Defunct
110-548: Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other The National Republican Party , also known as the Anti-Jacksonian Party or simply Republicans , was a political party in the United States which evolved from a conservative-leaning faction of
220-403: A legislature , areas may be divided into constituencies with one or more representatives or the electorate may elect representatives as a single unit. Voters may vote directly for an individual candidate or for a list of candidates put forward by a political party or alliance . There are many variations in electoral systems. The mathematical and normative study of voting rules falls under
330-400: A majority bonus system to either ensure one party or coalition gains a majority in the legislature, or to give the party receiving the most votes a clear advantage in terms of the number of seats. San Marino has a modified two-round system, which sees a second round of voting featuring the top two parties or coalitions if there is no majority in the first round. The winner of the second round
440-474: A mixed economy , and the welfare state ; Bill Clinton and other New Democrats have pushed for free trade and neoliberalism , which is seen to have shifted the party rightwards. Into the 21st century, Democrats are strongest in the Northeast and West Coast and in major American urban centers. African Americans and Latinos tend to be disproportionately Democratic, as do trade unions . In 2004, it
550-541: A republic led to the American invention of voter-based political parties in the 1790s. Americans were especially innovative in devising new campaign techniques that linked public opinion with public policy through the party. Political scientists and historians have divided the development of America's two-party system into six or so eras or "party systems", starting with the Federalist Party , which supported
660-442: A broad coalition—including small farmers, Northern city dwellers with ' urban political machines ', organized labor, European immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans, liberals, intellectuals, and reformers", as well as traditionally Democratic segregationist white Southerners. Opposition Republicans were split between a conservative wing, led by Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft , and a more successful moderate wing exemplified by
770-630: A coalition of National Republicans, along with Anti-Masons , disaffected Jacksonians and people whose last political activity had been with the Federalists a decade before. In the short term, the Whig Party formed with the help of other smaller parties in a coalition against President Jackson and his reforms. John Quincy Adams was the only president to come from the National Republican Party. Political parties in
880-627: A country's constitution or electoral law . Participatory rules determine candidate nomination and voter registration , in addition to the location of polling places and the availability of online voting , postal voting , and absentee voting . Other regulations include the selection of voting devices such as paper ballots , machine voting or open ballot systems , and consequently the type of vote counting systems , verification and auditing used. Electoral rules place limits on suffrage and candidacy. Most countries's electorates are characterised by universal suffrage , but there are differences on
990-579: A different system, as in contingent elections when no candidate wins a majority of the United States Electoral College . An exhaustive ballot is not limited to two rounds, but sees the last-placed candidate eliminated in each round of voting. Due to the potentially large number of rounds, this system is not used in any major popular elections, but is used to elect the Speakers of parliament in several countries and members of
1100-501: A dramatic political shift. The Democrats were now the party of "big government", the dominant party (retaining the presidency until 1952 and controlling both houses of Congress for most of the period from the 1930s to the mid-1990s), and positioned towards liberalism while conservatives increasingly dominated the GOP. The New Deal raised the minimum wage, established Social Security , and created other federal services. Roosevelt "forged
1210-400: A majority of the vote in the first round, the second preferences of the lowest-ranked candidate are then added to the totals. This is repeated until a candidate achieves over 50% of the number of valid votes. If not all voters use all their preference votes, then the count may continue until two candidates remain, at which point the winner is the one with the most votes. A modified form of IRV is
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#17327656429911320-493: A majority of votes to be elected, either in a runoff election or final round of voting. This is sometimes referred to as a type of majority voting, although usually only a plurality is required in the last round, and sometimes even in the first round winners can avoid a second round without achieving a majority. In social choice theory, runoff systems are not called majority voting, as this term refers to Condorcet-methods . There are two main forms of runoff systems, one conducted in
1430-535: A number of seats approximately proportional to their vote share. Other systems may be insufficiently compensatory, and this may result in overhang seats , where parties win more seats in the constituency system than they would be entitled to based on their vote share. Variations of this include the Additional Member System , and Alternative Vote Plus , in which voters cast votes for both single-member constituencies and multi-member constituencies;
