Question.1806 - Describe both evolution of the two-party system over time and the roles and functions of political parties in the United States?
Answer Below:
Firstly, considering the role of political parties in the United States which includes running candidates for office, while mobilizing the support in terms of gaining the favored vote, understanding a public concern and drafting a policy to tackle it and organizing government institution – with this understanding we can mitigate that political parties tend to act as the mechanism, or a bridge between resolving the social and political conflict of American society (O'Connor et al., 2021). Political parties' primary role is to run candidates for office, while political party leaders find excellent candidates and push them to seek for local, state, and national offices (O'Connor et al., 2021). Another key duty of political parties is policy formulation and promotion. Parties utilize their respective national platforms to demonstrate why their choices are preferable to those of opposing parties on critical subjects. Platforms have an impact on public policy, with around two-thirds of the pledges in the ruling party's presidency agenda being fulfilled (O'Connor et al., 2021). Political parties are also responsible for organizing and structuring government activities. Parties in Congress elect leaders, appoint committee members, and enact rules and regulations for the party. According to my understanding party identification is a key predictor of congressional vote, and in recent years, party cohesiveness has strengthened; since the leader of their party, the president picks members of their party to important executive posts and collaborates closely with legislative party leaders to enact legislation. State-level parties aid and support lawmakers in elections, and governors frequently have great power over party organizations and legislators. With the emergence of the two-party system, Federalist party had intriguing number of supporters who were advocating for the state autonomy, while the opposition on the surge in accordance with the articles of confederation led to the formation of democratic republicans (O'Connor, 2021, p. 307). Although, there was a drastic instability among the alliances up until President George Washington's retirement, which provided more scope for the Federalists support John Adams, while a tussle led to Democratic-Republicans nominating Thomas Jefferson, who won the election with majority – this event was marked as the first U.S. president elected as a political party's nominee (O'Connor et al., 2021, p. 307). This shows how political parties also play an important role in mobilizing support crowd and increasing voter turnout in favor to their party. They make investments in public perception polling and monitoring polls to evaluate candidate support and devise campaign strategy. Parties locate prospective supporters and customize their messaging to specific voters using different strategies, including micro-targeting based on consumer preferences and prior voting behavior's (O'Connor et al., 2021). While on the other hand, Jeffersons perspective who saw his party as a short-term political instrument to defeat Adams, as opposed to a long-term political tool or an important component of democracy; as a result, the Democratic-Republicans received the majority of their backing from the agrarian South, whereas the Federalists stayed a regional party supported by the commercial New England states and there have been no broad-based national party organizations attempting to mobilize the public's backing (O'Connor et al., 2021, p. 307). During the Jacksonian period (1824-1860), the two-party system evolved further. The newly enfranchised citizens who were captivated to Jackson's captivating approach were pulled to the Democratic Party, which was created around Andrew Jackson's popularity. Jackson's detractors formed the Whig Party. The Whigs and Democrats formed the Western world's first widely accepted two-party system. Tensions within the Whig Party, particularly over the topic of slavery, led to its slow breakup and substitution by the Republican Party, that was founded in 1854 with the purpose of eliminating or restricting slavery (O'Connor et al., 2021, p. 308). Since the 1860 presidential election, Republicans and Democrats have controlled elections in the United States. The authority and control of an electoral majority has swung back and forth among these two major parties, this is sometimes considered to as the "Golden Age" of political parties because of party stability, party organization dominance in municipal and state administrations, and high voter turnout. Since the 1930s, the government has steadily taken over critical duties previously done by parties, resulting in a loss in party allegiance and strength. societal shifts, candidate-centered politics as a whole and the migration from urban to suburban regions have sapped political parties even further resulting in a hole left by smaller parties has been addressed by associations of interest’s groups and lobbyists, and candidates now fight for endorsements and donations from numerous organizations (O'Connor et al., 2021, p. 309). References O'Connor, K., Sabato, L. J., & Yanus, A. B. (2021). American Government: Roots and Reform (12th Ed). Pearson.More Articles From Political Science
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