History

T

o Ber n stei n , the New D eal ?was f undam en tal l y con ser vat i ve and con t i nued w i th the

p r ov i ded f or the cr eat i on of i ndust r i al codes to decr ease com pet i t i on f or busi ness, a cl ear l y p r o- busi ness aim , and the codes wer e d r af ted by the l ead i ng f i rm s of the i ndust r i es them sel ves, m ean i ng they wer e co- op ted by busi ness. T h i s m ean t that the codes f avou r ed econom i c con ci l i at i on and h i gher p r i ces, wh i ch wer e not necessar i l y passed down to the wor ker s i n the f orm of h i gher wages. H owever , th i s ar gum en t f ai l s to take i n to accoun t the l im i t s to the f eder al gover nm en t?s capaci t y i n 1935. As Badger ar gues, ther e sim p l y was not the ?state capaci t y ?to d r af t the 50 0 codes by Sep tem ber 1934, as the f eder al gover nm en t l acked both exper t i se and staf f . M or eover , Sect i on 7(a) of the N I RA al l owed f or the r ecogn i t i on of l abou r un i on s, con si der ed host i l e to busi ness i n ter est . M or eover , the Wagner Act of 1935 was osten si b l y l egi sl at i on that th r eatened busi ness i n ter est s, wh i l st the N L RA l acked a si ngl e busi ness r ep r esen tat i ve. H owever , i t has been ar gued that the

1920 s.?I t cou l d be ar gued that the New D eal was con ser vat i ve due to i t s essen t i al r el i an ce on busi ness and p r i vate en ter p r i se to ach i eve econom i c r ecover y, and thus d i d not br eak w i th the status quo of the gover nm en t of the 1920 s. M or eover , ther e wer e cl ear l im i tat i on s to the New D eal ?s scope, as i t f ai l ed to p r ov i de st r uctu r al r ef orm and r em ai ned w i th i n the con st i tu t i onal and f i nan ci al norm s of the 1920 s. H owever , these ar gum en t s f ai l to accoun t f or the r evo l u t i on the New D eal p r ov i ded i n the f orm of econom i c secu r i t y and do not acknow l edge the con tex tual l im i tat i on s the New D eal f aced . T her e i s scope to ar gue that the New D eal was f undam en tal l y con ser vat i ve i n i t s deal i ngs w i th busi ness. As Con k i n ar gues, i t was r el i an t on p r i vate en ter p r i se to p r om p t econom i c r ecover y and was essen t i al l y p r o- busi ness. T he Nat i onal I ndust r i al Recover y Act

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