“An Empirical Examination of the New Deal Era Public Finance Apparatus” with Patrick O’Brien, Yale

AMERICAN POLITICS & PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP

Abstract: I examine the creation and operations of the New Deal era public finance apparatus. Specifically, I trace how presidential control over the administrative apparatus for public finance—broadly defined to include fiscal policy and monetary policy—varies across the Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower administrations. I then discuss the implications of this finding for the unitary executive framework, the leading approach currently on offer in presidential studies, and I propose a new historical-institutional alternative to studying the presidency.

Speaker: Patrick O’Brien is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Yale University and a recipient of the Miller Center National Fellowship for the 2016-17 academic year. His research interests include American political institutions, American political development, and public policy.