468 Chapter 13 | The Bureaucracyareas in which this capacity could be applied. Before the New Deal, the federal
government influenced citizens’ choices through activities such as regulating
industries and workplace conditions. After the New Deal, the federal government
took on the role of directly delivering a wide range of benefits and services to its
citizens—ranging from jobs to electricity. It also increased regulations on many
industries, including those in the banking and financial sectors.
The expansion of the federal government and the subsequent delegation of power
to bureaucrats and to the president were controversial changes, both when they were
enacted and as they were implemented in subsequent years.^26 Many Republicans
opposed New Deal reforms because they believed that the federal government could
not deliver services efficiently and that an expanded federal bureaucracy would create
a modern spoils system. Many southerners worried that the federal government’s
increased involvement in everyday life would endanger the system of racial
segregation in southern states.^27 Even so, Democratic supporters of the New Deal,
aided by public support, carried the day.The Great Society The Great Society was a series of federal programs enacted
during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency (1963–1969) that further expanded the size,
capacity, and activities of the bureaucracy. During these years, Johnson proposed
and Congress passed programs that funded bilingual education, loans and grants
for college students, special education, preschools, construction of elementary and
secondary schools, mass-transit programs in many cities, health care for seniors and
poor people, job training and urban renewal, enhanced voting rights and civil rights for
minorities, environmental protection, funding for the arts and cultural activities, and
space exploration.^28
The Great Society programs had mixed success. Voting rights and civil rights
reforms ended the “separate but equal” system of social order in southern states and
dramatically increased political participation by African Americans.^29 But many of
the antipoverty programs were dismal failures. During the 1960s and 1970s, poverty
rates among most groups remained relatively constant, and other indicators, such
as the rate of teen pregnancy, actually increased.^30 In retrospect, the people who
designed and implemented these programs did not realize the complexities of the
problems they were trying to address.^31 For example, many antipoverty programs
were built on the assumption that most people receiving welfare needed job training
programs in order to transition from welfare to permanent, paid employment.
However, additional data that became available a decade after these laws were
passed showed that most people receiving welfare do so for short periods because
of medical or family crises—problems that the Great Society programs did not
address.^32 Despite these shortcomings, the expansion of the federal government
during the New Deal and Great Society has remained in place well into the twenty-
fi rst cent u r y.The Reagan Revolution and Afterward The election of Ronald Reagan to the
presidency in 1980, along with a Republican takeover of the Senate and Republican
gains in the House of Representatives, created an opportunity for conservatives to
roll back the size and scope of the federal government. These efforts were largely
unsuccessful. In the years since Reagan, members of Congress and presidents from
both parties have fought for large expansions in government policy. For example,
while Democrat Barack Obama’s administration issued many new environmental
regulations and profoundly changed the American health care system, these changes
are not too different in magnitude from the reforms championed by RepublicanUnder President George W. Bush,
the federal bureaucracy continued
to expand. Programs like No Child
Left Behind increased the role of
government in society.Full_14_APT_64431_ch13_454-487.indd 468 16/11/18 1:44 PM