The Changing Role of the Federal Government in American History Since 1865

Since the American Civil War ended in 1865, the federal government’s position has undergone significant change. Following the bloodiest war to ever be fought on American soil, the federal government was given enormous new powers to handle the social, political, and economic upheavals of this quickly industrializing country.[1] Over the following decades, the central government in Washington, D.C., was subjected to an increasing number of obligations and expectations due to the traumas of significant industrialization, economic collapses, foreign wars, internal social movements, and other events.[2] Even if opinions on federal authority are now divided along ideological lines, the state has been growing unabatedly since Reconstruction.

In reaction to the profound changes brought about by industrialization, the federal government started its first significant phase of growth in the late 1800s. Railroads, steel mills, oil companies, industrial facilities, and other establishments rose quickly, providing opportunities and disruptions that the states and ordinary citizens could not resolve on their own. As a result, the government started to regulate and manage the industrial sector more centrally and quickly. For instance, the first government organization tasked with regulating railroads and other businesses involved in interstate commerce was established in 1887 with the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission.[3] Similarly, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 gave the federal government previously unheard-of authority against massive monopolies and corporate trusts by outlawing any “contract, combination…or conspiracy in restraint of trade.” This statute would lay the groundwork for attempts to undermine confidence in the early 1900s.[4] These actions represented a significant shift from America’s customarily liberal and laissez-faire economic practices. However, many were persuaded by the quick speed of change that order and justice could only be restored by a more robust federal presence.

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Building upon these progressive underpinnings, the Great Depression crisis would significantly increase the extent of government authority over social and economic matters. Following the 1929 stock market crash, which precipitated the Great Depression, presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted a wave of unprecedented national government expansion. In an attempt to support essential sectors, Hoover’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation provided emergency loans to firms, banks, and railroads. However, when these stopgap measures did not work, FDR realized far more drastic action was required. After he took office in 1933, the federal government implemented a number of New Deal initiatives that not only increased stimulus spending but also established whole new bureaucracies dedicated to providing relief, rehabilitation, and reform to disadvantaged populations.[5] The federal government’s responsibilities to provide economic stability and oversee corporate transactions were extended permanently by organizations like Social Stability, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and others.[6] The New Deal changed Americans’ perceptions of what the government owed to its citizens by providing them with governmental support during their worst periods of unemployment and hunger.

The national bureaucracy and economy grew even more quickly after World War II. The government used centralized organizations like the War Production Board to oversee industrial production, ration limited resources, enforce price restrictions, and other measures in order to plan the massive mobilization required for triumph abroad. More influence over the U.S. economy was ever exerted by Washington, D.C., which persuaded many people to support the expanded government role even after postwar demobilization.[7] Furthermore, the prosperity of the post-war economy and the ensuing boom confirmed this renewed belief in the federal government’s ability to sustain growth via spending and Federal Reserve monetary policies.[8] Promoting maximum employment became an official government aim during peacetime with the passage of the Employment Act in 1946.

National social movements also raised people’s demands for safeguards and changes from federal officials in the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by the black civil rights movement across the Jim Crow South, President Lyndon B. Johnson supervised the enactment of two robust new national legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Through his Great Society agenda, LBJ also introd