1540-708: A part of the social life of many communities. 1896 saw the beginning of the Progressive Era . The Republican Party still dominated and the interest groups and voting blocs were unchanged, but the central domestic issues changed to government regulation of railroads and large corporations (" trusts "), the protective tariff, the role of labor unions , child labor , the need for a new banking system, corruption in party politics, primary elections, direct election of senators, racial segregation , efficiency in government, women's suffrage , and control of immigration. Some realignment took place, giving Republicans dominance in
1650-423: A person runs for partisan office. In most states, this means declaring oneself a candidate for the nomination of a particular party and one's intention to enter that party's primary election for office. A party committee may choose to endorse candidate(s) seeking the nomination, but in the end the choice is up to those who choose to vote in the primary, and it is often difficult to tell who will be voting. The result
1760-454: A result, some countries have leveling seats to award to parties whose seat totals are lower than their proportion of the national vote. In addition to the electoral threshold (the minimum percentage of the vote that a party must obtain to win seats), there are several different ways to allocate seats in proportional systems. There are two main types of systems: highest average and largest remainder . Highest average systems involve dividing
1870-492: A single party, with the party receiving the most votes winning all seats. This is used in five countries as part of mixed systems. Plurality voting is a system in which the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes wins, with no requirement to get a majority of votes. In cases where there is a single position to be filled, it is known as first-past-the-post ; this is the second most common electoral system for national legislatures, with 58 countries using it for this purpose,
1980-498: A single round of voting using ranked voting and the other using multiple elections, to successively narrow the field of candidates. Both are primarily used for single-member constituencies. Runoff can be achieved in a single election using instant-runoff voting (IRV), whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference; this system is used for parliamentary elections in Australia and Papua New Guinea . If no candidate receives
2090-453: A strong economy. Its platform was Clay's American System of nationally financed internal improvements and a protective tariff, which would promote faster economic development. More important, by binding together the diverse interests of the different regions, the party intended to promote national unity and harmony. The National Republicans saw the Union as a corporate, organic whole. Hence,
2200-415: A system used in eight countries. Approval voting is a choose-all-you-like voting system which aims to increase the number of candidates that win with majority support. Voters are free to pick as many candidates as they like and each choice has equal weight, independent of the number of candidates a voter supports. The candidate with the most votes wins. A runoff system in which candidates must receive
2310-503: A transitional President in the wake of the Nixon scandals, was considered by many at the time to possibly be a closet boll weevil Democrat . In time, not only did conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans retire, switch parties, or lose elections, so did centrists (such as Rudy Giuliani , George Pataki , Richard Riordan , and Arnold Schwarzenegger ). Eventually a large nationwide majority of rural and working-class whites became
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#17327656429912420-412: Is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote , who can stand as a candidate , how ballots are marked and cast , how
2530-627: Is another form of proportional representation. In STV, multi-member districts are used and each voter casts one vote, being a ranked ballot marked for individual candidates, rather than voting for a party list. STV is used in Malta and the Republic of Ireland . To be certain of being elected, candidates must pass a quota (the Droop quota being the most common). Candidates that pass the quota are elected. If necessary to fill seats, votes are transferred from
2640-404: Is different for each party, but they are made up primarily of representatives from state parties, affiliated organizations, and others important to the party. However, the national committees do not have the power to direct the activities of members of the party. Both parties also have separate campaign committees which work to elect candidates at a specific level. The most significant of these are
2750-410: Is either no popular vote, or the popular vote is only one stage of the election; in these systems the final vote is usually taken by an electoral college . In several countries, such as Mauritius or Trinidad and Tobago , the post of President is elected by the legislature. In others like India , the vote is taken by an electoral college consisting of the national legislature and state legislatures. In
2860-417: Is guaranteed 35 seats in the 60-seat Grand and General Council . In Greece the party receiving the most votes was given an additional 50 seats, a system which was abolished following the 2019 elections . Primary elections are a feature of some electoral systems, either as a formal part of the electoral system or informally by choice of individual political parties as a method of selecting candidates, as
2970-417: Is higher than the voting age. A total of 21 countries have compulsory voting , although in some there is an upper age limit on enforcement of the law. Many countries also have the none of the above option on their ballot papers. In systems that use constituencies , apportionment or districting defines the area covered by each constituency. Where constituency boundaries are drawn has a strong influence on
