Herbert Hoover's Self-Government

Herbert Hoover’s philosophy about the function of the federal government was individualist in nature as well, meaning that he viewed a decentralized federal government with most of the day to day intervention being in the jurisdiction of the local and state governments. He was distinctly against the communist and socialist ideas that were spreading through Europe creating centralised authoritarian governments. Instead his individualist mentality resulted in a response through decentralized initiative, “…to avoid the opiates of government charity and the stifling of our national spirit of mutual self-help.” For Hoover that spirit of self-help is what separated the United States from succumbing to revolutions that plagued Europe. This decentralised …show more content…
Hoover was committed to ensuring this regionalised foundation saying that federal involvement, “…should limit its responsibilities to supplement the states and local communities…To do otherwise threatens the whole foundations of local government, which is the very basis of self-government.” Due to the historical precedent of the role of the federal government coupled with Hoover’s own individualism it makes sense that he limited government intervention in the beginning of his presidency and stayed the course using institutions and policies established by his predecessor to combat the Great Depression. Towards the end of his presidency when Hoover was running against Franklin Roosevelt for a second term, the American public had started to recognize that Hoover’s and the Republican policies of the past decade were not effective in ending the Great Depression. This can be visually seen in Rollin Kirby’s editorial cartoon, He thinks it will do for four years more, where a fat old man is driving a beat up car labelled “Economic and Governmental Theories of the Harding …show more content…
Hoover’s ideal purpose of the government’s regulatory power was outlined in American Individualism as a “safeguard to every individual and equality of opportunity to take that position in the community to which his intelligence, character, ability, and ambition entitle him.” Hoover’s conviction of government to provide American citizens an equal opportunity to succeed showed his disdain for regimented systems of class whether it be communism or a historically stratified class system, as suppressors of the power of the individual to drive progress. His individualism took the form of a “meritocracy with a heart…view[ed] the people not as masses or classes or races but as individual human beings.” Hoover’s view of people as individuals rather than the classifications that were prevalent during his time goes back to his Quaker faith which greatly influenced his philosophy of individuals as holding the power to drive progress rather than exclusively certain classes or races. Quakers have a tradition of toleration as some of the first abolitionist and the just treatment of