In 1935, Roosevelt introduced a second wave of reforms including the Social Security Act and the Wagner Act. (a) Describe the main provisions of the Social ...

(a) Main provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 [4 marks]

The Social Security Act established a federal pension system for Americans over 65, funded by payroll contributions from both workers and employers. It created unemployment insurance, providing temporary payments to workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It provided federal grants to states for welfare payments to people with disabilities and to families with dependent children. Crucially, it represented the first time the United States federal government accepted permanent, ongoing responsibility for the welfare of its citizens, breaking decisively with the tradition of limited government.

(b) Why Roosevelt introduced the Wagner Act [6 marks]

The Wagner Act (officially the National Labor Relations Act of 1935) responded to specific circumstances. The Supreme Court had struck down the NIRA in May 1935, removing the previous legal protections for workers' right to organise and bargain collectively. Without legal protection, many employers used intimidation, company spies, violence, and sham "company unions" to prevent genuine collective bargaining. Roosevelt needed the political support of organised labour and working-class voters for his 1936 re-election campaign. Pressure from the political left, including Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth" movement, pushed Roosevelt toward bolder reform to maintain his coalition. A wave of strikes and industrial unrest in 1934, including a general strike in San Francisco and a textile workers' strike involving 400,000 workers, demonstrated the urgent need for a legal framework governing labour relations. The Wagner Act established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to oversee fair union elections and to investigate and prevent unfair labour practices by employers.

(c) To what extent the Second New Deal went further than the first [10 marks]

The Second New Deal went further:

• Social Security created a permanent welfare state that endured for decades, going far beyond the emergency relief measures of the first New Deal.
• The Wagner Act gave workers permanent legal rights to organise and bargain collectively, rather than the temporary codes of the NIRA.
• The WPA (Works Progress Administration, created 1935) was larger and more ambitious than the earlier CWA (Civil Works Administration), eventually employing 8.5 million people in projects across the country.
• The Second New Deal addressed structural inequality rather than simply providing emergency relief; tax reforms (the Revenue Act of 1935) raised rates on the wealthy and large corporations.
• The measures were designed to be constitutionally robust, avoiding the legal vulnerabilities that had doomed the NIRA and AAA.

The first New Deal had its own revolutionary significance:

• The first New Deal represented the more radical break from laissez-faire economics, establishing the principle that the federal government had a responsibility to intervene in the economy.
• Banking reform and the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1933 were fundamental structural changes that prevented future bank panics.
• The CCC and TVA, both from the first New Deal, continued operating throughout the 1930s and beyond.
• The Second New Deal built upon the foundations laid by the first rather than replacing them entirely.
• Neither the first nor the second New Deal ended the Depression; that only came with wartime mobilisation after 1941.

The Second New Deal went further by creating permanent institutions (Social Security, the NLRB) and addressing structural reform, while the first New Deal had focused primarily on emergency stabilisation and confidence-building.