The United States presidential election of 1932 took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the country's economic collapse. Joe Steele used Hoover's perceived failure as a platform for his own election, promising a policy called the Four Year Plan to jumpstart the economy. Steele won in a landslide, and began to slowly accumulate power to the executive branch at the expense of the legislative and judicial.