*noun*; series of programs enacted by the administration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) in response to the Great Depression. This definition refers to the New Deal in US history (as opposed to the current "New Deal" in Great Britain).
The main architects of the New Deal were Harry Hopkins, Henry A. Wallace, and Harold L.
Ickes. The chief prigrams were:
--- The Works Progress Administration (
WPA);
--- the Public Works Administration (
PWA);
--- the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).
These were set up to address industrial and farming failures.
Other programs addressed a long-standing need:
--- the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC);
--- the Tennessee Valley Authority (
TVA), which introduced electrical power infrastructure to much of the impoverished rural South;
--- the Civil Works Administration (
CWA), which supplied electrical power generation;
--- the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation (
FDIC), which provides insurance for bank accounts;
--- the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC);
--- the Social Security Administration (SSA);
Legislation included:
--- the National Labor Relations Act (
NLRA), or Wagner Act, which gave most workers the right to organize;
--- the National Industrial Recovery Act (
NIRA), which was struck down in 1935 by the US Supreme Court;
--- the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA), which set basic working standards.
The New
Deal's main impact was to establish basic protections for workers, consumers, and farmers. While some of these protections could have been better designed, they perform an indispensable function. In terms of actual
fiscal policy, the New Deal was far too small to hasten the end of the Great Depression itself.
