What was the period of dominance for the republicans

Distinguish the issues and policies supported by the first political parties and identify the central elements of the First Party System. The First Party System is a model of American politics used by political scientists and historians to periodize the political party system existing in the United States between roughly and Rising out of the Federalist v.

Anti-Federalist debates, it featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states: the Federalist Party, created largely by Alexander Hamilton, and the rival Democratic-Republican Party formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

The Federalists were dominant until , and the Republicans were dominant after The First Party System : Federalist poster about Washington in heaven tells partisans to keep the pillars of Federalism, Republicanism and Democracy. In an analysis of the contemporary party system, Jefferson wrote on Feb. Both parties originated in national politics, but later expanded their efforts to gain supporters and voters in every state. The Federalists appealed to the business community, the Republicans to the planters and farmers.

By politics in every state was nearly monopolized by the two parties, with party newspapers and caucuses becoming especially effective tools to mobilize voters. The Federalists promoted the financial system of Treasury Secretary Hamilton, which emphasized federal assumption of state debts, a tariff to pay off those debts, a national bank to facilitate financing, and encouragement of banking and manufacturing.

The Republicans, based in the plantation South, opposed a strong executive power, were hostile to a standing army and navy, demanded a limited reading of the Constitutional powers of the federal government, and strongly opposed the Hamilton financial program. Perhaps even more important was foreign policy, where the Federalists favored Britain because of its political stability and its close ties to American trade, while the Republicans admired the French and the French Revolution.

Jefferson was especially fearful that British aristocratic influences would undermine Republicanism. Britain and France were at war from through , with one brief interruption. American policy was neutrality, with the Federalists hostile to France, and the Republicans hostile to Britain. The Jay Treaty of marked the decisive mobilization of the two parties and their supporters in every state.

President George Washington, while officially nonpartisan, generally supported the Federalists, and that party made Washington their iconic hero. The First Party System ended during the Era of Good Feelings — , as the Federalists shrank to a few isolated strongholds and the Republicans lost unity.

Jacksonian democracy is the political movement toward greater democracy for the common man typified by American politician Andrew Jackson. Jacksonian democracy is the political movement toward greater democracy for the common man typified by American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters.

The Democratic-Republican Party of the Jeffersonians became factionalized in the s. More broadly, the term refers to the period of the Second Party System mid— when the democratic attitude was the spirit of that era. It can be contrasted with the characteristics of Jeffersonian democracy.

Jeffersonians opposed inherited elites but favored educated men while the Jacksonians gave little weight to education. The Whigs were the inheritors of Jeffersonian Democracy in terms of promoting schools and colleges. During the Jacksonian era, the suffrage was extended to nearly all white male adult citizens.

They demanded elected not appointed judges and rewrote many state constitutions to reflect the new values. In national terms the Jacksonians favored geographical expansion, justifying it in terms of Manifest Destiny.

There was usually a consensus among both Jacksonians and Whigs that battles over slavery should be avoided. The Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men. By , universal white male suffrage was the norm, and by nearly all requirements to own property or pay taxes had been dropped. This was the belief that white Americans had a destiny to settle the American West and to expand control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and that the West should be settled by yeoman farmers.

However, the Free Soil Jacksonians, notably Martin Van Buren, argued for limitations on slavery in the new areas to enable the poor white man to flourish; they split with the main party briefly in The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.

Also known as the spoils system, patronage was the policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices. Many Jacksonians held the view that rotating political appointees in and out of office was not only the right but also the duty of winners in political contests. Patronage was theorized to be good because it would encourage political participation by the common man and because it would make a politician more accountable for poor government service by his appointees.

Jacksonians also held that long tenure in the civil service was corrupting, so civil servants should be rotated out of office at regular intervals. However, it often led to the hiring of incompetent and sometimes corrupt officials due to the emphasis on party loyalty above any other qualifications. Like the Jeffersonians who strongly believed in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Jacksonians initially favored a federal government of limited powers. As the Jacksonians consolidated power, they more often advocated expanding federal power and presidential power in particular.

Complementing a strict construction of the Constitution, the Jacksonians generally favored a hands-off approach to the economy, as opposed to the Whig program sponsoring modernization, railroads, banking, and economic growth.

In particular, the Jacksonians opposed government-granted monopolies to banks, especially the national bank, a central bank known as the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson himself was opposed to all banks, because he believed they were devices to cheat common people; he and many followers believed that only gold and silver could be money.

Jackson and Banking : Democratic cartoon shows Jackson slaying the monster Bank. Despite outward indicators of prosperity, the Gilded Age late s to was an era characterized by turmoil and political contention. In United States history, the Gilded Age was the period following the Civil War, running from the late s to about when the next era began, the Progressive Era. Since the s, the party has promoted a social liberal, social democratic and progressive platform, and its Congressional caucus is composed of progressives, liberals, centrists, and left-libertarians.

