Answer:
- Hoover believed the federal government should be less involved -- that the main activity should occur at the level of businesses and local government, along with private charitable efforts.
- Roosevelt believed the nation needed a larger role to be played by the federal government, and put forth a plan to attack the Depression on a national level with his New Deal policies and programs.
Explanation/historical context:
Herbert Hoover served as President of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was in office when the Great Depression began, and was blamed for the fact that the country struggled as it did. The problems that led to the Depression had been building up for years before Hoover took office, but as the leader of the country when the troubles hit, he was the one who took the bulk of the criticism. And Hoover really had no successful solutions to the problems.
In a radio addressed delivered on February 12, 1931, President Hoover emphasized his approach to let local governments, private businesses and private charities lead the way in addressing Depression conditions. He said this: "Throughout this depression I have insisted upon organization of these forces through industry, through local government and through charity, that they should meet this crisis by their own initiative, by the assumption of their own responsibilities." Hoover believed the federal government should take a secondary, supportive role -- not be the key force in solving the Depression. He said, "The Federal Government has sought to do its part by example in the expansion of employment, by affording credit to drought sufferers for rehabilitation, and by cooperation with the community, and thus to avoid the opiates of government charity and the stifling of our national spirit of mutual self-help."
In the 1932 presidential election, Hoover's approach was rejected. He was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took over as president on a platform of national measures to combat the Depression -- a program of policies and initiatives that Roosevelt called the "New Deal," which made the federal government much more directly involved in the lives of Americans. The creation of the Social Security system would be an example of that.