Contents:
What Factors Shape Political Attitudes? The Internet in Politics 6. Who Is in Congress? How a Bill Becomes a Law 7. Who Are the Bureaucrats? Reforming the Bureaucracy 9. What Does It Do? The Power of the Federal Courts Social and Regulatory Policy State and Local Governments: Who Pays for Education? A Small, Small, World? During the s, Thomas Nast — a cartoonist for the magazine Harper's Weekly — developed the idea of using the donkey and the elephant to represent the Democrats and Republicans, respectively.
The above cartoon — titled "Stranger Things Have Happened" — dates from Thomas Jefferson opposed the views of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams regarding centralized government and states' rights; and in doing so helped to build the foundation of the modern Democratic Party.
The Green Party encourages its members to work in grassroots efforts on issues of ecology and social equality. Alexander Hamilton contributed to laying the framework of the modern Republican Party. His support for the ratification of the U. Constitution led to the formation of the Federalist Party, which fizzled out by Third Parties Should third-party candidates be allowed to participate in presidential debates?
Yes No No opinion. Democratic National Committee Visit the official page of the Democratic National Committee for up to the minute information on Democratic candidates and other goings on.
Republican National Committee Visit the official page of the Republican National Committee for up to the minute information on Republican candidates and other goings on. Visit the "Newsroom" for the latest press releases from the Republican Party and watch "GOP-TV" for "exclusive webcast updates on the events that shape the Republican message. With a platform that includes an emphasis on social justice and equal opportunity, this third party continues to gain support.
George Washington's Farewell Address Upon leaving office, George Washington penned a farewell address which was never given aloud that warned Americans to avoid "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" as inciting American citizens "with ill-founded jealousies. The Center for Voting and Democracy This page from the Center for Voting and Democracy is an excellent place to go for information and opinions on voting in both the United States and the rest of the world. Voting issues such as voter turnout and the role of third parties are discussed.
Political parties as we know them did not begin to develop until the late s. The ancient Greeks, who were pioneers in developing democracy, had no organized political parties in the modern sense. The senate of the ancient Romans had two groups that represented people with different interests — the Patricians and the Plebeians. The Patricians represented noble families.
The Plebeians represented the wealthy merchants and the middle class. Although these two groups often mingled, at times they voted as factions, or parties, on particular issues that were important to the groups they represented. For many centuries after the fall of Rome AD , the people of Europe had little voice in politics. Thus there were no true political parties — only factions that supported one noble family or another. Political parties developed as representative assemblies gained power. In England, this change began after what was called the Popish Plot of There was no real Popish plot, but an alarmed Parliament barred all Roman Catholics from public office and tried to take away the Duke of York's right to inherit the throne.
But to King Charles II, Parliament seemed to be challenging royal authority, and he struck back by dissolving Parliament. All over England people were either for or against the king's act. Those who urged the king to call a new Parliament were called Petitioners. Those who backed the king's deed were called Abhorrers because they abhorred any attempt to control the king's actions. Before long the two factions took on other names.
Petitioners were called Whigs.
State parties exist in all fifty states, though their structures differ according to state law, as well as party rules at both the national and the state level. October Learn how and when to remove this template message. In the s, the issue of slavery took center stage, with disagreement in particular over the question of whether slavery should be permitted in the country's new territories in the West. Yes No No opinion. Student activism against the Vietnam War in the s prompted the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, the legal age of the draft. As a body, they decide on road construction and repair, construction of public buildings and facilities, tax rates, and the town budget.
The king's supporters were called Tories. These old names took on new meanings. The basic difference between Whigs and Tories in the s was their view of what government should do and how strong it should be. Tories wanted rule by a strong king. Whigs wanted ordinary people to have more rights and gain more control of their government. In time, as Parliament took greater control, the Whigs and Tories developed into organized parties.
