America's Two-Party System

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Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns This chapter investigates America's two-party system and its role in American politics. It traces the historical development of political parties in the United States, examining the role of minor parties and the reasons for the emergence and persistence of the two-party system. The chapter also discussed the effects of this system on policy and coalition formulation. These are the main ideas of this chapter: • Party competition is the mechanism that enables voting majorities to have a substantial influence on the direction of government. This competition peaks during periods of realignment but at all times is a vital aspect of democratic government. • Throughout most of the nation's history,…show more content…
Only during national crises are America's parties likely to present the electorate with starkly different policy alternatives. olitical parties serve to link the public with its elected leaders and to organize political conflict. In the United States, this linkage is provided by a two-party system; only the Republican and Democratic parties have any chance of winning control of government. The first political parties (Hamilton and Jefferson) evolved through Jackson's grassroots framework to the emergence of Lincoln's Republican party in 1860. Since that time, the Republicans and Democrats have monopolized the system, alternating through victory and…show more content…
Realigning elections offer voters the opportunity to have a large and lasting impact on national policy. In responding to these issues and then by endorsing the action of the party that takes power, the electorate helps to establish a new governing philosophy and its associated policies. A realignment is maintained in part through the development of loyalties among first-time voters to the new governing party and its policies. Realignments have occurred around the time of the Civil War, during the 1890s, and during the Great Depression of the 1930s (FDR and the New Deal). Some argued that the GOP sweep of Congress and many state governorships in the 1994 midterm elections represented a new realignment, yet the Republicans suffered a setback in the 1996 election. It may be that recent elections are best explained by dealignment, the weakening of partisan loyalties coupled with the extreme volatility of the
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