The Welfare State Republic, 1937-1995

• Author: Jack Fruchtman
• Profession: Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland
• Pages: 143-145

American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, First Edition. Jack Fruchtman.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Part 4

In contrast to the free market republic, federal spending in the welfare

state republic vastly increased. Congress justified its authority to

create new social programs under its interstate commerce power.

The commerce clause also provided the rationale for congressional

civil rights laws that ensured equal employment opportunities and

racial integration of places of public accommodation. After 1954, the

Supreme Court especially focused on the desegregation of schools. As

the federal budget grew, so did the national debt. The period also wit-

nessed the expansion of the power of the presidency, especially in light

of the recovery from the Great Depression of 1929 and World War II.

Moreover, several regional wars followed in the Far East along with

military interventions in Latin America and the Middle East. Most

importantly, the United States entered into a long and costly Cold War

with the Soviet Union, pitting Communism against the West’s liberal

democracies. At the end of the period, the Soviet Union collapsed

along with the fall of Communism throughout Eastern Europe. The

United States became the unchallenged superpower of the world, but

soon faced threats of international terrorism and the rise of new

industrial powers like India and China.

The welfare state republic included the advent of new judicial doctrines.

Judges typically sought whether laws were reasonable in achieving

legitimate goals. In the mid‐twentieth centur y, the justices recognized a

new test to deal with cases involving fundamental rights like free speech

The Welfare State Republic,

1937–1995