Political_parties_in_the_USA

Political parties in the USA

Good morning everyone!

Today I’m going to tell you about political parties in the USA. Thus the objective of my talk is to look in more depth in the history of their development and analyze the main functions of political parties. First of all, I’d like to make a few observations about the events leading up to the development of such a political body, then I’ll bring you in on 2 main parties playing a major role in the political process of the USA, and finally, I’ll put in more depth some of their features.

So, let me start.

Firstly, I’d like to bring you an overview of historical aspect in the process of the development of political parties. When the founders of American republic wrote the U.S. constitution in 1787, they didn’t envision a role for political parties in the governmental order, because they wanted to insulate the new republic from the influence of political parties. Moreover, the writers of the Constitution feared that parties could take over the government. That’s why in the beginning of the 18^th century they established Electoral College.

The development of political parties was closely linked to the extension of voters, as the amount of people allowed to vote increased, too. What is more, after the Constitution went into effect people with similar views banded together to achieve national goals. So, in order to mobilize such vast masses of voters political parties became institutionalized and by 1830-s political parties were established.

And now I’d like to make some comments at this point within contemporary situation in the USA. Nowadays there are 2 main parties in the USA: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Let’s observe both of them in details.

The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the USA. It traces its origins to the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson & James Madison in 1792. However, the modern democratic party truly arose in 1830-s, with the election of Andrew Jackson. In fact, the Democratic Party is more likely to be supported by the large urban centers. The democrats earned their reputation in the 1930-s when there was a world life economic depression. With D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” plan, Democrats set up government programmes that provided paid employment for people building dams and roads and public buildings.

The Republican Party is second major contemporary political party in the United States. It was founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854. It first came to power in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S. political spectrum. American conservatism of the Republican Party is not wholly based upon rejection of the political ideology of liberalism, as many principles of American conservatism are based upon classical liberalism. Rather the Republican Party's conservatism is largely based upon its support of classical liberal principles against the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party.

And now I’d like to concentrate on peculiarities of American political parties. Firstly, there is so much variety in both major parties that not all members of Congress or other elected officials who belong to the same party agree with each other on everything. It means, that there are conservative Democrats who tend to agree with many Republican ideas and liberal Republicans who often agree with Democratic ideas. Secondly, Americans don’t have to join a p.p. in order to vote or to be a candidate for a public office. And thirdly, there are other, smaller parties in the United States besides the two major parties. They can’t ever win presidential election, but they are able to determine which major party wins by supporting one or the other.

And in conclusion I’d to highlight that American political parties due to their specific features, like – only two ruling parties, political pluralism inside parties and etc., regularly and effectively fulfill their duties. That makes the U.S. political system working properly.