Political parties in the United States

For a complete list, see List of political parties in the United States.
"U.S. Party" and "USA Party" redirect here. For the song by Miley Cyrus, see Party in the U.S.A. For other uses, see American Party (disambiguation).
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American electoral politics have been dominated by successive pairs of major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States. Since the 1850s, the two largest political parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party—which together have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and controlled the United States Congress since at least 1856.[1][page needed] Despite keeping the same names, the two parties have evolved in terms of ideologies, positions, and support bases over their long lifespans, in response to social, cultural, and economic developments—the Democratic Party being the left-of-center party since the time of the New Deal, and the Republican Party now being the right-of-center party.

Political parties are not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, which predates the party system. The two-party system is based on laws, party rules, and custom. Several third parties also operate in the U.S. and occasionally have a member elected to local office;[2] some of the larger ones include the Constitution, Green, Alliance, and Libertarian parties, with the latter being the largest third party since the 1980s. A small number of members of the U.S. Congress, a larger number of political candidates, and a good many voters (35–45%)[note 1] have no party affiliation. However, most self-described independents consistently support one of the two major parties when it comes time to vote,[4] and members of Congress with no political party affiliation caucus meet to pursue common legislative objectives with either the Democrats or Republicans.[note 2]

The need to win popular support in a republic led to the American invention of voter-based political parties in the 1790s.[8] Americans were especially innovative in devising new campaign techniques that linked public opinion with public policy through the party.[9] Political scientists and historians have divided the development of America's two-party system into six or so eras or "party systems",[10] starting with the Federalist Party, which supported the ratification of the Constitution, and the Anti-Administration party (Anti-Federalists), which opposed a powerful central government and later became the Democratic-Republican Party.[11]

  1. ^ Byron E. Shafer and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (2001)
  2. ^ William B. Hesseltine, Third-Party Movements in the United States (1962)
  3. ^ "Party Affiliation. In politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat or an independent? Trend since 2004". Gallup. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  4. ^ Klar, Samara (2016-01-22). "9 media myths about independent voters, debunked". Vox. Archived from the original on 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ballotpedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Bobic, Igor (5 November 2014). "Independent Angus King Will Continue To Caucus With Senate Democrats". Huff Post. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  7. ^ McCrummen, Stephanie (February 5, 2016). "His Most Radical Move". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  8. ^ Roy Franklin Nichols (1967). The invention of the American political parties. Macmillan. ISBN 9780029229200. Archived from the original on 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  9. ^ Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices. (Greenwood 1989) online version Archived 2010-04-20 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Paul Kleppner, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983)
  11. ^ "The First Political Parties: Federalists and Anti-Federalists". Boundless Political Science. Boundless.com. May 26, 2016. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016.


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