American National Government

Running Head : MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES

Major Political Parties in the United States

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Major Political Parties in the United States

Today , the politics of the United States government is controlled by two dominant political parties : the Republican Party and the Democratic Party . These two political parties dominated US politics from 1860 to the present . This is not to say that the US electoral system does not allow the existence of a multiple party system . It should be noted that the development of a two-party system in the

United States was due perhaps to the relative contradiction of ideology and platforms of government between these two parties . US voters historically perceived this difference as necessary because of the need to maximize the saliency of political choice . When one set of policies failed , the voters had the option of voting the policies of the other party . This is called polarization . Hence , an understanding of the ideology of each political party is needed

In 1854 , anti-slavery politicians met at Ripon , Wisconsin to form the Republican Party . After a year , the party grew rapidly displacing the Whig Party as the primary opposition party to the Democratic Party . In 1859 , it nominated Abraham Lincoln as president in the 1860 election After the election of Abraham Lincoln , the party became a symbol of anti-slavery , and after the war , the period of Reconstruction

Early Republicans advocated the slogan `free labor , free land , and free men ' The Republican Party believed that class mobility is an important...