The leaders of the American Revolution did not like the idea of parties and political battles between parties. Upon his retirement from public life in , George Washington warned Americans against "faction" parties. James Madison thought parties were probably necessary, although he did not entirely approve of them. Alexander Hamilton thought that faction was a vice to be guarded against at all times. Thomas Jefferson declared in , "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Hamilton and other leaders who wanted a strong central government banded together to put over their policies.
In they began calling themselves the Federalists. This was the first United States political party. In , anti-Federalists gathered around Jefferson. Members of Jefferson's group called themselves Democratic-Republicans. Northern businessmen, bankers, and merchants supported the Federalists. They believed in a strong national or federal government.
Federalists held that capital and industry were the basis of a healthy republic and that the federal government should act to protect the country's infant industries. The Democratic-Republican Party drew its followers from planters, small farmers, and artisans.
In this wide-ranging new volume, one of our most important and perceptive scholars of the workings of the American government investigates political parties . Editorial Reviews. Review. "An indispensable contribution which taken as a whole shows how ambitious and challenging David Mayhew's view of American .
These people wanted government to leave them alone as much as possible. They wanted to limit the federal government's power and leave the most power in the hands of state and local governments. In foreign affairs the Federalists generally leaned toward England, while the Democratic-Republicans sympathized with Revolutionary France. Early leaders such as John Adams, who succeeded George Washington as president, had Federalist sympathies. But the Federalists lost control of the government to Jefferson and his party in The Federalists lingered on as a minority party, especially in New England, for 20 years.
By , American political life was being influenced by sharp differences of opinion between sections of the country. In time, these quarrels led to the Civil War. The slave-holding planters of the South, the frontier farmers of the West, and the manufacturing and banking industries based in the North each wanted the government to follow a different course of action. His party had great support in the South and West. Jackson changed the party's name to Democrats. Between and , Whigs gave Democrats strong opposition.
By the issue of slavery overshadowed all political debate. A related issue was states' rights. If a state government was in conflict with the national government, which government had the final authority? Debate over slavery and states' rights tore the parties apart. None of the colonies had political parties of the sort that formed in the s, but each had shifting factions that vied for power.
Republicanism , along with a form of classical liberalism , remains the dominant ideology. Hartz saw the antebellum South as breaking away from this central ideology in the s as it constructed a fantasy to support hierarchical, feudal society. Others, such as David Gordon of the libertarian, Alabama-based Mises Institute argue that the secessionists who formed the Confederacy in retained the values of classical liberalism.
In response to Hartz and others, political scientist Rogers M. Smith argued in Civic Ideals that in addition to liberalism and republicanism, United States political culture has historically served to exclude various populations from access to full citizenship. Terming this ideological tradition "ascriptive inegalitarianism," Smith traces its relevance in nativist, sexist, and racist beliefs and practices alongside struggles over citizenship laws from the early colonial period to the Progressive Era , and further political debates in the following century.
At the time of the United States' founding, agriculture and small private businesses dominated the economy, and state government left welfare issues to private or local initiative. Laissez-faire ideology was largely abandoned in the s during the Great Depression. Between the s and s, fiscal policy was characterized by the Keynesian consensus, a time during which modern American liberalism dominated economic policy virtually unchallenged.
Since the late s and early s, however, laissez-faire ideology, as explained especially by Milton Friedman , has once more become a powerful force in American politics. The modern American political spectrum and the usage of the terms " left—right politics ", "liberalism", and "conservatism" in the United States differs from that of the rest of the world. According to American historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Schlesinger noted that American liberalism does not support classical liberalism 's commitment to limited government and laissez-faire economics.
Ribuffo noted in , "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism. In American politics, the Democratic Party is commonly known as the well-established center-left liberal national party, while the smaller Green Party is infamous for being closer to the progressive anti-capitalist left-wing of modern American politics.
