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9: Parties

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    It is difficult to think of American politics without also thinking of parties. Almost every aspect of the American political landscape — from the choices voters make in elections to the arguments and alliances between politicians that play out in government — is structured according to the familiar battle lines drawn between Democrats and Republicans. These two major parties permeate American politics so thoroughly that one could easily conclude that they are baked into the American political system, as fixed and permanent as checks and balances or the Bill of Rights.

    Photograph of Hillary Clinton onstage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    Democrats cheer Hillary Clinton as she accepts her party’s nomination for president at its 2016 national convention in Philadelphia.

    Yet neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party — nor, for that matter, any party — is mentioned in the Constitution. No statute passed by Congress establishes Democrats and Republicans as the principal combatants in the American political arena or decrees that almost all elected positions shall be held by members of these organizations. Furthermore, nothing about the population of the United States suggests that it would naturally lend itself to being represented by any two parties, let alone these two parties. In fact, many Americans express frustration that their political participation always seems to boil down to a choice between one of two options, neither of which they find particularly appealing.

    The two-party dominance that characterizes American politics today is neither a dictate of constitutional or statutory law nor a reflection of intrinsic social divisions among the populace. Rather, it arose as a natural consequence of the rules which govern American elections, as groups of people coordinated around shared interests to maximize their influence on politics. Contrary to the expectations of the Founders (who believed the country was too diverse for large coalitions to form), both major parties have survived more than a century of political upheaval, constantly adapting to new circumstances to maintain their competitiveness. To comprehend how any of America’s official institutions function, it is necessary to grasp the nature of these unofficial institutions which shape so much of the American political experience.

    This page titled 9: Parties is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Benjamin R. Kantack (Tekakwitha Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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      Benjamin R. Kantack
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