Political Parties

Social Studies > McGraw Hill > CH1T1

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Political Parties

Political parties are organizations that seek power and influence within the government. The members of a party share similar opinions and ideas about many issues. The members of a party choose a candidate to run for a government office and work to gain public support and votes for their chosen candidate.

In the early years of the United States, there were political parties that were different from the ones we see today. The issues they faced were different from the ones that are the focus of politics today. The first political parties were established by people who had differing visions for the future of America. Thomas Jefferson wanted the federal government to play a less active role. He wanted the powers of the President to be limited, and he wanted the United States to have a close relationship with France. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, believed that the United States should have a strong federal government. He also wanted the country’s President to be strong. He believed that the country should have a strong relationship with Great Britain.

Today in the United States, the two main political parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. There are also a number of minor parties, but the nature of the political system makes it difficult for minor-party (“third party”) candidates to win elections.

Each of the two main parties includes people with a range of different viewpoints. However, each one also has a central core of defining beliefs. In general, Democrats are more liberal, or left wing, and support a broad, more active role for the federal government. Democrats also support laws favoring workers and strong, government-run social programs. Republicans, on the other hand, are more conservative, or right wing, and generally favor the rights of the states rather than the federal government. They support policies that favor business owners and managers and private solutions to social problems.

Excerpt from George Washington's Farewell Address (1796):
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."