Evolution of political Parties

A political party is a group of people who work to influence policy agendas and hold government power by seeking to elect candidates to public office. The Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party were the first political parties in the United States, lasting from approximately 1796 to 1824. Just as today, the political, economic, and social realities of the times shaped the parties. These initial political parties were centered around two individuals: Alexander Hamilton, who led the Federalist Party, and Thomas Jefferson, who led the Democratic-Republicans (originally called the Anti-Federalists). Hamilton and Jefferson had opposing views on the role of the new national government.
The parties disagreed about which layer of the government should hold the greater share of power, the national or the state governments. The Federalists, who were mostly wealthy, educated men, were proponents of a very strong central government. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans opposed this. They claimed that Congress should develop policies that would aid “common” people, like shopkeepers and farmers.
Regionalism and economics also divided the two parties. The Federalists had a stronghold in the New England and middle colonies. They also had strength in the urban areas that represented an economic base of commerce and manufacturing, while the Democratic-Republicans were regionally dominant and enjoyed the following of the agrarian interests.
The Federalists lost control of the presidency after Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent President John Adams, in 1801. This ushered in the dominance of the Democratic-Republican Party that lasted until the Civil War.
The second political party system consisted of the Democratic Party and the Whig Party, which lasted from approximately 1828 until 1856. This party system is often referred to as the Jacksonian Era, as Democrats were followers of General Andrew Jackson. Jackson was formerly a Democratic-Republican, but changed the party’s name to the Democratic Party, which continues today. Jackson and the Democrats were opposed to a strong central government, against the concept of a national bank, and focused on expanding political opportunity for the “common man” by eliminating elitism.
The Whigs were a loose coalition that followed Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. They were opposed to Jacksonian democracy and gained the support of bankers, merchants, and industrialists in the east and planters in the south. Whigs were dedicated to defending federal authority and a high protective tariff.
In the 1850’s, the issue of slavery split both parties. While the Whigs fell apart due to lack of leadership, the Democrats split into two sharply opposing factions, the Northern Democrats and the Southern Democrats.
In contrast, the issue of slavery helped form the Republican Party, which consisted of many former Whigs and developed as a third party in the 1850’s. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide the slavery issue for themselves, repealing the Missouri Compromise that had established an imaginary line between the slave and free states. The reopening of the slavery issue ignited the decades-old conflict between northerners and southerners and set the foundation for the coming Civil War. It also strengthened the anti-slavery platform of the new Republican Party.
Supported by farmers, laborers, and business owners, as well as newly freed African-Americans, the Republicans gathered enough support to elect Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860. The issue of slavery, combined with the Civil War, brought about the complete realignment of the parties and a nearly 75-year Republican reign. The Republican Party Era lasted from 1860, through the Reconstruction period, and then into the early 1900’s until the nation experienced a massive shock to its economic, social, and political system—the Great Depression.
The stock-market crash of 1929, and the subsequent Depression, was a national trauma that spilt and once again realigned America’s political parties. Republicans took a laissez-faire approach to the economic depression, giving a free hand to business and saying that legislation could not cure America’s economic woes.
The Progressive Party, a third party that formed in the early 1900’s, disagreed. Progressivism realigned the Democratic Party with the rise of leaders such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won the presidency in 1932 by promising America a “New Deal.” Roosevelt assured Americans legislation that would boost the economy and end the Depression. The New Deal created a coalition of laborers, minorities, southerners, and urban voters. This era marked a shift in the paradigm of government leadership, asserting that government must become more involved in the economic and social conditions of the nation. The New Deal and the reign of the Democrats lasted until another national crisis shook the country in 1968—the Vietnam War.
A fourth period of two-party domination of national politics began in 1968 with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and continues today. During this new era, presidential politics have been dominated by Republican presidents, while the Democrats have controlled Congress. In 1994, during the Democratic presidency of Bill Clinton, the Republicans took control of Congress. As of 2004, the Republicans continued to control the House of Representatives, but the Senate was evenly divided.