What Government Should Do
The laissez-faire argument
- Some argued that laissez-faire policies and competition promoted economic growth in the long run, and they opposed government intervention during economic downturns.
- Some argued — the CED reports a position rather than endorsing it, as it did with Manifest Destiny in 5.2.
- In the long run and during economic downturns are the two halves: a claim about time, and a policy about crises.
Select both halves of the laissez-faire position.
A claim about time, and a policy about crises.
The awkward fact beside it
- 6.2 recorded government subsidies for transportation and communication systems, and 6.6 recorded pro-growth government policies.
- So the same period contains an argument for non-intervention and a record of substantial state support.
- Noticing that gap is the single most useful analytical move in this subtopic.
'Some argued' shows the CED is...
As it did with Manifest Destiny in 5.2.
Policymakers looked outward too
- Foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America.
- This is 6.6's business sentence with foreign policymakers substituted, and the CED writes them in parallel on purpose.
- So government was not absent from the economy; it was active where it mattered to the largest firms.
The doctrine, the record, or the outward turn?
Sort each element of government's economic role.
Select both records of state support from earlier subtopics.
A doctrine and a record, side by side.
The same period contains an argument for non-intervention and a record of substantial state support. 6.2's government subsidies and 6.6's pro-growth government policies sit beside 6.12's laissez-faire argument — describing that distinction is the most useful move available here.
The CED writes the business sentence and the foreign-policy sentence in parallel.
Business and state looking in the same direction.
Continuity and change in government's role
- The objective is continuities and changes in the role of the government in the U.S. economy.
- Continuity: the boundary question 3.9 opened is still being argued, now over regulation and downturns.
- Change: the government now subsidises infrastructure and pursues markets abroad — a larger role than 4.8's internal improvements.
The most useful move is to describe the ____ between the doctrine and the record.
Not a contradiction to expose.
Writing about a doctrine and a record
- State the doctrine as the CED does — some argued — then set the record beside it.
- The strongest sentence: laissez-faire was argued for private production and against relief, while subsidy and diplomacy served the largest firms.
- That is not a contradiction to expose but a distinction to describe, and the CED's parallel sentences invite it.
A government can decline to help a family through a bad winter and, in the same session, grant land and credit to build a railway. Both decisions can be defended on principle; only one of them is described as intervention.
Some argued that laissez-faire policies and competition promoted economic growth in the long run, and they opposed government intervention during economic downturns, while foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific Rim, Asia, and Latin America. Beside these sit 6.2's government subsidies and 6.6's pro-growth government policies — a doctrine and a record, and the distinction between them is the analysis.