Political Parties In America Essay, Research Paper

In many lands across the world political parties has often taken a drastic and violent turn. Groups defected at the polls have resorted to violent terms of action to advane their cause. The stroy of political parties in the United States is both brief and peaceful.

American two-party system

The american two-party system has ever been a puzzle to Americans and a mystery to foreign observers. Both foreign and domestic critics find fault with the American two-party system.(William B. Hesseltine- Third-Party movements…) Democrats and Republicans, and before them Whigs and Jacksonians, were esentially alike. American democracy is, fundamentally, government by unanimous consent. We are all-or practically all-agreed on the forms of government, on its objectives, and on its procedures. The American people, with practical unanimity, are agreed that the party which polls the majority vote shall conduct the government. We discover this in our educational system of the United States. In other countries and at other times, defeated groups have appealed to violence from the verdict of the ballot box and have sought to overthrow the government by force. Unlike our neighboring governments the United States, the defeated party waits for and works toward the next election.

No major political party in America has ever been single-mindedly committed to a rigid program. Each part has contained liberals and conservatives, reactionaries and radicals. No major party has represented only the interests of a single portion of the country. Instead, each party has attempted to appeal to rural and urban voters, Easterners and Westerners.

First Parties

The first two political parties that stand out as the original parities could be said to be Federalists who supported the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists who charged that it was the work of designing men who sought power to protect their economic interests. When the Federalists won, the Anti-Federalists ceased their opposition and gave their support. Government by unanimity had received its first experience. When Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury then, proposed funding the national debt, establishing a national bank, and protecting manufactures with a tariff. There was a young man that disapproved of this, a young man named Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson organized the opponents of Hamilton?s program and arrayed his followers, who called themselves Democratic-Republicans, against the Federalists. Thus was born the American two-party system.

Jefferson soon won control of the federal government. As President, Jefferson attempted to undo and to rechange some of the acts of the Federalists but, the governmental system remained unchanged. Force of of office, the Federalists took up the role of opposition. For two terms, Jefferson administered the government in a manner indistinguishable in essence form that of the Federalists. He built and grew his party, and was able to had the Presidency to James Madison. From there it went to James Monroe, and after repeated failures for 16 years the Federalists Party disappeared.