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AMERICAS TWO-PARTY SYSTEM U. S. political parties began to develop early on. The beginnings of party disputes were apparent in the controversy over ratification of the Constitution. After George Washington left office, political disputes grew the new republics first political parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Why did political parties develop so quickly and so naturally even among people who distrusted the very idea of party?
With two hundred years of hindsight, we can see that political parties are necessary components of the democratic process. In fact, the perception of democratic politics has shifted 180 degrees from that of the Founders. They could not bear the thought of a political life that included parties, while we cannot imagine politics without them. The U. S. political system has become almost exclusively a two-party system.
In recent decades, third parties have had a very difficult time gaining any seats in Congress or state legislatures. At several points in U. S. history, third parties have helped to shape the course of national politics. Overall, however, the United States has tended strongly in a two-party direction. The reliance on the single-member district accounts in large part for this two-party emphasis.
In a single-member district, whoever gets the most votes in a legislative district represents that district, so votes for a minor party are usually wasted. Countries with multiparty systems, in contrast, commonly use a method of election known as proportional representation. Under this system, each party is awarded seats in the legislature in more or less direct proportion to its percentage of the popular vote. Since votes are not wasted in a proportional system, minor parties have an incentive to compete. As the two-party system evolved, strong ties of party identification have been established between the voters and the two major parties. People have come to think of elections in strictly two-party terms.
Moreover, electoral laws place minor parties at a distinct disadvantage for example, new parties must petition to get on the ballot in most states. And since the two major parties are composed of many factions and interests, new groups usually can make their presence felt within an established party, rather than in a new political group. Over the years, the U. S. party system has undergone several basic shifts. Its evolution affected politics in the United States.
In his farewell address, delivered in 1797, President George Washington called on the nation to be wary of the baneful effects of the spirit of party. This warning resulted from events during his administration that, much to his dismay, clearly signaled the emergence of political party divisions in the new nation. Two factions had been developing during Washingtons eight years in office. Members of one faction called the Federalists were led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (and by George Washington himself, despite his disdain for parties in principle). The Federalists were generally wealthy and of high social position.
Members of the second group, the so-called Democratic-Republicans, were led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Jefferson's party, a coalition of small farmers, small property owners, and local political leaders in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic states, soon came to dominate U. S. politics. By the mid- 1820 s, the Federalists had ceased to exist as a political force. With the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828, the party of Jefferson and Madison, renamed the Democratic Party, was transformed into a mass membership organization and became the dominant force in U.
S. political life. Presidents Jackson and Martin Van Buren reorganized their party to accommodate the new states admitted to the Union and to gain support among those who became eligible to vote as economic qualifications limiting suffrage were eased. Although the Democratic Party survived the Civil War, the Republican, or GOP (Grand Old Party), coalition won every presidential election for the next five decades except for those of 1884 and 1892.
During this time, the Republican base of support slowly shifted to business people and middle-class white Protestants, while the Democrats began to attract the urban, Catholic immigrants and to erode Republican support among workers. WORKS CITED Dye, Tomas R. Politics in America, Brief Texas edition. Knopf, Alfred. Alistair Cooke's America. Alfred Knopf Inc.
New York 1975.
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