Failure of te Two-Party System Essay -- essays research papers

A valuable factor within any democracy is the presence of political parties. As dictated by Webster, a party is meant as "a group, which unites to promote or maintain a policy, a cause, or other purposes, as a political group." This definition can be easily simplified as individuals with a common cause. This is just the case with American political parties. They are ordinary groups of individuals with a common cause in hopes to gain political power. Within the United States, two political parties make up the majority, the Republicans and Democrats. Unlike many other democratic nations around the world, America is unique with their generalized lack of parties. However, there is a growing trend within America that implies the two-party system, which has been the leader in American politics, has started to become weak. When the United States initially formed as a nation, there were few differentiations between the people. Those with voting privileges were mostly white Anglo-Saxons. The greatest differences seemed to be developing around the issue of slavery creating a North versus South political atmosphere. Siding with the intelligence of the era, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, the federalist and anti federalist parties developed around opposing ideas regarding a written Bill of Rights. This form of elitism running the government was not unreasonable in a time when communication to the outskirts and rural areas of the nation wa...