The Republican Party is commonly known as the dominant right-wing national party, and the alternative Libertarian Party attracts some independent-leaning voters who tend to be more social liberal on social issues and fiscally conservative on economic policy. The right of suffrage is nearly universal for citizens eighteen years of age and older. All states and the District of Columbia contribute to the electoral vote for President. However, the District, and other U.
These constituencies do not have the right to choose any political figure outside their respective areas. Each commonwealth, territory, or district can only elect a non-voting delegate to serve in the House of Representatives. Women's suffrage became an important issue after the American Civil War of After the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in , giving African-American men the right to vote, various women's groups wanted the right to vote as well.
Two major interest groups formed. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton , that wanted to work for suffrage on the federal level and to push for more governmental changes, such as the granting of property rights to married women. Student activism against the Vietnam War in the s prompted the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, the legal age of the draft.
States governments have the power to make laws that are not granted to the federal government or denied to the states in the U. Constitution for all citizens. These include education , family law , contract law , and most crimes. Unlike the federal government, which only has those powers granted to it in the Constitution, a state government has inherent powers allowing it to act unless limited by a provision of the state or national constitution. Like the federal government, state governments have three branches: The chief executive of a state is its popularly elected governor , who typically holds office for a four-year term although in some states the term is two years.
Except for Nebraska , which has unicameral legislature , all states have a bicameral legislature, with the upper house usually called the Senate and the lower house called the House of Representatives , the House of Delegates , Assembly or something similar. In most states, senators serve four-year terms, and members of the lower house serve two-year terms. The constitutions of the various states differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing the government.
However, state constitutions are generally more detailed. The United States has 89, local governments, including 3, counties, 19, municipalities, 16, townships, 13, school districts, and 37, other special districts that deal with issues like fire protection. Typically local elections are nonpartisan—local activists suspend their party affiliations when campaigning and governing.
City governments are chartered by states, and their charters detail the objectives and powers of the municipal government. The United States Constitution only provides for states and territories as subdivisions of the country, and the Supreme Court has accordingly confirmed the supremacy of state sovereignty over municipalities. For most big cities, cooperation with both state and federal organizations is essential to meeting the needs of their residents. Types of city governments vary widely across the nation. However, almost all have a central council, elected by the voters, and an executive officer, assisted by various department heads, to manage the city's affairs.
Cities in the West and South usually have nonpartisan local politics. There are three general types of city government: These are the pure forms; many cities have developed a combination of two or three of them. This is the oldest form of city government in the United States and, until the beginning of the 20th century, was used by nearly all American cities. Its structure is like that of the state and national governments, with an elected mayor as chief of the executive branch and an elected council that represents the various neighborhoods forming the legislative branch.
The mayor appoints heads of city departments and other officials, sometimes with the approval of the council. He or she has the power of veto over ordinances the laws of the city and often is responsible for preparing the city's budget. The council passes city ordinances, sets the tax rate on property, and apportions money among the various city departments. As cities have grown, council seats have usually come to represent more than a single neighborhood. This combines both the legislative and executive functions in one group of officials, usually three or more in number, elected citywide.
Each commissioner supervises the work of one or more city departments. Commissioners also set policies and rules by which the city is operated. One is named chairperson of the body and is often called the mayor, although his or her power is equivalent to that of the other commissioners. The city manager is a response to the increasing complexity of urban problems that need management ability not often possessed by elected public officials. The answer has been to entrust most of the executive powers, including law enforcement and provision of services, to a highly trained and experienced professional city manager.
The city manager plan has been adopted by a large number of cities. Under this plan, a small, elected council makes the city ordinances and sets policy, but hires a paid administrator, also called a city manager, to carry out its decisions. The manager draws up the city budget and supervises most of the departments. Usually, there is no set term; the manager serves as long as the council is satisfied with his or her work.
The county is a subdivision of the state, sometimes but not always containing two or more townships and several villages.
