American Federal Government Research Articles

The McCarthy Era and the American Theatre

Eric Bentley's Thirty Years of Treason, Lillian Hellman's Scoundrel Time, Lately Thomas's When Even Angels Wept, and Robert Goldston's The American Nightmare are only a few of the many studies that have been written about that unsettling and aberrant period of recent American history frequently known as the McCarthy era.' The very titles of the books tell us immediately with what loathing and shame most Americans now look back to that time of political paranoia. Joseph McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, who became a household word through the famous hearings that sought to excoriate Communists from the American army and from American life, was really only one aspect of a widespread fear of subversion already very much manifest long before Senator McCarthy came forth with his claims. On February 9, 1950, Senator McCarthy made his famous speech to the ladies of the Ohio County Women's Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, exclaiming, I have here in my hand a list of 205 who were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. With these words he launched his now infamous campaign against Communism, but as one historian nicely points out, the menace had merely found its spokesman.2 The real starting point for the so-called McCarthy era actually came several years earlier when, on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9835 creating a loyalty and security program within the American federal government.

Large vs. small retailers in the USA

In the 1930s, American federal and state governments legislated explicitly in favor of the small retailer. But since the war it has been the indirect legislation which has had the most impact on the balance between large and small retailers — especially in such areas as trading hours, social policies such as public subsidies for suburban highway construction, and the relaxed attitude by the Federal Trade Commission towards mergers of retail multiples. Even some of the legislation that apparently imposes burdens on large‐scale retailing may ultimately be to its advantage.

Political Spending in the United States: Analyses of Political Influences on the Allocation of Federal Money to Local Environments

Where the American Federal Government spends its budget is an important influence on interstate variations in social well-being. This spending is not entirely directed at matching needs, however. Instead, allocations to states are influenced by a number of political variables, the operation of which is described and tested for here.

The Allocation of Federal Money in the United States: Aggregate Analysis by Correlation

There is a considerable literature in the social sciences reporting analyses of variations between governments (almost invariably local governments) in their spending on various service areas. Much less attention has been paid to the spatial pattern of spending within the territory of a single government, largely because of a paucity of data. It is possible to analyse allocations of money to the states by the American federal government, however, and the present paper outlines some results of exploratory investigations into the influences on the spatial pattern of this spending. Both economic and political variables have been used to account for patterns of inter-governmental spending. Economic variables cover the needs for different policies in different places, needs which vary because of spatial patterns of the target populations, and differences between places in the resources available to meet such needs. Political variables refer to the dispositions of different parties towards meeting certain perceived needs, and the abilities of representatives to obtain social and economic benefits for their constituents. As the analyses reported here are for aggregates – state populations – the measurement of needs is difficult and spatial variations in resources are of slight relevance only.

Reflection and Future Subjects on Scientific and Technological Information Policy by American Federal Government (II) : Congress Issues and New Trend

Reflection and Future Subjects on Scientific and Technological Information Policy by American Federal Government (II) : Congress Issues and New Trend

Gelfand, Mark. A Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America, 1933-1965

This volume traces the discovery of the "urban crisis11 by the American Federal Government and the gradual institutionalization of its concern, beginning with the calculated neglect of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century to the deepening involvement that originated in the Depression. The relationship is examined from both sides; if the Federal Government felt no obligation to cities, municipal leaders asked for none. The gradual drift to a new alignment stemmed from the crisis in the cities, not as a consequence of the bureaucracy in Washington seeking greater power.

Technology Assessment from the Stance of a Medieval Historian

ON OCTOBER 13, 1972, the American federal government established in Washington an Office of Technology Assessment to advise Congress on legislative problems related to new technology and its probable impact. This act reflects an ambivalence toward engineering innovation that has been rare during the last thousand years in the Occidental culture of which we are part. Both pagan and Christian antiquity, of course, had been dubious about technology. St. Augustine, the most penetrating mind of a groping age, expressed amazement at the ingenuity and variety of the arts, yet feared that the good coming from them may be counterbalanced by the evil of so many poisons, weapons and military machines in addition to stiperfluities and vanities.' The Latin Middle Ages, by contrast, developed an almost entirely affirmative view of techinological improvement. This new attitude is clearly detectable in the early ninth century, and by 1450 engineering advance had become explicitly connected with the virtues: it was integral to the ethos of the West.2 People are organized into cultures by the basic presuppositions-often unverbalized-that they share: their axioms. They ptit their intelligence, energy, and money into what they corporately consider good. The results are as varied as the majestic pyramids of pharaonic Egypt, the sadistic games of the arenas of the Roman West, and the family-centering, but globally focused, television sets of the contemporary industrialized world. Medieval Europe came to believe that technological progress was part of God's will for man. The result was an increasing thrust of invention that has been extrapolated, without interruption or down-curve, into our present society.

