The Progressive Era

The State and Social Change: The Uses of Public Resources for the Common Good

Russell Baker, quoting Adam Cohen, noted that Roosevelt passed fifteen major laws through Congress with fireside chats and press conferences.
Roosevelt created agencies like AAA, CCC, FERA, and NRA to aid farmers, industry, and the unemployed.
He took America off the gold standard, created the Tennessee Valley Authority, established public works programs, and regulated stock issues.
Advances were made toward minimum wage, child labor ban, and legal support for union organizing.
This period, 'The Hundred Days,' profoundly changed the government's attitude toward citizens, creating ideological conflicts in American politics.
Jack Alexander's experience during the Jim Crow era: playing only against black teams, staying at people's houses, and eating at black restaurants if available.

The Modern State as an Agent of Change

The modern state addresses issues, both large and small, to make things happen or restore order.
It leads, teams up with, supports, and responds to efforts to bring about social change.
The state invests heavily in research and scientific applications for technology development.
It's the focus of social movements seeking to speed up, change, or block change.
State-corporate collaboration directs economic activity in democratic capitalism.
The state's power is evident in preparing for and conducting war.

Strong States and Social Change

Since the emergence of nations, the scope of the state has grown enormously.
Almost everyone agrees that the state should provide protection and physical security for citizens.
Even advocates of minimalist government accept taxes for things that can't be left to individuals or private commerce.
The modern state creates and maintains currency value and regulates finance.
It builds and operates public infrastructure like schools, waste treatment plants, highways, airports, bridges, parks, and prisons.
Governments regulate private land use, oversee public land, support commerce, ensure workplace safety, respond to emergencies, and support elderly and disabled citizens.
Modern states deliver mail, help the unemployed, build dams, patrol streets, regulate entry, rescue the lost, and bury the indigent.
They support research, administer pensions, honor veterans, ensure health care, and authorize courts.
States act on international accords, join international courts, and engage in military operations.
Strong states support economic activity and advance social improvement.
States ensure authority through popular actions.
Strong authoritarian states, like China, have an opaque political system and significant autonomy.
A nation unable to respond to disasters or provide basic services is a weak nation.
The chapter focuses on states using public resources to advance collective goods and improve well-being.
Three US case studies: public health, increased public resources, and expanded civil rights.
The state drives social change by supporting research, enforcing regulations, funding public works, and through judicial decisions and legislation.
The chapter contrasts social change in the US with that in China since the Mao Zedong era.
China's economic growth is tightly controlled by a single-party system.

Public Health: Reducing Disease and Accidental Death as a Public Good

Historically, many women died in childbirth; infant mortality rates were high.
Mortality rates were higher for poor, non-White, and immigrant women and infants.
Today, fewer infants and mothers die in childbirth.
Vaccinations were developed in state-supported research facilities, and immunization programs proliferated.
The polio vaccine was administered in public schools.
Vaccination Assistance Act of 1962 made postnatal vaccination standard.
Fears of pandemics elicit calls for state action.
Historically, most deaths were from infectious diseases like tuberculosis and cholera.
The Spanish flu pandemic killed 30 million people worldwide.
Today, these causes of death are rare in affluent countries due to improved public health.
Public health is medical activity directed at community health through preventive practices advanced by public organizations.
People in the United States are taller and live nearly thirty years longer than a century ago.
People are more likely to die of cancer or cardiovascular diseases.
Dramatic changes occurred for motor vehicle accidents and occupational safety.
Auto fatalities have decreased due to better cars, safer roads, federal standards, and law enforcement.
Occupational fatality rates declined tenfold in the twentieth century.
State power was used to improve health and safety.

Public Health in the Progressive Era and Beyond

At the turn of the twentieth century, limited access to filtered water and sewage treatment.
Overcrowded slums and unregulated waste disposal bred infectious diseases.
Progressives identified the source of these problems in poverty itself.
There was widespread miserable housing, lack of medical care, and polluted water.
These became publicly recognized problems in need of collective solutions.
New York City initiated efforts to improve child health by creating the Bureau of Child Hygiene.
The city cleared streets, improved sanitation, provided clean water, relieved overcrowding, and established access to medical services.
The germ theory of infectious disease was new, but a general idea of communicable disease was shared.