The Role Of Political Parties In The United States

Political parties form a very important role in the United states of America, these political parties usually convince people to vote their candidate, so they can practice the same rights as their candidate and to also have their practice go into action. Most political parties for example Republicans favor themselves whereas Democrats favor the people's decision and their voices. Political parties have been in the United State for about decades now

A political party is a group of people who seek to win elections and hold public office in order to shape government policy and programs. George Washington warned the nation against creating political parties in his famous “Farewell Address”. He feared political parties would divide the country and weaken support of the Constitution (Doc 4). The first major political parties, the Federalists and the Republicans, were created during the term of President George Washington. Despite President Washington’s warning, the rise of the two political parties, in the years after his term was inevitable. The Federalists were in favor of a strong central government, while the anti-federalists opposed most their ideas. Over time, the gradual development

Generally speaking, anyone who lives in the United States of America knows that there are two main political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats. Having two main parties has its advantages and, of course, its disadvantages. For example, in By the People James E. Monroe and Rogan Kersh (301) point out having this type of system creates “predictability and stability.” However, they also declare (301) it can “lead to a gridlock.” This is not a new concept either as there has been a divide since the beginning of both parties. The two parties more often than not disagree on various issues, while rarely agreeing on what is best for the country.

A political party is defined as a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on policies and programs for the society with a view to promote their supporters' interests. In democracies, political parties are elected by the electorate to run a government. The United States is a considered a two-party system, with its two most powerful parties being the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

The political system of America is very different from other developed and developing democracies. Most notable is the increased power bestowed on the upper house of the parliament, the extensive power held by the Supreme Court and the dominance demonstrated by only two major parties. In the United States, third parties have the least influence on the world’s most developed democracy’s political structure. In this democracy, people are under the US Constitution of the governmental system as well as state government and other units of local government. Local government entails counties, districts and municipalities. The evolution of the American political party system has come a long way; with Hamilton and Jefferson being regarded as the founder fathers of the modern party system. These were heads of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist groups in the 18th century of American politics. Ever since, the country has maintained a party system that has two main parties that are relatively stable. These are Democrats and Republicans and have remained in contest for election every time since the 1860 presidential elections. Initially, the Republican Party was the dominant party but the Democrats later gained dominance. However, the two parties became closely competitive and neither of them has been notably dominant since the 1970s (O'Connor & Sabato, n.d).

Third parties in the United States do not win, but they do tend to keep elections interesting. Although third parties bring in votes for themselves, most of them have extreme views on issues. These type of views cannot put a party at the top of a nation that mainly consists of moderate individuals. America has one of the most advanced democracies and as a result has developed the two party system. The reason a two party system overpowers a three-party system is because, ideally, the constitution only has two sides to it, the opposing and the supporting. While the United States has a large two party system, third parties have been around for hundreds of years, they play a large part in presidential elections, and within the national government

Today, there exists the rift in the American political system marked by the ongoing clash between our political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. These parties’ dissenting ideas seem to create non-stop conflict as each party relentlessly competes for the support and votes of the American people. However, over two hundred years ago in the early days of our country’s government, political parties did not even exist. Early leaders, such as the revered George Washington, feared that political parties would split our country into warring factions that would not only subvert our delicate notion of patriotism, but also weaken public support for the new Constitution. Nonetheless, despite opposition by Washington and others, political parties began to form, and over the years have developed into the familiar political system we have today. The chief factors that led to the rise of political parties were the disagreements between influential politicians over the structure of the government, the proper interpretation of the Constitution, and foreign policy regarding European nations.

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

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.

Let’s talk about elephants and donkeys, and no, this is not at the zoo. These are the two political parties that run the government in America. Today, America primarily has a two-party system, the Democrats and Republicans. They are always seen on the news bickering and fighting with one another, and it is never a surprise if a bill is going to pass, depending on which party is in control of Congress at the moment. When you get into an argument with a sibling, significant other, parents, etc., it can make it hard to focus on anything else going on in life. The parties are always at each other’s throats, which makes one wonder if they are focused on the well-being of this nation. Helen Keller once said in regard to politics, “Our democracy is but a name. We vote. What does that mean? . . . We choose between two . . . bodies of autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee” (qtd. in “Challengers of Duopoly”). Something needs to change so that America gets back the representative democracy it once was; we are a nation of 320,000,000 people and counting, yet we are supposed to be split into two measly groups when it comes to politics? A third-party candidate, and the acceptance of independents, would allow America to become a more democratic nation and help with the current polarization of the parties.

There have been many different political parties since the beginning of the American political system. A political party is made up of a group of people that share common goals and ideals, and these people work together to help elect people to offices that share these goals to represent them. Political parties work to try to control the government and their ultimate goal is to win as many elections and to gain as many offices as possible.

America gained its independence from England in 1776 and for the first 75 years, it was a rocky, sometimes unstable country. The Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1783, established America as a country to be reckoned with while also setting forth some of the ideas for the Constitution. The leaders of the Revolution did not approve of nor want political parties, but those sentiments did not last long. The War of 1812 contributed to the changing political system in the United States of America. For the last 234 years, the American political party systems have seen quite a few different parties. The original Federalists and Anti-Federalist morphed into the National Republicans or Whigs, Democratic-Republicans,

Parties are not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, they are vital to the function of the electoral system in the states. Parties organize opposition by recruiting and nominating candidates, act as opposition powerless, unify electorate, and provide government and people linkage.(Magleby 55)

By being informed on way more than past societies were capable of since they lacked the media resources, the people are making more informed decisions, taking an active role in the government process, and ensuring that issues they feel are important or government decisions that may have a significant impact on the people but would never be made known in the past now are brought to the public’s attention because of the media. Nowadays people are able to obtain all sorts of information from many different sources of media. There is the news on television, journals and magazines, and social media such as twitter. In our current election both Presidential candidates are active on twitter, which is an application program where people can publicly post limited messages. Many people have cell phones and can now conveniently access information immediately and on the go. This makes is easy for people to become more aware of what is going on politically.

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