Throughout the American history, there have been two major political parties that started with the Anti-Federalists and Federalists. The parties have advanced throughout the time to the present-day structure of the Republicans and the Democrats. Even though there is liberty to form new political parties, so far there has not been any party that has been capable of getting the required backing to grow. The dominance of the two parties makes it crucial to analyze the evolution of political parties.
Evolution of Political Parties
From the year 1796 until the year 1828 the first political parties in the country were created. Two main opposing factions came up with each having its own concern about the way the government needed to be created (Aldrich, 2011). The Federalists thought a central government was best and were in support a national bank and industrialization. On the other hand Anti-Federalists, who later became the Democratic-Republic Party opposed the views and were in support of the rights of the state. However, the Democratic-Republic Party failed to sway people to adapt its Anti-Federalist thoughts and later faded and in 1824 it virtually did not exist (Hamilton, 2007). The civil War in the United States split political parties where the Republican Party dominated the North in 1860 and the Democrats that was further divided into the War Democrats and the Peace Democrats. After the Great Depression, there was a big shift in the political parties’ allegiance where the Democrats dominated the countries politics for approximately the next twenty years. However, in the 1960s, the democrats lost dominance when young radicals opposed liberalism as a response to the Vietnam War ( Sabato, 2007). The republicans enjoyed dominance in Congress until 2006 when Bush’s popularity declined and the opposition of the Iraq war.
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Conclusion
The political parties have evolved over the years from the year 1796 to 1828 when the first political parties that included the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists to the two main parties that exist today of Republican Party and the Democrats.
References
Aldrich, J. H. (2011). Why parties?: A second look . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hamilton, A., Madison, J., & Jay, J. (2007). The Federalist papers . Place of publication not identified: Filiquarian.
Sabato, L., & Ernst, H. R. (2007). Encyclopedia of American political parties and elections . New York: Facts On File.