3080-414: Is impossible to design a straightforward voting system, i.e. one where it is always obvious to a strategic voter which ballot they should cast). The most common categorizations of electoral systems are: single-winner vs. multi-winner systems and proportional representation vs. winner-take-all systems vs. mixed systems . In all cases, where only a single winner is to be elected, the electoral system
3190-432: Is that American political parties have weak central organizations and little central ideology, except by consensus. Unlike in many countries, the party leadership cannot prevent a person who disagrees with basic principles and positions of the party, or actively works against the party's aims, from claiming party membership, so long as primary election voters elect that person. Once in office, elected officials who fail to "toe
3300-486: Is the two-round system , which is the most common system used for presidential elections around the world, being used in 88 countries. It is also used in 20 countries for electing the legislature. If no candidate achieves a majority of votes in the first round of voting, a second round is held to determine the winner. In most cases the second round is limited to the top two candidates from the first round, although in some elections more than two candidates may choose to contest
3410-528: Is the case in Italy . Primary elections limit the risk of vote splitting by ensuring a single party candidate. In Argentina they are a formal part of the electoral system and take place two months before the main elections; any party receiving less than 1.5% of the vote is not permitted to contest the main elections. In the United States, there are both partisan and non-partisan primary elections . Some elections feature an indirect electoral system, whereby there
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3520-526: Is used in Kuwait , the Pitcairn Islands and Vanuatu . In several countries, mixed systems are used to elect the legislature. These include parallel voting (also known as mixed-member majoritarian) and mixed-member proportional representation . In non-compensatory, parallel voting systems, which are used in 20 countries, members of a legislature are elected by two different methods; part of
3630-415: Is winner-take all. The same can be said for elections where only one person is elected per district, since the district elections are also winner-take-all, therefore the electoral system as a whole is also usually non-proportional. Some systems where multiple winners are elected at once (in the same district) are also winner-take-all. In party block voting , voters can only vote for the list of candidates of
3740-648: The 2014 midterm elections , the Democratic Party was also the majority party in the United States Senate . A 2011 USA Today review of state voter rolls indicates that the number of registered Democrats declined in 25 of 28 states (some states do not register voters by party). During this time, Republican registration also declined, as independent or no preference voting was on the rise. In 2011, Democrats numbers shrank 800,000, and from 2008 they were down by 1.7 million, or 3.9%. In 2018,
3850-597: The Borda count , each candidate is given a number of points equal to their rank, and the candidate with the least points wins. This system is intended to elect broadly acceptable options or candidates, rather than those preferred by a majority. This system is used to elect the ethnic minority representatives seats in the Slovenian parliament. The Dowdall system is used in Nauru for parliamentary elections and sees voters rank
3960-621: The Civil War , the Republican Party became the dominant party in America for decades, associated with the successful military defense of the Union and often known as the "Grand Old Party" (GOP). The Republican coalition consisted of businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals who were attracted to the party's modernization policies and newly enfranchised African Americans ( freedmen ). The Democratic Party
4070-529: The Coombs' method and positional voting . Among the Cardinal electoral systems , the most well known of these is range voting , where any number of candidates are scored from a set range of numbers. A very common example of range voting are the 5-star ratings used for many customer satisfaction surveys and reviews. Other cardinal systems include satisfaction approval voting , highest median rules (including
4180-571: The Democratic-Republican Party that supported John Quincy Adams in the 1824 presidential election . Known initially as "Adams- Clay Republicans" in the wake of the 1824 campaign, Adams's political allies in Congress and at the state-level were referred to as "Adams's Men" during his presidency (1825–1829). When Andrew Jackson became president , following his victory over Adams in the 1828 election , this group became
4290-480: The Netherlands , elections are carried out using 'pure' proportional representation, with the votes tallied on a national level before assigning seats to parties. However, in most cases several multi-member constituencies are used rather than a single nationwide constituency, giving an element of geographical representation; but this can result in the distribution of seats not reflecting the national vote totals. As
4400-548: The People's Party (Populist) candidate James B. Weaver (1892), Theodore Roosevelt 's Progressive or " Bull Moose party " (1912), Robert M. La Follette 's Progressive Party (1924), Strom Thurmond 's Dixiecrat States Rights Party (1948), Henry A. Wallace 's Progressive Party (1948), George Wallace 's American Independent Party (1968), and Ross Perot running as an Independent (1992). American political parties are more loosely organized than those in other countries, and
