Basing his proposal on plans developed by New Deal social welfare administrators, Harvey analyzes the feasibility and desirability of using public sector job creation to secure a right to employment. He shows that such a policy would provide more effective relief from the problems of poverty and...

This paper argues that the direct job-creation strategy adopted by the New Deal administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in programs like the WPA (the “New Deal strategy”) is best understood as an effort to secure what the New Dealers came to regard as a human rights entitlement—the right...