Effects of Political Parties
Effects of Political PartiesIntroduction
Since the last of the Whig party left office in 1852, the
American political system has been primarily a two party system. The
Democrats and the Republicans have been the two parties fighting for
the Presidency since that time. There have been many other parties
since that time, but mainly, these two have gone unopposed against
each other. However, how much good do these parties actually do? Would
our country be run as effectively if the presence of political parties
was no longer a factor? It is the opinion of the authors that the U.S.
Government would exist without political parties and may, in fact be
stronger. The concept of political parties seems to go against what it
means to be a politician: to represent his or her constituents. More
time, money and effort, it seems is put into getting elected to an
office than actually doing work for the people in that office. One
fairly recent example is seen in the case of the proposed federal
Balanced Budget Amendment. Mark Hatfield, Republican Oregon Senator,
went against his parties wishes and voted against the amendment. His
party nearly abandoned him for choosing the people over his party.
Many senators are faced with the same decision every day, but instead
stick with party beliefs and not what they feel would be the best for
the people. In order for true democracy to be achieved in our
government, we feel drastic changes need to occur.
Review Of The Literature
Since the mid 1850's, the Democrats and Republicans have had
control of the nation government. The only place where opposition was
felt was at the state and local levels. However, in the early days of
our country, third and fourth party candidates played important roles
in politics. A few of these parties from our history are the:
Democrat-Republicans, Jefferson Republicans, Whigs and Federalists.
Many other lesser known or hardly known at all parties were the:
Socialists, Unionists, Farmer-Laborists, Progressives, Communists,
States' Rights, American Independents, Libertarians, New Alliance,
Populists, Consumers, National Economic Recovery, Right to Life,
Workers league, Socialist Workers, Peace and Freedom, Prohibitionists,
Workers World, American, Grassroots, Independent and Third World
Assembly. This immense list goes to show that not all American history
has been two party. What we know today as Democrats and Republicans
derived from some of these parties to be what they are today. The
emergence of the parties has come mainly as a reaction to history
where most of the rulers have been dictators or kings. The people do
not favor dictatorship and therefore created political parties to
better represent the feelings of the voters (Madron, 1974). This is
not a time of a dictatorship and we have achieved representative
democracy. We have evolved as a nation and have grown out of the need
for political parties. The 1992 Presidential election was a definite
sign that the usefulness of political parties is crumbling. The...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.