4510-634: The Southern United States . (By 1905 most black people were effectively disenfranchised in every Southern state.) During the post-Civil War era of the nineteenth century, parties were well-established as the country's dominant political organizations, and party allegiance had become an important part of most people's consciousness. Party loyalty was passed from fathers to sons, and in an era before motion pictures and radio, party activities, including spectacular campaign events complete with uniformed marching groups and torchlight parades, were
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4620-530: The Swiss Federal Council . In some formats there may be multiple rounds held without any candidates being eliminated until a candidate achieves a majority. Positional systems like the Borda Count are ranked voting systems that assign a certain number of points to each candidate, weighted by position. The most popular such system is first-preference plurality . Another well-known variant,
4730-483: The U.S. Constitution , which predates the party system. The two-party system is based on laws, party rules, and custom . Several third parties also operate in the U.S. and occasionally have a member elected to local office; some of the larger ones include the Constitution , Green , Alliance , and Libertarian parties, with the latter being the largest third party since the 1980s. A small number of members of
4840-624: The United States , the president is indirectly elected using a two-stage process; a popular vote in each state elects members to the electoral college that in turn elects the President. This can result in a situation where a candidate who receives the most votes nationwide does not win the electoral college vote, as most recently happened in 2000 and 2016 . In addition to the various electoral systems currently in use for political elections, there are numerous others which have been used in
4950-575: The United States Congress since at least 1856 . Despite keeping the same names, the two parties have evolved in terms of ideologies, positions, and support bases over their long lifespans, in response to social, cultural, and economic developments—the Democratic Party being the left-of-center party since the time of the New Deal , and the Republican Party now being the right-of-center party. Political parties are not mentioned in
5060-608: The Whig Party led by Henry Clay . This marked the return of the two-party political system, but with different parties. The early Democratic Party stood for individual rights and state rights, supported the primacy of the Presidency ( executive branch ) over the other branches of government, and opposed banks (namely the Bank of the United States ), high tariffs, and modernizing programs that they felt would build up industry at
5170-404: The age at which people are allowed to vote , with the youngest being 16 and the oldest 21. People may be disenfranchised for a range of reasons, such as being a serving prisoner, being declared bankrupt, having committed certain crimes or being a serving member of the armed forces. Similar limits are placed on candidacy (also known as passive suffrage), and in many cases the age limit for candidates
5280-550: The contingent vote where voters do not rank all candidates, but have a limited number of preference votes. If no candidate has a majority in the first round, all candidates are excluded except the top two, with the highest remaining preference votes from the votes for the excluded candidates then added to the totals to determine the winner. This system is used in Sri Lankan presidential elections, with voters allowed to give three preferences. The other main form of runoff system
5390-430: The de facto leader of their respective party, and thus usually bring out supporters who in turn vote for the party's candidates for other offices. On the other hand, federal midterm elections (where only Congress, and not the president, is up for election) are usually regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's performance, with voters either voting in or out the president's party's candidates, which in turn helps
5500-523: The majority judgment ), and the D21 – Janeček method where voters can cast positive and negative votes. Historically, weighted voting systems were used in some countries. These allocated a greater weight to the votes of some voters than others, either indirectly by allocating more seats to certain groups (such as the Prussian three-class franchise ), or by weighting the results of the vote. The latter system
5610-464: The opposition , and organized themselves as "Anti-Jackson". The use of the term "National Republican" dates from 1830. Henry Clay was the party's nominee in the 1832 election , but was defeated by Jackson. The party supported Clay's American System of nationally financed internal improvements and a protective tariff . After the 1832 election, opponents of Jackson coalesced into the Whig Party . National Republicans, Anti-Masons and others joined
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#17327656429915720-460: The " Hill committees ", which work to elect candidates to each house of Congress. State parties exist in all fifty states, though their structures differ according to state law, as well as party rules at both the national and the state level. Despite these weak organizations, elections are still usually portrayed as national races between the political parties. In what is known as " presidential coattails ", candidates in presidential elections become
5830-481: The 1980s and beyond. In 1980, conservative Republican Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter on a platform of smaller government and sunny optimism that free trade and tax cuts would stimulate economic growth, which would then "trickle down" to the middle and lower classes (who might not benefit initially from these policies). The Republican Party was now said to rest on " three legs ": Christian right social conservatism (particularly
