Economic mobilization for World War II and the transformation of the American state.
Item
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Title
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Economic mobilization for World War II and the transformation of the American state.
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Identifier
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AAI9405594
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identifier
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9405594
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Creator
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Waddell, Brian Edward.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Frances Piven
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines a neglected, though extremely important, period in modern U.S. history--the domestic industrial mobilization for World War II. With business-government tensions high because of governmental efforts to ameliorate the Great Depression, the U.S. embarked on an intensive experiment of political and economic cooperation through the War Production Board. The results of this experiment--renewed corporate autonomy from government interference, the national security state, and military keynesianism--have been centerpieces of the U.S. political economy for over 45 years.;This study covers the years 1916-1947, though it concentrates on the shifts in national governance occasioned by mobilization for World War II. It includes a detailed examination of the battles over authority and administration that defined mobilization. It also shows how the outcomes of these battles dramatically and irrevocably affected domestic governance in the United States.;Although hotly contested, mobilization came to be dominated by an informal military-corporate alliance. New Dealer attempts to develop civilian-state control could not easily penetrate the institutional barriers of pre-existing military and corporate prerogatives. Major firms relied on their ownership and managerial rights to easily thwart what they portrayed as dictatorial extensions of the state's authority into the productive process. The military, in turn, relied upon their interwar plans to claim a legitimate monopoly over the slowly emerging mobilization agencies.;This case illustrates the flaws in a state-centered perspective which seeks to highlight the independent effect of government actors, policies, and institutions. And, it demonstrates the importance of conceptualizing the interpenetration of state and societal forces. A more inclusive theoretical framework offers an opportunity to draw broader conclusions about the impact of war mobilization upon modern governance in the United States. The pre-war differences between national policy-makers and corporate executives were resolved during the war in ways that heightened corporate autonomy while taming organized labor, and that increased military authority while marginalizing New Dealers. In addition, the Cold War consensus fashioned after the war was predicated on the institutional shifts of the war period.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
