FDR and the General Will
In History of Psychology today, the instructors touched on Rousseau’s idea called the General Will. In my understanding, this means what is best for the society collectively, whether they realize it or not.
The instructors then put pictures of a few authoritarian leaders, including Stalin and Hitler, on the screen. The instructors asked, “Can anyone give an example of a leader who imposed their will on the people, whether the people wanted it or not?” The simple answer here was Hitler. Among other things regarding him, he’s highly useful as a quick example.
However, someone raised their hand and said “FDR and the New Deal!” This irked me, and led to this post.
First of all, again, the simple answer was Hitler, yet the student, I believe, 1) wanted to seem unique and 2) wanted to bash on Liberal policies.
I don’t have a problem with someone giving an atypical answer, though I do prefer the answer to at least be right, give insight, or be well thought out.
The issue I have with the students answer is that “FDR’s New Deal” doesn’t fit the bill for a leader going against the General Will.
The difference between what FDR did with the New Deal and what Hitler did with whatever you want to call whatever he did is a difference between bottom up and top down.
Hitler’s movement was top down. Whatever the General Will for the German people was at that time, it didn’t matter; Hitler was going to enforce his vision regardless (the necessity and extent of propaganda suggest that the General Will wasn’t what Hitler was going for, otherwise, I believe, the people would not have needed such prodding and goading).
With FDR, his reforms were bottom up. The people were suffering and demanded the government intervene and take action. This is not an example of a leader forcing the citizens into any particular action, it was the citizens forcing action on the government (which is the ideal of democracy, by the way).
I read about FDR resisting the reforms; but ultimately the General Will of the people forced his hand. I think I read about this is in a textbook (this phenomenon, of remembering the message but not the messenger, is referred to as the sleeper effect in Social Psychology).