5940-481: The 21st century, along with becoming overly partisan, America politics has become overly focused on national issues and "nationalized". The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the U.S. Founded as the Democratic Party in 1828 by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren , it is the oldest extant voter-based political party in the world. Since 1912, the Democratic Party has positioned itself as
6050-538: The American two-party system emerged from George Washington 's immediate circle of advisers, which included Alexander Hamilton and James Madison . Hamilton and Madison wrote against political factions in The Federalist Papers (1788), but by the 1790s, differing views concerning the course of the new country had developed, and people who held these views tried to win support for their cause by banding together. Followers of Hamilton's ideology took up
6160-493: The Democratic Party was the largest in the United States with roughly 60 million registered members. Electoral politics Condorcet methods Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results An electoral or voting system
6270-513: The Democratic and Republican parties have no formal organization at the national level that controls membership. Thus, for example, in many states the process to determine a party's candidate for office is a public election (a political primary ) open to all who have signed up as affiliated with that party when they register to vote, not just those who donate money and are active in the party. Party identification becomes somewhat formalized when
6380-587: The Federalists had disappeared as an organization, and Andrew Jackson 's presidency split the Democratic-Republican Party: "Jacksonians" became the Democratic Party, while those following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the National Republican Party (unrelated to the later Republican Party). After the 1832 election, opponents of Jackson—primarily National Republicans, Anti-Masons , and others—coalesced into
6490-587: The Federalists were too elitist to compete effectively. The Federalists survived in the Northeast, but their refusal to support the War of 1812 verged on secession and was a devastating blow to the party when the war ended well. The Era of Good Feelings under President James Monroe (1816–1824) marked the end of the First Party System and was a brief period in which partisanship was minimal. By 1828,
6600-509: The Founders "did not believe in parties as such, scorned those that they were conscious of as historical models, had a keen terror of party spirit and its evil consequences", but "almost as soon as their national government was in operation, [they] found it necessary to establish parties." Since their creation in the 1800s, the two dominant parties have changed their ideologies and bases of support considerably, while maintaining their names. In
6710-426: The National Republican Party; and those politicians that supported Jackson would later help form the modern Democratic Party . After Adams's defeat in the 1828 election, his supporters regrouped around Henry Clay. Now the "anti-Jackson" opposition, they soon organized as the National Republican Party. Led by Clay, the new party maintained its historic nationalistic outlook and desired to use national resources to build
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#17327656429916820-686: The Republican Party, an upper business class, historically part of the Republican Party since the Gilded Age , began moving left. According to Ross Douthat , "Today’s G.O.P. is most clearly now the party of local capitalism—the small-business gentry, the family firms", while "much of corporate America has swung culturally into liberalism’s camp. [...] The party’s base regards corporate institutions—especially in Silicon Valley, but extending to more traditional capitalist powers—as cultural enemies". Although American politics have been dominated by
6930-441: The Republican Party, made up of Catholics and Evangelical Protestants who, until this point, were usually strongly opposed, but now united in opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Increased political polarization was the trend; county caucuses and state conventions were gradually replaced with political primaries, wherein the party base could defeat moderate candidates who appealed to general election voters but were disliked by
7040-491: The U.S. Congress, a larger number of political candidates, and a good many voters (35–45%) have no party affiliation. However, most self-described independents consistently support one of the two major parties when it comes time to vote, and members of Congress with no political party affiliation caucus meet to pursue common legislative objectives with either the Democrats or Republicans. The need to win popular support in
7150-564: The United States [REDACTED] [REDACTED] American electoral politics have been dominated by successive pairs of major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States. Since the 1850s, the two largest political parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party —which together have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and controlled
7260-614: The West before the Sun Belt boom. Both regions were much less populated than the North, yet politically powerful. Additional Democratic voters included conservative pro-business Bourbon Democrats , traditional Democrats in the North (many of them former Copperheads ), and Catholic immigrants. As the party of states' rights, post-Civil War Democrats opposed civil rights legislation. As the (sometimes) populist party of small farmers, it opposed
