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Theodore Roosevelt's Construction of the "Public Interest": Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906

Staudacher , Nicholas Adam
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461338219

Abstract Details

2016, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
Staudacher, Nicholas A., M.A. May 2016 History THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S CONSTRUCTION OF THE “PUBLIC INTEREST”: RHETORIC, IDEOLOGY, AND PRESIDENTIAL INTERVENTION, 1901-1906 (96pp.) Thesis Advisor: Clarence E. Wunderlin The current historiography of Roosevelt’s political ideology splits into two competing interpretations, with some viewing him as a conservative, pushing for reform in order to stabilize the social order and stave off socialist uprisings, while other consider him to be a liberal statist, championing the expansion of federal power in order to better the condition of the average American citizen. This analysis concludes that rather than a liberal statist or conservative, Roosevelt was instead more a progressive statist, prioritizing the needs of the public above individual private or corporate interest, especially when the public and private interests directly conflicted. Between 1901 and 1906, Roosevelt used his position as president to intervene in the economy to control corporate power in the “public interest.” To do so, he constructed both “the Executive Branch” and “the public” differently in each of the three different approaches which he employed (prosecutor of a railway trust to further the general welfare of the nation; agent of the public arbitrating the coal industry’s labor dispute; advocate for regulatory legislation to protect American consumers) that roughly corresponded to the three basic categories of law—judge-made law, administrative decisions, and statutory law. This project, being a conceptual history, builds upon both traditions, but will also go a step further by transcending the debate and focus on Roosevelt’s rhetoric in relation to the three previously mentioned categories of law. The mainstay of this project’s methodology is rhetorical analysis, working with concepts established by British political theorist Michael Freeden’s Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Utilizing an approach that views all political utterances, both public and private, as “persuasive speech,” this study scrutinizes Roosevelt’s personal correspondence, speeches to Congress, and public addresses as primary source evidence. In combination, these sources demonstrate the centrality of rhetorical language in Roosevelt’s presidency, and how that language illuminates the attempts he made to regulate corporate power for the sake of the “public interest.”
Clarence Wunderlin , Dr. (Advisor)
96 p.
History; Public Policy
Theodore Roosevelt; Rhetoric Analysis; Government; Regulation; Public Interest; Progressive Era; Politics; Ideology

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Citations

  • Staudacher , N. A. (2016). Theodore Roosevelt's Construction of the "Public Interest": Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906 [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461338219

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Staudacher , Nicholas . Theodore Roosevelt's Construction of the "Public Interest": Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906 . 2016. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461338219.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Staudacher , Nicholas . "Theodore Roosevelt's Construction of the "Public Interest": Rhetoric, Ideology, and Presidential Intervention, 1901-1906 ." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1461338219

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.