THE JOHNSON AND REAGAN ADMINISTRATIONS
This research paper describes and contrasts the political ideologies and strategies and the economic and social policies of the presidencies of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1968) and Ronald Reagan (1980-1988). There were some parallels between their presidencies. Both men achieved their greatest legislative accomplishments during their early years in office. They each built successful political coalitions and won landslide mandates for a second term. Neither of them managed the economy well. The contrasts were even more striking. Johnson and Reagan pursued fundamentally different political strategies, economic and social policies because of the conditions they faced, their differing backgrounds, political and management styles and their opposing basic political philosophies and ideologies.
The conditions under which Johnson and Reagan took office differed markedly. By the time Johnson became President after John F. Kennedy's assassination, the New Deal coalition of the Solid South, labor, farmers and minorities was deteriorating. The Republicans had made substantial inroads in the South. JFK was narrowly elected in 1962, largely because he won the support of many Republicans and independents who were members of the expanding suburban and urban middle class (Goldman 16). Kennedy's legislative program had been stymied by conservative forces in the Congress. The post-war economic boom was continuing. It had resulted in an increase in the number of middle class families from 22 percent in 1950 to 55 percent by 1966 (Chafe 232). Many millions of Americans had not shared in the rising prosperity. In the social arena, "issues of social change exploded into the nation's consciousness as blacks, women and economically disadvantaged minorities pressed for reform" (Chafe 221).
When Reagan became President in 1980, the situation had changed considerably. He succeeded two relatively w...