> Most observers have always been very surprised that there never was a > big demand for socialism in the United States - even at the height of > the depression. The New Deal was very much driven by the Executive > branch not by Congress - thus I think things could have been quite > different had we not had FDR. > Alex
I don't share that interpretation. I think the American party system was able to absorb and ameliorate the demand for socialism. My take is that the American labor movement was quite like the European socialist movement, and was quite prominent (remember Eugene V. Debs?). But the big parties were able to produce concessions - for ex, TR's trust busting or FDR's New Deal. Fabio
