Immediately right after beginning to talk about the two party systems, American DNP and RNP comes to one’s mind. America by making use of this course has made its policy making process much easier as well as effective. This paper is going to focus on the history of the party formation in United States polity and point out advantages and disadvantages of the two party system in America afterwards.
When the Father Founders of the America documented the United States Constitution in 1787, they did not entrust a position for parties in the U.S. polity. All they were looking after and eventually settled were constitutional arrangements e.g. separation of powers, checks and balances between three branches, and indirect election of the President by an electoral college. Yet, despite the Founders' will, “the U.S. was the first nation to develop parties organized on a national basis and to transfer executive power from one faction to another via an election in 1800.”[1]
When it comes to talk about the first parties formed in America, it should be remarked that the electoral politics in the United States has been reined by two political parties since George Washington’s presidency; but with little discrepancy with what we witness nowadays in the United States in that they have not always been the same two parties. The first opposition was between Federalists and Anti-Federalists- those who supported a strong federal government and those who did not. Leaders of the Federalists were Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Both were from the Northeast where Federalist sentiment was strongest. Thomas Jefferson became the acknowledged leader of Anti-Federalist sentiment, and by the time of his election to the presidency in 1800 his party was called Democratic Republican.
Since 1856 every president elected in America has been either a Republican or Democrat. Since the 1860s, the Republicans and Democrats have dominated electoral politics.
These parties actually stand for certain hues of values and ideologies and by providing this they attracted voters who identify themselves with the party that represents their mindsets the most. “With two-party systems, you have to take a look at the political spectrum. You have the far left, moderate left, moderate, moderate right, and the far right. One party tends to be on the left side while the other part tends to be on the right side. In the United States you have the Democrats that support the left while you have the Republicans that support the right. Mainly because the the left is what you would call liberal and the right is what you would call conservative. Before the Great Depression and the events that had followed afterwards, the Democrats were conservative while the Republicans were liberal.”[2]
Today in America nearly two-thirds of Americans regard themselves either Republicans or Democrats, and even those who say that they are independents normally have partisan inclinations and show remarkable degrees of partisan loyalty. For example, “on average 71 percent of Democratic-leaning independents and 79 percent of Republican-leaning independents voted for their preferred party's presidential nominees in the last four presidential elections. It is estimated that only about nine percent of the Americans are "pure independents."[3]
American two-party politics has brought along with it certain levels of facilities as well as inconvenience which are going to be gone through here.
Pros:
In two party systems we have at least two unified sets of values and approaches toward the everyday issues and hardships. That means parties may differ in viewpoints but they are concentrated within their party and produce directions way easier than a haphazard multi-party or a tyrant one party.
The other advantage of a two party system is that it makes it easier for the voters to choose from the introduced resolutions. Easily put, the two party system simplifies the process of decision making for the voters.
Unlike the one party systems which can easily lead to authoritarianism, two parties constantly check up on the other party and that makes both of them in line and eventually it prevents corruption.
Cons:
The choices the voters get to choose from are limited; it is either black or white, and that is because there are only two political sets of minds introducing solutions. The problem regarding two party systems is that there is not that much of a variety for the voters.
The other disadvantage of such a system is that two parties are innately born competitive that are continuously vying with each other over every single issue and that, most of the times, doesn’t let them come up with effective solutions for, mainly, important problems.
The other con introduced by Rena Silverman touches upon an interesting subject. He asserts: “Throughout the nation’s history, the political parties have been associated with corrupt practices, such as patronage and the awarding of government contracts to party insiders—and those charges are still made today. In addition, the parties regularly face criticism for questionable fund-raising practices that effectively place politicians in debt to big contributors.”[4]
References:
1. http://www.youdebate.com/DEBATES/two_party.HTM, Retrieved at: 12/25/2009
2. http://www.helium.com/items/339121-the-pros-and-cons-of-two-party-systems, Retrieved at: 12/25/2009
3. http://www.youdebate.com/DEBATES/two_party.HTM, Retrieved at: 12/25/2009
4. http://renasilvermanoval.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/two-party-syste/, Retrieved at: 12/25/2009
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