New York City is so large that it is divided into five separate boroughs, each a county in its own right. In other cities, both the city and county governments have merged, creating a consolidated city—county government. In small counties, boards are chosen by the county; in the larger ones, supervisors represent separate districts or townships. The board collects taxes for state and local governments; borrows and appropriates money; fixes the salaries of county employees; supervises elections; builds and maintains highways and bridges; and administers national, state, and county welfare programs.
In very small counties, the executive and legislative power may lie entirely with a sole commissioner , who is assisted by boards to supervise taxes and elections.
In some New England states, counties do not have any governmental function and are simply a division of land. Thousands of municipal jurisdictions are too small to qualify as city governments. These are chartered as towns and villages and deal with local needs such as paving and lighting the streets, ensuring a water supply, providing police and fire protection, and waste management.
In many states of the US, the term town does not have any specific meaning; it is simply an informal term applied to populated places both incorporated and unincorporated municipalities. Moreover, in some states, the term town is equivalent to how civil townships are used in other states. The government is usually entrusted to an elected board or council, which may be known by a variety of names: The board may have a chairperson or president who functions as chief executive officer, or there may be an elected mayor.
Governmental employees may include a clerk, treasurer, police and fire officers, and health and welfare officers. One unique aspect of local government, found mostly in the New England region of the United States, is the town meeting. Once a year, sometimes more often if needed, the registered voters of the town meet in open session to elect officers, debate local issues, and pass laws for operating the government.
As a body, they decide on road construction and repair, construction of public buildings and facilities, tax rates, and the town budget. The town meeting, which has existed for more than three centuries in some places, is often cited as the purest form of direct democracy , in which the governmental power is not delegated, but is exercised directly and regularly by all the people. Successful participation, especially in federal elections, requires large amounts of money, especially for television advertising.
Both parties generally depend on wealthy donors and organizations—traditionally the Democrats depended on donations from organized labor while the Republicans relied on business donations. Opponents of campaign finance laws cite the First Amendment 's guarantee of free speech, and challenge campaign finance laws because they attempt to circumvent the people's constitutionally guaranteed rights. Even when laws are upheld, the complication of compliance with the First Amendment requires careful and cautious drafting of legislation, leading to laws that are still fairly limited in scope, especially in comparison to those of other countries such as the United Kingdom , France or Canada.
Fundraising plays a large role in getting a candidate elected to public office. Without money, a candidate may have little chance of achieving their goal. Attempts to limit the influence of money on American political campaigns dates back to the s. Recently, Congress passed legislation requiring candidates to disclose sources of campaign contributions, how the campaign money is spent, and regulated use of "soft money" contributions.
The United States Constitution does not mention political parties, primarily because the Founding Fathers did not intend for American politics to be partisan. In Federalist Papers No. In addition, the first President of the United States , George Washington , was not a member of any political party at the time of his election or during his tenure as president. Washington hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation. Hamilton and Madison ended up being the core leaders in this emerging party system. In modern times, in partisan elections, candidates are nominated by a political party or seek public office as an independent.
Each state has significant discretion in deciding how candidates are nominated, and thus eligible to appear on the election ballot. Typically, major party candidates are formally chosen in a party primary or convention, whereas minor party and Independents are required to complete a petitioning process.
The modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since and have controlled the United States Congress since The Democratic Party generally positions itself as left-of-center in American politics and supports a modern American liberal platform, while the Republican Party generally positions itself as right-wing and supports a modern American conservative platform.
Third parties and independent voters have achieved relatively minor representation from time to time at local levels. The Libertarian Party is the largest third party in the country, claiming more than , registered voters in ; [29] it generally positions itself as centrist or radical centrist and supports a classical liberal position. Other contemporary third parties include the left-wing Green Party , supporting Green politics , and the right-wing Constitution Party , supporting paleoconservatism. Unlike in some parliamentary systems , Americans vote for a specific candidate instead of directly selecting a particular political party.
With a federal government, officials are elected at the federal national , state and local levels. On a national level, the President , is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular vote of their state.