The presidential election in 1932

The Republicans won the presidential election in 1928 when the economy was still booming. Their candidate was Herbert Hoover. One year later, the Wall Street Crash happened and brought severe consequences for the USA’s industry and people. In the next presidential election, in 1932 (the first one after the Wall Street Crash), Hoover lost to the Democrat candidate, Franklin D Roosevelt. Many people state that this was mainly because of the Republican policies and their reaction to the Crash, but, how far is that true?

Herbert Hoover

To begin with, the Republican policies are four: Laissez faire (not interceding with people´s economy), tariffs for importation (they protected US industry against foreign competition), low taxation (they thought people would buy goods or invest in industry with that money) and trusts (huge corporations that dominated industry). Republicans wouldn´t change their basic policies, mostly because they believed that the Depression was caused by economic problems in Europe, not by failures in the US economy. They thought that business could solve its problems alone and that help from the Government was no needed. Moreover, they claimed that business consisted on a cycle of boom and bust, so prosperity would come back alone. It was because of the policy of Laissez-faire that Hoover did almost nothing to help people who were hit hardest for the depression, as he thought that social security and relief were a responsibility and should be provided by local governments. He faced bitter criticism because of that.

Franklin D Roosevelt

Nevertheless, there were other causes for Roosevelt’s success in the presidential election, which were Hoover’s flaws and Roosevelt’s characteristics as a politician. As regard Hoover’s flaws, he was known as a “do nothing” president, even though he tried to do something, but that was not enough. He tried to restart the economy by cutting taxes and to persuade business leaders not to cut wages. Moreover, he set up the Reconstruction Finance Company to prevent banks from going bankrupts. He also tried to protect the US industry by tariffs, but this made the Depression worse. In connection to Roosevelts characteristics as a politician, he believed in an active government to improve people´s lives. He wanted to spend public many to create jobs (he already did this as Governor of New York), and asked for advise to experts (factory owners, economists and union leaders). He didn’t have a specific plan, but he realized that people wanted action and he gave them that.

To conclude, even though the Republican’s reaction against the Crash had to do with Roosevelt winning the election in 1932, Hoover’s flaws and Roosevelt’s characteristics were also very important. This was so because Hoover’s flaws exposed him to great criticism and turned public opinion against him, while Roosevelt gave people what they wanted.