The Two Party System Essay Research Paper

The Two Party System Essay, Research Paper

Since 1856, two political parties have been dominant, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. As they have butted heads, no other party has been elected to the office of president. In fact, the only time a third party received more votes than the Republican or Democratic parties was in the election of 1912. Why has there only been two parties that have dominated our government for nearly a century and a half. Because the two-party system works.

The two-party system makes voting for Americans a lot simpler. If the voter is conservative, and he doesn.t know much about certain candidates, he could just vote for the Republican candidate. It combines groups of people with similar platforms into two solid platforms. The Republicans are conservative and the Democrats are liberal. The voter can choose either side.

Sometimes, the voter can choose neither side. This happens when a party becomes split and a third party forms. When this happens, the voters split along with the parties. It can cost an election, such as the 1912 split of the Republican party when Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive party. In this year.s election, the Democratic nominee Al Gore is worried that the Green party candidate, Ralph Nader, will .steal. votes from him in the presidential election. Other third parties, such as the Green party in Alaska and the Independence party in Minnesota, have an impact on the state and local levels, but not on the national level.

Of course, there are alternatives to the two-party system. One of the most successful alternatives is called proportional representation. Under this system, the number of representatives in the government is determined by the strength of the popular vote. For example, if ten percent of voters vote for a third party, that party will hold ten percent of the representatives. This worked quite well in West Germany before its unification with East Germany.

The two-party system will live on in our country for a long time for three reasons: historical roots, party identification, and the electoral system. The framing of the Constitution divided the country into two groups, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. These two groups set the framework for the political parties that followed. Most Americans have grown up with a sense of party identification. Loyalty to parties has been passed down from generation to generation. With the electoral ballot, there is little room for third-parties to move in. These will ensure that the Democratic and Republican parties will remain dominant for years to come.

The Democratic Party was founded as the Democratic-Republican in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson to fight for the insertion of the Bill of Rights into the Constitution. They have held presidencies through the .Era of Good Feelings,. and the First World War. Their presidents have pulled the nation out of the Great Depression and put the first man on the moon. This party passed the first labor and child welfare laws. A Democrat integrated the military. The same Democrat also oversaw the reconstruction of Europe after World War II by establishing the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Democrats created the Peace Corps. They also passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. They are proud of their history.

The Republican party has a fine history as well. They were founded as the Free-Soil party in 1854. A Republican president preserved the Union and abolished slavery in the process. The first black Congressmen were Republican, along with the first Congresswomen. They proposed and passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave all males the right to vote. Republicans were the first major party to favor women.s suffrage. A Republican established the Interstate Highway System and kicked off the space exploration program. A Republican ended the American involvement in Vietnam. They are also very pleased with their record.

These two parties have opposing views. The Democrats are the liberal party. They generally accept an active role for the government. Democrats are willing to use federal funds to solve social problems. They generally support the interests of minorities, labor, and the poor. They favor government regulation of the economy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.s New Deal shaped the character of the modern Democratic party. Its program for social justice and welfare was the backbone for Truman.s Fair Deal, Kennedy.s New Frontier, Johnson.s Great Society, and Clinton.s New Covenant. They think that the government should be active.

The Republicans are quite the opposite. They are the conservative party. Republicans generally oppose .big government. and favor the reduction of federal spending, except for national defense. They support the interests of business and stress the importance of a market economy without government regulation. Republicans place their faith in middle-class and small-town citizens, as well as the rich. Because of their opposing views with Democrats, there have been many classic political battles for the presidency.

This year.s battle is one of the closest in history. As of the 27th of October, eleven days before the election, the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, is leading the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, by only two points. There are six major issues that this ye