Technology assessment from the stance of a medieval historian

ON OCTOBER 13, 1972, the American federal government established in Washington an Office of Technology Assessment to advise Congress on legislative problems related to new technology and its probable impact. This act reflects an ambivalence toward engineering innovation that has been rare during the last thousand years in the Occidental culture of which we are part. Both pagan and Christian antiquity, of course, had been dubious about technology. St. Augustine, the most penetrating mind of a groping age, expressed amazement at the ingenuity and variety of the arts, yet feared that the good coming from them may be counterbalanced by the evil of so many poisons, weapons and military machines in addition to stiperfluities and vanities.' The Latin Middle Ages, by contrast, developed an almost entirely affirmative view of techinological improvement. This new attitude is clearly detectable in the early ninth century, and by 1450 engineering advance had become explicitly connected with the virtues: it was integral to the ethos of the West.2 People are organized into cultures by the basic presuppositions-often unverbalized-that they share: their axioms. They ptit their intelligence, energy, and money into what they corporately consider good. The results are as varied as the majestic pyramids of pharaonic Egypt, the sadistic games of the arenas of the Roman West, and the family-centering, but globally focused, television sets of the contemporary industrialized world. Medieval Europe came to believe that technological progress was part of God's will for man. The result was an increasing thrust of invention that has been extrapolated, without interruption or down-curve, into our present society.

The National Security Council as a Device for Interdepartmental Coordination: An Interpretation and Appraisal

The National Security Council constitutes the most ambitious effort yet made to coordinate policy on the cabinet level in the American federal government. An examination of the experience of the NSC, together with the assumptions and expectations that went into proposing, establishing, and developing it, should help to clarify the problem of policy coordination under the President.Various proposals for a special war cabinet in the United States, usually called a Council of National Defense, date back as far as 1911. The National Defense Act of 1916 established a body by such a name, headed by the Secretary of War. The statute was so watered down from the original proposals, however, that its uses were negligible, except later as a convenient peg for the National Defense Advisory Council (NDAC) and its subsidiaries that Roosevelt called into being in 1940. After World War I, both armed services revived the idea of a more powerful Council in an effort to find some base of support for their military policies, and as a counter to proposals for unification, proposals which they both opposed because these were founded on unrealistic expectations about the sums of money that could be saved through reorganization of the service departments.

The National Security Council as a Device for Interdepartmental Coordination: An Interpretation and Appraisal

The National Security Council constitutes the most ambitious effort yet made to coordinate policy on the cabinet level in the American federal government. An examination of the experience of the NSC, together with the assumptions and expectations that went into proposing, establishing, and developing it, should help to clarify the problem of policy coordination under the President.Various proposals for a special war cabinet in the United States, usually called a Council of National Defense, date back as far as 1911. The National Defense Act of 1916 established a body by such a name, headed by the Secretary of War. The statute was so watered down from the original proposals, however, that its uses were negligible, except later as a convenient peg for the National Defense Advisory Council (NDAC) and its subsidiaries that Roosevelt called into being in 1940. After World War I, both armed services revived the idea of a more powerful Council in an effort to find some base of support for their military policies, and as a counter to proposals for unification, proposals which they both opposed because these were founded on unrealistic expectations about the sums of money that could be saved through reorganization of the service departments.

The American Federal Government

The American Federal Government

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: The People and the Court: Judicial Review in a Democracy. By Charles L. Black, Jr. The Undirected Society. By Sir Geoffrey Vickers. Toronto: University of Toronto The American Federal Government. By Max Beloff.

The American Federal Government.

