The Confederate Roots of the Administrative State

From Wilson, we can easily draw a straight line to modern progressive administration. Not only did our 28th president expand the administrative state in ways both temporary and permanent, but his example was also widely cited by the next Democratic president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as an undersecretary of the Navy under Wilson and was on the next Democratic ticket in 1920. FDR campaigned in 1932 on returning to Wilson’s approach. “We planned in war,” was the progressive slogan around using Wilson’s war policies in peacetime against the Depression. FDR ultimately bent the Supreme Court to accept the large-scale, permanent metastasis of federal administrative government, under the methods of constitutional interpretation originated by Wilson.

In Woodrow Wilson’s administrative-state legacy, we can still see the long shadow of the Confederate States of America.

By DAN MCLAUGHLIN

July 30, 2020 6:30 AM
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