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"Democrats today, for the most part, balance between two slightly competing ideas: that government is part of the solution, while still acknowledging that it can be part of the problem. Meanwhile, they're up against a long-running Republican messaging campaign against 'big government.'
The concept of big government goes back to around the beginning of the 20th century. Princeton historian Julian Zelizer traces the idea to the Wilson administration and its initiatives, including the creation of the Federal Reserve.
'Woodrow Wilson, who is still conservative by modern liberal standards, does allow for a pretty dramatic expansion of government,' Zelizer tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered.
The real turning point, though, was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he says.
'That's the president who not only accepts and pushes for the growth of government, but tells the American people that it's absolutely essential that we have a government deal with the very big social problems that we faced as a nation," he says. "And by 1936, when he runs for re-election for the first time, FDR gives a full-throated defense ... of this idea that government is a positive part of American society.'"
