Lyndon B. Johnson and the Model Cities Act: A case study in working Congress

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

09/24/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Political science

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Summary :

Introduction
Johnson's ideals
The Great Society reforms
1. The elimination of poverty
2. Racial inequality
Johnson's style
The concept of urban renewal
1. Effect of the concept on the President
The Demonstration Cities Bill
Working the system
1. Democratic congressional leadership
2. Re-election in Alabama
3. Johnson and the house committee
Controlling the votes
The fate of the model cities program
Conclusion
Bibliography

Abstract

Cast into the Presidency on the heels of the Kennedy assassination, lyndon Baines johnson was affirmed in office in 1964 by a landslide electoral victory. The Vietnam War was not yet the incendiary quagmire it would become later in his term, and johnson was free to put his energies and his political capital to work on an ambitious program of domestic policy initiatives.

He plunged into this by proposing a sweeping set of social reforms and programs mustered under the rubric of "The Great Society." The President shared his vision and program concepts at graduation speeches, press conferences, and in a widely read article appearing in the Saturday Evening Post in October 1964. In these communications he painted a vision of the future of American society: that the U.S. could be a place where one can raise a family "free from the dark shadow of war and suspicion among nations;" that it can be a place where the country is growing not only richer and stronger but happier and wiser. Now, he said, we have an opportunity for the country to move, "not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society."