FREE ESSAY ON POLITICAL PARTIES IN AMERICA

POLITICAL PARTIES IN AMERICA

In many lands across the world political parties has often taken a drastic and violent
turn. Groups defected at the polls have resorted to violent terms of action to advane
their cause. The stroy of political parties in the United States is both brief and
peaceful.
American two-party system
The american two-party system has ever been a puzzle to Americans and a mystery to
foreign observers. Both foreign and domestic critics find fault with the American
two-party system.(William B. Hesseltine- Third-Party movements...) Democrats and
Republicans, and before them Whigs and Jacksonians, were esentially alike. American
democracy is, fundamentally, government by unanimous consent. We are all-or practically
all-agreed on the forms of government, on its objectives, and on its procedures. The
American people, with practical unanimity, are agreed that the party which polls the
majority vote shall conduct the government. We discover this in our educational system of
the United States. In other countries and at other times, defeated groups have appealed
to violence from the verdict of the ballot box and have sought to overthrow the
government by force. Unlike our neighboring governments the United States, the defeated
party waits for and works toward the next election.
No major political party in America has ever been single-mindedly committed to a rigid
program. Each part has contained liberals and conservatives, reactionaries and radicals.
No major party has represented only the interests of a single portion of the country.
Instead, each party has attempted to appeal to rural and urban voters, Easterners and
Westerners. 
First Parties
The first two political parties that stand out as the original parities could be said to
be Federalists who supported the Constitution, and Anti-Federalists who charged that it
was the work of designing men who sought power to protect their economic interests. When
the Federalists won, the Anti-Federalists ceased their opposition and gave their support.
Government by unanimity had received its first experience. When Alexander Hamilton,
Secretary of the Treasury then, proposed funding the national debt, establishing a
national bank, and protecting manufactures with a tariff. There was a young man that
disapproved of this, a young man named Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson organized the
opponents of Hamilton's program and arrayed his followers, who called themselves
Democratic-Republicans, against the Federalists. Thus was born the American two-party
system.
Jefferson soon won control of the federal government. As President, Jefferson attempted
to undo and to rechange some of the acts of the Federalists but, the governmental system
remained unchanged. Force of of office, the Federalists took up the role of opposition.
For two terms, Jefferson administered the government in a manner indistinguishable in
essence form that of the Federalists. He built and grew his party, and was able to had
the Presidency to James Madison. From there it went to James Monroe, and after repeated
failures for 16 years the Federalists Party disappeared.