Political History

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the history of the American political system. The paper outlines the major shift made by American politics in the era after the war of 1812 and before the onset of the Civil War. The change from a political system of deference to one with two political parties fighting hard for the spoils of every election, is illustrated. The paper discusses the constitutional constraints and institutional reforms that have produced a weak party system in the United States.

From the Paper:

"It was not inevitable that America develop a two-party political system, though political parties today do serve a number of important roles in the political and social structure of the nation. The Republicans and the Democrats have been the two parties for more than a century, though these were not the first political parties in the nation. In truth, the Founding Fathers did not want political parties and so excluded them from the Constitution. They did believe that factions would develop, and avoiding the damage factions could do was one reason political parties were not included in the Constitution. Madison wrote about the near-inevitability of factions in The Federalist Papers, and he said that the causes of faction are part of the nature of the human being. Political parties did indeed develop in the new country, and it appears that this was easily predicted given the tendency of the individual to seek others of like mind and to attempt concerted action where possible. The nature of parties changed over time--in the beginning they were loose alliances among compatible members of congress in support of or in opposition to the president (Reiter 52-53). Later, they would become stronger and more institutionalized."

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