The party has the lengthiest record of continuous operation in the United States and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. President Barack Obama is the15 th Democrat to hold the presidency. The Democratic Party evolved from Anti- Federalist factions that opposed the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton in the early s.

The Democratic-Republican Party gained power in the election of Democratic-Republicans split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party.

Joining with former members of existing or dwindling parties, the Republican Party emerged. In the lead up to the election, the Democratic Party split further, this time, over nominees which led to a Republican victory and Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16 th President of the United States. The Great Depression in that occurred under Republican President Hoover set the stage for a more liberal government; the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives nearly uninterrupted from until and won most presidential elections until Franklin D.

Roosevelt, elected to the presidency in , came forth with government programs called the New Deal. New Deal liberalism meant the promotion of social welfare, labor unions, civil rights, and regulation of business. African Americans, who traditionally supported the Republican Party, began supporting Democrats following the ascent of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights movement.

Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency in , as a New Democrat. Re-elected in , Clinton was the first two term Democratic President since Roosevelt. Since , the Democratic Party has moved to the left of the Republicans on economic and social issues. Historically, the party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes.

In foreign policy, internationalism including interventionism was a dominant theme from to the mids. The major influences for liberalism were labor unions which peaked in the — era , and the African American wing, which has steadily grown since the s. Democrats believe government should play a role in alleviating poverty and social injustice and use a system of progressive taxation. The most common mascot symbol for the party is the donkey, although the party never officially adopted this symbol.

Since election night in , the color blue has become the identified color of the Democratic Party, all major broadcast television networks used blue for Democrat Al Gore. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Interest Groups. Search for:. The Two-Party System. Learning Objectives Discuss the historical origins of the two-party system in the United States and its advantages and disadvantages. Key Takeaways Key Points The advantages of a two party system are that they tend to be less extreme, support policies that appeal to a broader segment of the population, and generally more stable.

The disadvantages of a two party system are that they tend to ignore alternative views, stifle debate, and may not promote inter-party compromise but simply partisan appeals to the population. Third parties can and do exist in two-party system, however, they do not wield very much influence. Key Terms two-party system : A two-party system is a system in which two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, the majority of elected offices are members of one of the two major parties.

Winner-Takes-All : The winner-takes-all voting system allows only a single winner for each possible legislative seat and is sometimes termed a plurality voting system or single-winner voting system. Learning Objectives Explain the ideology and political positions of the Republican Party.

In the 21st century, the Republican Party has been defined by social conservatism, a preemptive war foreign policy intended to defeat terrorism and promote global democracy, a more powerful executive branch, supply-side economics, support for gun ownership, and deregulation.

By contrast, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson favored a more limited government. His supporters called themselves Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, but later became known as Democratic-Republicans.

In the s, the issue of slavery —and its extension into new territories and states joining the Union—ripped apart these political coalitions. During this volatile period, new political parties briefly surfaced, including the Free Soil and the American Know-Nothing parties. In , opposition to the Kansas- Nebraska Act, which would permit slavery in new U. The Republican goal was not to abolish slavery in the South right away, but rather to prevent its westward expansion, which they feared would lead to the domination of slaveholding interests in national politics.

In the election, a split between Southern and Northern Democrats over slavery propelled the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to victory, though he won only around 40 percent of the popular vote. Even before Lincoln could be inaugurated, seven Southern states seceded from the Union, beginning the process that would lead to the Civil War. Over the course of the Civil War, Lincoln and other Republicans began to see the abolition of slavery as a strategic move to help them win the war.

During Reconstruction, Republicans would become increasingly associated with big business and financial interests in the more industrialized North. The federal government had expanded during the war including passage of the first income tax and Northern financiers and industrialists had greatly benefited from its increased spending.

With the rise of the Progressive movement, which sought to improve life for working-class Americans and encourage Protestant values such as temperance which would lead to Prohibition in , some Republicans championed progressive social, economic and labor reforms, including President Theodore Roosevelt , who split from the more conservative wing of the party after leaving office.

Republicans benefited from the prosperity of the s, but after the stock market crash of ushered in the Great Depression , many Americans blamed them for the crisis and deplored their resistance to use direct government intervention to help people. This dissatisfaction allowed Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to easily defeat the Republican incumbent, Herbert Hoover , in Between and , Republicans won only four presidential elections and had a Congressional majority for only four years.

Though the centrist Republican Dwight D. Meanwhile, many black voters, who had remained loyal to the Republican Party since the Civil War, began voting Democratic after the Depression and the New Deal. After running on a platform based on reducing the size of the federal government, Reagan increased military spending, spearheaded huge tax cuts and championed the free market with policies that became known as Reaganomics.