7370-528: The aftermath of the U.S. Civil War , the Democratic party was an agrarian, pro-states-rights, anti-civil rights, pro- easy money , anti-tariff, anti-bank coalition of Jim Crow Solid South and Western small farmers. Budding labor unions and Catholic immigrants were the primary participants in the Democratic party of the time. During the same period, the dominant Republican party was composed of large and small business owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, professionals, and freed African Americans, based especially in
7480-476: The allocation of seats in the multi-member constituencies is adjusted to achieve an overall seat allocation proportional to parties' vote share by taking into account the number of seats won by parties in the single-member constituencies. Vote linkage mixed systems are also compensatory, however they usually use different mechanism than seat linkage (top-up) method of MMP and usually aren't able to achieve proportional representation. Some electoral systems feature
7590-411: The anti-abortion movement), fiscal conservatism and small government (particularly supporting tax cuts), and strong anti-communist military policy (with increased willingness to intervene abroad ). While there is no consensus that a Seventh Party System has begun, many have noted unique features of a political era starting with the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump . During and following
7700-560: The ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending , and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions , and can use multiple types of elections for different offices. Some electoral systems elect a single winner to a unique position, such as prime minister, president or governor, while others elect multiple winners, such as members of parliament or boards of directors. When electing
7810-517: The base of the Republican Party, while the Democratic Party was increasingly made up of a coalition of African Americans, Latinos, and white urban progressives. Whereas college-educated voters had historically skewed heavily towards the Republican party, high educational attainment was increasingly a marker of Democratic support. Together, this formed the political system in the Reagan Era of
7920-429: The branches of economics called social choice and mechanism design , but the question has also engendered substantial contributions from political scientists , analytic philosophers , computer scientists , and mathematicians . The field has produced several major results, including Arrow's impossibility theorem (showing that ranked voting cannot eliminate the spoiler effect ) and Gibbard's theorem (showing it
8030-405: The breaking of white segregationist Solid South away from the Democratic Party and their migration towards the Republican Party. Southern white voters started voting for Republican presidential candidates in the 1950s, and Republican state and local candidates in the 1990s. Anti-Vietnam War protests alienated conservative Democrats from the protesters. The "religious right" emerged as a wing of
8140-579: The campaign, "Reagan Revolution" rhetoric and policy began to be replaced by new themes in the Republican Party. There was more emphasis on cultural conservatism (opposition not just to abortion, but also gay marriage and transgender rights). Additionally, support for free trade and liberal immigration was replaced by opposition to economic globalization and immigration from non-European countries. Distrust of institutions and loyalty for President Donald Trump became common among Republican voters during this time. Although conservative blue-collar workers migrated to
8250-414: The candidates. First preference votes are counted as whole numbers, the second preferences by two, third preferences by three, and so on; this continues to the lowest possible ranking. The totals for each candidate determine the winners. Proportional representation is the most widely used electoral system for national legislatures, with the parliaments of over eighty countries elected by various forms of
8360-408: The dangers of domestic political factions . In addition, the first President of the United States , George Washington , was not a member of any political party at the time of his election nor throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not form, fearing conflict and stagnation, as outlined in his Farewell Address . Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that
8470-417: The district seats. Weighted systems are still used in corporate elections, with votes weighted to reflect stock ownership. Dual-member proportional representation is a proposed system with two candidates elected in each constituency, one with the most votes and one to ensure proportionality of the combined results. Biproportional apportionment is a system where the total number of votes is used to calculate
8580-452: The expense of farmers. It styled itself as the party of the "common man". Presidents Andrew Jackson , Martin Van Buren , and James K. Polk were all Democrats who defeated Whig candidates, but by narrow margins. Jackson's populist appeal and campaigning inspired a tradition of not just voting for a Democrat, but identifying as a Democrat; in this way, political parties were becoming a feature of social life, not just politics. The Whigs, on
8690-701: The industrial Northeast and new strength in the border states. The era began after the Republicans blamed the Democrats for the Panic of 1893 , which later resulted in William McKinley 's victory over William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election . The disruption and suffering of the Great Depression (1929–1939), and the New Deal programs (1933–39) of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt designed to deal with it, created
