ABSTRACT
Affluence is a process that continues to have an impact on the present, though this can be both negative and positive. The political conditions for affluence were generated during the New Deal period and consolidated in the decade immediately after the Second World War. The majority of Republicans continued to oppose the New Deal on principle, considering it to be socialistic and anti-American. Eisenhower concluded that this form of conservatism was short sighted and would continue to damage the Republican Party. Many of the considerations affected the Conservative party in Britain during the 1940s and 1950s. Social democratic policy success legitimized state intervention, the welfare state and a high employment policy in Europe and the United States. The nature of political competition reinforced the pressure on governments to deliver both security and affluence. The 'age of affluence' had dawned and the majority were sharing in the new prosperity.