Journal Article The American Federal Government Get access The American Federal Government. By Max Beloff. London, Oxford University Press, 1959. 247 pp. Bibliog. Index. Home University Library No. 241. 7s. 6d. C. J. C. C. J. C. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 36, Issue 2, April 1960, Page 275, https://doi.org/10.2307/2612157 Published: 01 April 1960

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access The American Federal Government. Max Beloff. Home University Library No. 241. Oxford University Press. 247 pp. 7s. 6d. DELL G. HITCHNER DELL G. HITCHNER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XIII, Issue 1959aug, August 1959, Pages 119–121, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a053427 Published: 01 August 1959

The American System of Government and The American Federal Government

Journal Article The American System of Government and The American Federal Government Get access The American System of Government. 4th ed. By John H. Ferguson and Dean E. McHenryNew York, Toronto, London, McGraw-Hill, 1956. xiv+757 pp. Illus. Maps. Charts. Index. (McGraw-Hill Series in Political Science. Joseph P. Harris, Consulting Editor.) 10″×7½″. $6.25. 50s. 6d.The American Federal Government. 4th ed. By John H. Ferguson and Dean E. McHenryNew York, Toronto, London, McGraw-Hill, 1956. xiv+647 pp. Illus. Maps. Charts. Index. (McGraw-Hill Series in Political Science. Joseph P. Harris, Consulting Editor.) 10″×7½″. $6.25. 47s. Alan Conway Alan Conway Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 33, Issue 2, April 1957, Page 260, https://doi.org/10.2307/2608963 Published: 01 April 1957

Book Review: The American System of Government, the American Federal Government

Book Review: The American System of Government, the American Federal Government

American Federal Government: A General View

American Federal Government: A General View

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Private Investment in a Controlled Economy: Germany, 1933‐39. By Samuel LurieThe Course and Control of Infiation‐A Review of Xonetary Experience in Europe after World war I.The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, by Max WeberThe Economic Problem in Peace and War. By Lionel Robbins Maemillan & Co. Ltd.Studies in War Economics. Prepared at the Oxford Institute of Statistics (Blackwell, Oxford, 1947)The Elements of Economics. By Lorie TarshisPrinciples of Economics. By Albert E. WaughDes Mouvements économiques généraux. By Léon H. Dupriez.Theorie und Praxis cler modemen Einkommensbesteucrung. By Friedrieh Neumark.An Essay on Marxian Economics. By Joan RobinsonThe Candidate's Companion–Notes for Examinees in Elementary Economics. H. M. CroomeInternational Trade and Commercial Policy. By Lawrence “W. TowleSome Technical Aspects of Foreign Trade Statistics with Special Reference to Valuation. By N. M. PetruzzelliInternational Cartels. By Ervin HexnerPosition and Frospects of India s Foreign Irade–A burvey by Trade Commissioners. Edited by A. N. Agarwala.The American Federal Government. By J. H. Ferguson and D. E. McHenryResearch and Scientific Activity: Canadian Federal Expenditures, 1938‐46. Department of Reconstruction and Supply.Bombay Finance, (1921‐46). By T. M. JoshiThe Federal Problem in India. By D. R. GadgilAspects of British Economic History, 1918‐25. By A. C. PigouStepping Stones Towards the Future. By A. F. Burns.Survey of Labor Economics. By Florence Peterson.Indian Labour Problems. A. N. Agarwala, Editor.The Relation between Farm Management Factors, Milk Cost and Operator Labor Earning. By P. H. CasselmanThe Economics of Minimum Wage Legislation, Chamber of Commerce of the United States; Report of Committee on Economic PolicyPlan Your Own Industries. By M. P. Fogarty (Blackwell, Oxford, 1947)Wachstum und Wachstumsformen der englischen Industriewirtschaft von 1700 bis zur Gegenwart (Rate and Forms of growth of Industries in the United Kingdom from 1700 to the Present). By Walther Hoffmann (Edition Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1940)Industrial Capital in India (1938‐39). By M. V. Divatia and H. M. Trivedi.Full Employment and Free Enterprise. By John H. G. PiersonThe Native Reserves: Report No. 9 of the Social and Economic Planning CouncilAspetti Economics e Finanziari della Durata degli Impianti ProduttiviSulla Pressione Comparata dell'Impost a sul Reddito e dell'Impost a sal Consumo