive on time, and refrain from eating in class.
Except as a documented disability accommodation, please do not use electronic devices (tablets, laptops, smartphones) in class. Take notes the old-fashioned way, by hand, on paper. Why? Research shows that it works better.
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are not victimless offenses, because they hurt fellow students. Please study our Statement of Academic Integrity, which reads in part: "Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee." Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own original work constitutes plagiarism.
This class welcomes viewpoint diversity. See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/library/advice-on-syllabus-language/
Your experience in this class matters to me, and I have a particular interest in disability. If you have set up accommodations with Accessibility Services at CMC, please tell me about your approved accommodations so we can discuss your needs. You can start by forwarding me your accommodation letter. If you have not yet set up accommodations but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability, please email Ari Martinez, Associate Director of Accessibility Services, at accessibilityservices@cmc.edu to ask questions and start the process. For general information and the Request for Accommodations form, go to the CMC Accessibility Services website.

Required Book

Dennis W. Johnson, American Public Policy: Federal Domestic Policy Achievements and Failures 1901-2022 (New York: Routledge, 2023).

Schedule (Subject to change, with advance notice).

In addition to the readings below, I may also furnish you with additional material via the Internet.

August 25: CMC Convocation, no class.

"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

August 27: Introduction

"The past is never dead. It's not even past" -- William Faulkner.

Sept 1: Labor Day, no class.

"The phrase 'Roaring Twenties' was derived from the 'Roaring Forties,' the very powerful westerly winds that blow between 40 and 50 degrees latitude in the southern hemisphere. The Roaring Forties could hugely speed sailing ships - but also swamp and sink them. Whoever borrowed the adjective `roaring' for the decade of the 1920s didn't mean to say that the decade was serenely prosperous, but that it was wild, nerve-wracking, and dangerous, like the far south seas below Australia." -- David Frum

Watch "The Dawn of the Great Depression," directed by William Karel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Ew7jbot_k

Sept 3: Before the New Deal

"[Route] 66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and
shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership..." -- John Steinbeck

Johnson, ch. 3.

Sept 8, 10: New Deal I

"I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain, common working men."-- Frances Perkins

Johnson, ch. 4

Sept 15, 17: New Deal II

"We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program. Those taxes aren’t a matter of economics, they’re straight politics." -- FDR on Social Security

Martha Derthick, Policymaking for Social Security (Washington: Brookings, 1979), ch. 11-12. ON CANVAS.
Steven M. Gillon, "That's Not What We Meant to Do" Reform and Its Unintended Consequences in Twentieth-Century America (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), ch.1. ON CANVAS.

THREE-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED BY SEPTEMBER 15,
DUE IN CANVAS BY SEPTEMBER 26.
READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST

Sept 22, 24: World War II and the Truman Era

"The 80+ students that first came to CMC were almost all veterans. They came on the GI Bill [of Rights] and that's what founded this place." -- Jack Stark

Johnson, ch. 5.
James Rowe and Clark Clifford, "The Politics of 1948" (memo to Harry Truman). EXCERPTS ON CANVAS.

Sept 29, Oct 1: The Age of Ike

"In case of an atomic attack on our key cities, the road net must permit quick evacuation of target areas, mobilization of defense forces and maintenance of every essential economic function. But the present system in critical areas would be the breeder of a deadly congestion within hours of an attack." -- Dwight Eisenhower, 1955

FOUR-PAGE PAPER PAPER ASSIGNED BY SEPT 29,

DUE IN CANVAS BY OCT 10

Oct 6, 8: New Frontier and Great Society I

"It will increase social security benefits for all of our older Americans. It will improve a wide range of health and medical services for Americans of all ages. In 1935 when the man that both of us loved so much, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed the Social Security Act, he said it was, and I quote him, `a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but it is by no means complete.' -- LBJ addressing Harry Truman upon signing the Medicare law

Johnson, ch. 7.
Theodore R. Marmor, The Politics of Medicare, 2d. ed. (New York: Aldine deGruyter, 2000), ch. 4. ON CANVAS

OCT 13 FALL BREAK

Oct 15: New Frontier and Great Society II

"The power structure started out the new year the same way they started it out in Washington the other day. Only now they call it—what's that?— `The Great Society?'" -- Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Prospects for Freedom in 1965, https://www.icit-digital.org/articles/malcolm-x-on-prospects-for-freedom-in-1965-january-7-1965
John A. Andrew III, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1998), ch. 2. ON CANVAS

Oct 20, 22: Nixon: Tory Men and Liberal Policies

"Tory men and Liberal policies are what have changed the world" -- Richard M. Nixon

Johnson, ch. 8
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Politics of a Guaranteed Income (New York: Vintage, 1973). EXCERPTS ON CANVAS.

Oct 27, 29: Ford, Carter, and Malaise

"In short, we are entering an era of limits. In place of a manifest economic destiny, we face a sober reassessment of new economic realities; and we all have to get used to it." -- Jerry Brown, 1976

Johnson, ch. 9
Joseph A. Califano, Governing America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981). EXCERPTS ON CANVAS

Nov 3, 5: Reagan and Bush 41

"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. .. Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back." -- Ronald Reagan, first inaugural address, 1981

Johnson, ch. 10.
David Greider, "The Education of David Stockman," The Atlantic, December 1981.

Nov 10, 12: Clinton and the 1990s

"The era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves. Instead, we must go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we face together. Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues; we must have both." -- Bill Clinton, 1996

Johnson, ch. 10.

RESEARCH PAPERS DUE NOV 14.

Nov 17, 19: Bush: The Rough Start to the Millennium

"If the Social Security system’s principal problem was a long-term threat to its solvency, as the President rightly argued in his 2005 State of the Union address, it was not clear how private accounts were even part of the solution." -- William Galston

Johnson, ch. 11.
Excerpts from Amy E. Black, Douglas L. Koopman, and David K. Ryden, Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives (Washington: Georgetown University ress, 2004). ON CANVAS.

Nov 24: Hope, Change, and Obama

"So don't let people scare you. If you like what you've got, we're not going to make you change." -- Barack Obama on his healthcare proposal

Johnson, ch. 12.

Dec 1, 3: To the Wilmington Station

"Social Security turns 90 today – but its retirement program is on course to be insolvent by age 97 – according to new estimates from the program’s Chief Actuary. Even if combined with the disability trust fund, Social Security will deplete its reserves before it turns 100." -- Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, 8/14/25

Johnson, ch. 13-14.

FINAL EXAM: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, AT 9 AM

Return to homepage

Public Policy Since the New Deal

Search This Blog

Sunday, September 7, 2025

The New Deal Begins

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Before the New Deal

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Beginning: Concepts Underlying the Course

Monday, August 11, 2025

Gov 191 Syllabus Fall 2025

The New Deal Begins