Pritzker Fellow Peter Meijer on "The American Dream & the Growth of the Administrative State"

(Current UChicago Students Only)

Thursday, February 9

12:30-1:45 PM

American writer and historian James Truslow Adams popularized the phrase ‘American Dream’ in 1931, writing that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” While a modern political consensus on the American Dream has proven elusive, the assumption of state involvement in pursuing the American Dream was in the air back in 1931. The Roosevelt Administration implemented the New Deal from 1933 to 1939, aided by a 1937 shift in the Supreme Court’s view of the constitutionality of the New Deal programs. What followed was rise of the modern administrative state.

This session explores how the role of the federal administrative state has grown from humble origins in the Constitution’s Commerce and Necessary and Proper clauses and what the American public has come to expect from the federal government. Students will understand the judicial decisions and legislative acts that underpin the functions of our modern federal government, and how those functions impact our current ability to address cost of living concerns.

Pritzker Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only. Seating in the IOP Living Room is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Ashley Jorn (ashleyjorn@uchicago.edu).