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Explaining New Deal Labor Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Theda Skocpol ,
Kenneth Finegold  and
Michael Goldfield
Theda Skocpol
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Kenneth Finegold
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
Michael Goldfield
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Abstract

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 represented a turning point in modern labor relations policy in the United States. In the December 1989 issue of this Review, Michael Goldfield examined the effects of worker insurgency and radical organization on the enactment of the new labor law and rejected theories that emphasized the autonomy of the state from societal forces. In this Controversy, Theda Skocpol and Kenneth Finegold argue that the growing strength of liberal Democrats in Congress following the 1934 election and the failure of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) as an economic recovery measure provided the most important causes for the passage of the NLRA in mid-1935. In response Goldfield argues that the results of the 1934 election were themselves influenced by the protest environment and that the passage of the NLRA was a foregone conclusion before the NIRA was struck down.

Type
Controversies
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 84 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 1297 - 1315
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1990

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