This chapter discusses significant periods of governmental growth, the premise being that the public's orientation toward government changed as government itself changed. Many Americans are confused when the word leviathan is used in connection with government. People's orientations toward government are multidimensional and reflect simply an abhorrence of "bigness." Public expectations that Franklin Roosevelt would lead the country out of its economic morass bolstered both the national government's power and that of the presidency. The election results were widely viewed as a call from the American people for the national government to address a host of domestic welfare problems. In order to trace public opinion about big government over a period of time, researchers must examine questions that have appeared in surveys for the entire period under consideration. In addition to their lower levels of concern throughout most of the period, younger cohorts also were consistently the least opinionated as to whether the central government had become too strong.