Franklin D. Roosevelt

::FDR redirects here. For other uses, see FDR (disambiguation).

Legacy

Roosevelt's legacies to the U.S. were a greatly expanded role for government in the management of the economy (effectively ending the days of Laisez-Faire economics), increased government regulation of companies to protect the environment and attempt prevention of corruption, a Social Security system which allowed senior citizens to be able to retire with income and benefits, a nation on the winning side of World War II (with a booming wartime economy), the initialization of globalism and a coalition of voters supporting the Democratic Party which would survive intact until the 1960s and in part until the 1980s, when it was finally shattered by Ronald Reagan, a Roosevelt Democrat in his youth who became a conservative Republican.

Related Topics:
1960s - 1980s - Ronald Reagan

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Internationally, Roosevelt's monument was the United Nations, an organization whose history would certainly have disappointed him in many respects, but which offered at least the hope of an end to the international anarchy which led to two world wars in his lifetime.

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To this day, however, many conservatives view Roosevelt's reforms as "big government", and support more private than government involvement in social affairs. Majority support for the essentials of the Roosevelt domestic program survived their author by 35 years. The Republican administrations of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon did nothing to overturn the Roosevelt-era social programs. It was not until the administration of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) that this was reversed, although Reagan made clear that though he wanted to greatly scale back many of FDR's programs, he would keep them intact (especially Social Security). Bill Clinton, with his program of welfare reform, was the first Democratic president to repudiate elements of the Roosevelt program, and this has continued under George W. Bush. But this has not undermined Roosevelt's posthumous reputation as a great president. A 1999 survey of academic historians by CSPAN found that historians consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Roosevelt the three greatest presidents by a wide margin.http://www.americanpresidents.org/survey/historians/performance.asp. A 2000 survey by The Washington Post found Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt to be the only "great" Presidents.

Related Topics:
Conservatives - Big government - Dwight Eisenhower - Richard Nixon - Ronald Reagan - 1981 - 1989 - Bill Clinton - Welfare reform - George W. Bush - 1999 - CSPAN - Abraham Lincoln - George Washington - 2000 - The Washington Post

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