The Importance Of Political Parties In The United States

The Constitution has nothing to say about political parties. Nowhere does it define political parties or explicitly specify that there should be two dominant parties. Nevertheless, America has had a strong two party system for last 150 years, a degree of party stability and endurance that can be found in no other nation (Landy and Milkis, 451). This system of two dominant parties has both its advantages and its drawbacks, the same as any system will. The two strong parties simplify and stabilize American politics from both the citizens’ and the politicians’ point of view and allow for government to be unified across the separation of powers built into the Constitution

When George Washington left office, he warned the nation about political parties fearing they were dangerous to the way government should function. Despite his warning, political parties developed and changed American politics forever. By definition, a political party is "a group of office holders, candidates, activists, and voters who identify with a group label and seek to elect to public office individuals who run under that label" (O'Connor and Sabato 437). The creation of political parties can be traced back to the differing views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton while they served in Washington's cabinet. Jefferson's Democratic-Republican counterpart today is the Democratic Party while Hamilton's Federalists are similar to

One study ranks the U.S. 120th on a list of 169 nations compared on voter turnout (Pintor, Gratschew, & Sullivan, 2002). While during the last decade many initiatives have been undertaken to increase voter participation, concerns

I believe that the low voter turnout in most elections is appalling. Why do people want to willingly give up their voice in our governmental system? Fewer than 37% of all eligible voters actually cast a ballot in the last presidential election. Many claim ignorance of political issues, but I believe that must stem from laziness. If people would

I have been assigned with informing and warning you, as well as advising you, on the perils, pitfalls, and complications associated with running for the presidential office as a third party. I hope the following will assist you in your campaign.

Since the United States of America established itself as its own self-governing country, one of the things that caused it to be salient and stand out from other countries is its relentless insistence on functioning as a democracy. Wars and protests have occurred so that every type of people, whether it was women or African Americans, may be granted the right to vote. Having a say in the American government is an honor and a privilege bestowed upon American citizens when they reach the age of eighteen. However, in recent years, statistics have shown that voter turnout and participation in recent elections has been rapidly and steadily declining, causing the United States to have the lowest voter participation in the world (“Is the System

American history is filled with ups and downs. Starting out with only 13 colonies, America forcibly removed themselves from the one of the strongest empires in the world. Battling against political reform, the subtraction of resources from the motherland, the debt accrued by colonists, and the bank wars, America struggles to create a self-sustaining country.

Jamaica, is a member of the British Commonwealth, and has a bicameral parliamentary legislative system. The executive branch consists of the British monarch, the governor general, the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, and the cabinet. The legislative branch is comprised of the Senate, and the sixty-member elected House of Representatives. The judicial branch is defined by the supreme court and several layers of lower courts. The two major parties are the People's National Party (PNP); which would be the democratic party in America, and the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), which would be the republican party. Then there are many unions that govern the politicians. They include: trade unions, the Rastafarians, and civic organizations. During election time, it becomes very hostile and dangerous between the different political parties and unions. These parties and unions are represented by colors, and from the beginning of the election period, until it is over there is widespread violence. A person who has no affiliation with government in Jamaica could be killed for simply wearing the colors of a political party.

By having all U.S. citizens vote, all groups would get representation. Hardcore Republicans and Democrats are overrepresented because candidates can count on them to show up at the polls on Election Day. Other groups' interests aren't as concerning because their demographic may not vote nearly as much as older, educated people. For example, voter turnout is lower among younger people, so they don't have as much influence in policy during a campaign.

The u.s. Constitution does not discuss or describe political parties.indeed, many of the founding fathers feared the rise of parties, they felt that partisanship could tear apart the nation. But political parties emerge almost as soon as the new government establish. Today political parties continue to greatly influence american politics, they made elections, made political disputes, and organize congress. Our political leaders come from either the republican or democratic party. Nevertheless, the american political system supports more than just these parties, and third party candidates often have lasting impacts on the politics. My opinion about political party is that they continue to view democratic party more favorably than the republican

The party in-government is really involved around Congress. In party voting in the House, it was very high in the 1800s. Party voting soon declined at its lowest point in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Party Congress, 3). Most recently, party voting has increased. Parties also have many organizations. It is believed that there are over 200 informal groups. Such groups include the Tuesday Group, Blue Dog Democrats, Republican Study Committee, Freedom Caucus and Senate Centrist Coalition (Party Congress, 7). Tuesday Group, Republican Study Committee and Freedom Caucus are part of the Republican Party. These organizations include moderate Republicans, conservative Republicans and Tea party Republicans. The Blue Dog Democrats are moderate Democrats.

Voting is perhaps one of the easiest ways to participate in politics, yet it is the one task Americans fail to do. After conducting this survey, I had quite a variety of responses regarding voting participation, fortunately, the majority did exercise their right to vote. While reviewing the responses I learned that many decided to vote because they knew how important it was if they wanted to have a say in their government. Which was something that I did not expect mainly because I usually hear people complain about the government, yet they do not even attempt to get involved with politics to try to change what they dislike. Another finding was that all the survey participants were aware that voting with a majority party was a safe bet if

Many people, including the United States, thinks the US is the greatest democracy; but many other countries question whether they are or not because the US democracy only tolerates two political parties. In the 2014 presidential election, there were 52 political parties that ran during the election. Some examples of the main stream parties were the Libertarians, Green, Constitution, and Reform Parties (Tormsen, 2015). Other parties included the Blue Enigma, Marijuana, NSA Did 911, etc. Although there are many parties that ran during the election, everyone knows that only one of two parties will win: Democrats or Republicans (Tormsen, 2015). The only third party that ever won in American history was Abraham Lincoln in 1860, when he defeated the Democrats and Whigs. Many people do not support third parties because they take votes away from a candidate that has the chance of winning (Mill, 73), which is what happened during this presidential election. Many problems rise with third parties because votes that should be going to parties that have a chance of winning, or taken from them and given to groups who have no chance. There are economic barriers because third parties don’t receive government funding, so any money they need must be fundraised. Another problem is that third parties usually only stand for one thing. Because their vision is so focused or narrowed on one thing, it prevents them from focusing on other issues that the nation needs to address.

The United States uses a system of voting to put their role of having a democracy into play. It is considered to be more of a political right rather than a civil right as some people make it out to be. Voting can be a complex process and the people who choose to participate and not participate changes based on different variables; like the type of election, ethnicity, age, gender, and even education level. History has shown that it was even harder for people to vote because of things like literacy tests and poll taxes as well as meeting all the qualifications. On top of all those, eligible voters still find reasons to not vote, which can be mainly why the turnout is so low in the US.

The United States has grown immensely over the last two hundred years, and is now one of the largest countries in the world. The large size contributes to the unequal distribution of political resources across the nation. These two variables lead to low voter turn out, in turn decrease effectiveness in political participation. But what does political participation mean these days? The basic forms are voting in local, state, and national elections. There are also other ways, like working for a political campaign, writing a Senator, joining different lobbying organizations that target specific issues and laws, etc. The U.S., a democratic system, was built