ABSTRACT
The Roosevelt administration permanently changed federalism by elevating the Federal government to leadership in mitigating the problems of American industrial society. The Great Depression— the worst economic crisis in American history— fueled overwhelming pressures for government help. The fragmented political institutions that federalism had nurtured for decades posed huge obstacles to the New Deal's Federal activism. Northern factionalism and Southern conservatism severely limited the Democratic Party as a vehicle for developing fully national solutions to the Depression. The New Deal expanded the battlefield of federalism into new areas, multiplying both the stakes and the conflicts over the use of public power in the United States. The New Deal put its federalism strategy to work to fight the farm crisis. The Social Security Act also established major Federal– state grant program categories for other needy Americans, strictly separating benefit programs for those who were not expected to work from those who were.
