Analytical Essay

Analytical Essay

Introduction

Political parties are organized groups of people that influence the government through elections. They elect their own members to important governmental positions. A political party attempts to control the government by electing their own representatives to office while an interest group attempts to influence government policies. Political parties developed along the course of development of state. American political parties have taken their shape and structure from the electoral process. The party organization in US has followed the rule that, for every district where an election takes place, there must be a political party.

The two main political parties, Democrats and Republicans, had their monopolistic areas in America between 1900 and 1952. During this period, Republicans were unable to maintain party units in many areas of the southern states. Similarly, Democrats were unsuccessful in some areas of New England where Democrats had a strong hold. However, in major part of the history of United States, these two major parties had enough presence to oppose each other in elections in most of the towns, states and cities, of the United States. The most important activity of a party is to recruit the candidates for local and national office. Before each election, there must be enough candidates for thousands of local and state level offices and seats of congress. Party leaders are responsible to identify strong candidates for the campaigns.

America is one of the few countries with a two-party system (Ginsberg, et al, 2010). America's founding fathers have always warned the people to discourage the partisan politics. American politics revolves around two major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Only these two political parties have the realistic opportunity to compete in an effective manner. However, there have been many parties emerging in the political field, like American Conservative Party, America's Party, Christian Liberty Party, Justice Party, National Socialist Movement and many more.

US Political Parties

Throughout most of the United States' history, American politics have always been dominated by a two-party system. However, the constitution of United States has always remained silent on issues regarding political parties. At the time the constitution was signed in 1787, no political party existed in the nation. Indeed, none of the nations in the world had any voter-based political party. The need to win effective support in the country led to the invention of American political parties in the end of 17th Century. Americans started innovative campaigns that linked the opinion of common public to the public policies.

Two-party system controls the modern political system of America. These two parties (The Democrats and The Republicans) have presided America, since 1856 and have controlled senate since then. The Democrat is considered the oldest political party in the world is currently holding the president's office of United States. President Obama is 15th Democrat to hold the office. The Republican Party is considered the second largest party of United States.



Organizational Structure of American Political Parties

Political parties are usually organized like a pyramid, having millions of party supporters in the base ...