Development of Political Parties Research Paper

Development of Political Parties - Research Paper Example 78-79). This paper is an attempt to present a bird eye’s view of the history of the political parties in the United States of America. Discussion Surprisingly, the constitution of United States, unlike other constitutions of the nations does not present any guidelines about the political parties of the country. In fact, the First President of United States and the Father of the Nation, George Washington was strongly against political parities because he viewed political party system as something, which would bring conflicts, inefficiency, and stagnation to the system (Eldersveld & Walton, pp. 123-125). However, as soon as United States gained independence, disagreements and discrepancies surfaced out in the views of the founding fathers of America (Cohen, Fleisher & Kantor, pp. 513-516). The First Part System came into being when differences between the Treasury of the State Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson regarding the role and strength of the federal government (Nivo la & Brady, pp. 78-79). Hamilton and its supporters wanted a strong central government to control ad look after the matters; however, Jefferson and his disciples feared that a strong central government like that of Britain would invite the states to stand up against the Federation someday. This was the era of 1792-1824 (Maisel, pp. 98-99). This tug of war between the Federalist Party of Hamilton and Jefferson’s Democratic Republican Party went on to include various foreign policy issues as well (Eldersveld & Walton, pp. 123-125). Towards the end of the 1820’s the era of good feelings started and these personal and policy differences were settled. However, important here is to note is that Democratic Republic Party was the clear winner and survivor (Sabato & Ernst, pp. 269-278). However, it was not until the Second Party System that foundation of the modern American Political Party system came into existence. During this era of 1828 to 1854, the Democratic Party led by Andrew Jackson and the Whig Party in the leadership of Henry clay were facing each other (Eldersveld & Walton, pp. 123-125; Ritchie, pp. 367-373). Towards the end of this era, many of the democratic leaders accepted Whiggish ideas; however, many other economic and social issues were forcing the Democratic Party itself to divide into two thus giving birth to the third political party system in the United States (Wilson & DiIulio, pp. 193-197). This was during the third political party system when the Republican and Democratic Parities emerged which continue to be the dominant force in American politics (Stonecash, pp. 59-67). Many experts believe that the newly born Republican Party emerged as a national party, which was bold enough to take strong economic and social decisions such as creation of banks, rail roods, abolishment of slavery and others (Bibby & Schaffner, pp. 112-113; Maisel, pp. 98-99). In fact, slavery was the major issue during this period. The Democratic Party, which had a strong alliance with the farmers of the South and the West were unable to continue this alliance due to the issue of slavery. Furthermore, the Democratic Party finally was divided into two fractions with for and against slavery (Maisel, pp. 26-28). On the other hand, Republicans believed on the concept of free soil and thus wanted the abolishment of slavery (Cohen, Fleisher & Kantor, pp. 513-516). As mentioned earlier that Republicans remained in the spotlight during this era and after the civil war, they were able to exercise their control over