Building the New Deal state on the local level: Unemployment relief in Los Angeles County during the 1930s

By examining the administration of unemployment relief in Los Angeles County, this dissertation illuminates how the New Deal changed the division of social welfare responsibilities between federal, state and county levels of government. Taking an institutional political history approach and drawing on theories of the state, it adds to our understanding of the policymaking and administrative “fragmentation” of the American welfare state. It thus sheds more light on why the United States has usually developed narrowly targeted and poorly coordinated social welfare programs rather than universal ones.;The dissertation first examines how counties administered relief before 1933, when they were primarily responsible for aiding the unemployed. Financed through local property taxes, county relief became increasingly inadequate as unemployment rose during the Great Depression. With the start of the New Deal, in the attempt to provide more adequate aid for the able-bodied unemployed, the federal government assumed a share of the cost.;New Deal policies ultimately created a complex division of social welfare responsibilities between levels of government. Despite federal involvement, state and county officials still played a key role in the administration of unemployment relief. Rather than aiding all the unemployed, federal work relief programs focused on the most able-bodied cases. The state government's role in unemployment relief expanded. The state relief agency ultimately aided the able-bodied unemployed who did not receive federal work relief. The county remained responsible for aiding “unemployable” cases, even though unemployment was often their main cause of need. Federal work relief programs delegated key administrative responsibilities to state and local officials. State relief officials determined eligibility for federal work relief. City and county officials selected work projects. State and local officials consequently had considerable political leverage to influence federal relief policies. In order to fully understand the New Deal, we therefore must examine how the interaction between levels of government shaped unemployment relief policy.