The Social Security Debate: Unemployment Insurance in the United States

Author

Antonio Louis Ricco III, College of the Holy Cross

Date of Creation

5-8-2023

Document Type

Campus Access Only

First Advisor

Alex Hindman

Abstract

Social welfare programs have been a persistent and highly controversial policy within the United States since their introduction during the New Deal to this day. Unemployment insurance was first widely introduced to America by Franklin Delano Roosevelt through the Social Security Act of 1935. This legislation was an attempt to ease the pains of the mass unemployment prevalent during the Great Depression. In this thesis, I evaluate whether the passage of this legislation was the result of a deliberative or non-deliberative process. While I acknowledge the importance of non-deliberative processes and techniques used in the creation of this legislation, I conclude that this piece of legislation was passed through a largely deliberative process. After assessing the deliberative nature of its passage, this project explores the contours of the arguments made by policymakers and the ideas that informed their debate that still animate American political life.

Comments

Reader: Samuel Stoddard

Recommended Citation

Ricco, Antonio Louis III, "The Social Security Debate: Unemployment Insurance in the United States" (2023). College Honors Program. 89.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/honors/89