Reflections on the New Deal: The Vested Interests and Limits to Reform

In this chapter the author subjects some aspects of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” to critical analysis, demonstrating the limits to reform given the power of “vested interests” as articulated by Thorstein Veblen. While progressive economists and others are generally favorably disposed toward the New Deal, a critical perspective casts doubt on the progressive nature of the various programs instituted during the Roosevelt administrations. The New Deal was shaped by the institutional forces then dominant in the U.S., including the segregationist system of the South. In the end, “vested interests” dictated what transpired, but what did transpire required a modification of the understanding of the standard ideological perspective of capitalism, “liberalism.”