8800-665: The industrial northeast. By the start of the 21st-century, the Democratic party had shifted to become a left-wing party, disproportionately composed of women, LGBT people, union members, and urban, educated, younger, non-white voters. At the same time, the Republican party had shifted to become a right-wing party, disproportionately composed of family business, older, rural, southern, religious, and white working-class voters. Along with this realignment, political and ideological polarization increased and norms deteriorated, leading to greater tension and "deadlocks" in attempts to pass ideologically controversial bills. The beginnings of
8910-480: The interests of big business, such as protective tariffs that raised prices on imported goods needed by rural people. The party favored cheap-money policies , including low interest rates and inflation favoring those with substantial debts, such as small farmers. Civil War and Reconstruction issues polarized the parties until the Compromise of 1877 , which saw the withdrawal of the last federal troops from
9020-481: The lack of central control of the parties in America means they have become as much "labels" to mobilize voters as political organizations, and that "variations (sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant) in the 50 political cultures of the states yield considerable differences", suggesting that "the American two-party system" actually masks "something more like a hundred-party system." Other political scientists, such as Lee Drutman and Daniel J. Hopkins in 2018, argued that in
9130-420: The least successful candidates. Surplus votes held by successful candidates may also be transferred. Eventually all seats are filled by candidates who have passed the quota or there are only as many remaining candidates as the number of remaining seats. Under single non-transferable vote (SNTV) voters can vote for only one candidate, with the candidates receiving the most votes declared the winners; this system
9240-461: The liberal party on domestic issues. The economic philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt , which has strongly influenced modern American liberalism , has shaped much of the party's agenda since 1932. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition controlled the White House until 1968, with the exception of the two terms of President Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. Until the mid-20th century, the Democratic Party
9350-506: The membership is elected by a plurality or majority vote in single-member constituencies and the other part by proportional representation. The results of the constituency vote have no effect on the outcome of the proportional vote. In compensatory mixed-member systems the results of the proportional vote are adjusted to balance the seats won in the constituency vote. The mixed-member proportional systems , in use in eight countries, provide enough compensatory seats to ensure that parties have
9460-456: The name " Federalist "; they favored a strong central government that would support the interests of commerce and industry and close ties to Britain. Followers of the ideology of Madison and Thomas Jefferson , initially referred to as " Anti-Federalists ", became known as the " Democratic-Republicans "; they preferred a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power. The Jeffersonians came to power in 1800;
9570-573: The new party. Before the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency in 1825, the Democratic-Republican Party , which had been the only national American political party for over a decade, began to fracture, losing its infrastructure and identity. Its caucuses no longer met to select candidates because now they had separate interests. After the 1824 election, factions developed in support of Adams and in support of Andrew Jackson. Adams politicians, including most ex- Federalists (such as Daniel Webster and Adams himself), would gradually become members of
9680-411: The next session of Congress to either pass or block the president's agenda, respectively. As noted above, the modern political party system in the United States has traditionally been dominated by two parties, with the parties being the Democratic Party and the Republican Party . Explanations for why America has a two-party system include: Political scientist Nelson W. Polsby argued in 1997 that
9790-451: The number of seats each party is due, followed by a calculation of the constituencies in which the seats should be awarded in order to achieve the total due to them. For proportional systems that use ranked choice voting , there are several proposals, including CPO-STV , Schulze STV and the Wright system , which are each considered to be variants of proportional representation by means of
9900-482: The other hand, advocated the supremacy of Congress over the executive branch, as well as policies of modernization and economic protectionism. Central political battles of this era were the Bank War and the spoils system of federal patronage. Presidents William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor were both Whig candidates. In the 1850s, the issue of slavery took center stage, with disagreement in particular over
10010-668: The overwhelming electoral defeat by Franklin Pierce in the 1852 presidential election . Ex-Whigs joined the Know Nothing party or the newly formed, anti-slavery Republican Party . While the Know Nothing party was short-lived, Republicans would survive the intense politics leading up to the Civil War. The primary Republican policy was that slavery be excluded from all the territories. Just six years later, this new party captured
10120-559: The party base. Around 1968, a breakup of the old Democratic Party New Deal coalition began and American politics became more polarized along ideology. The following decades saw the dissipation of the blurred ideological character of political party coalitions. Previously, there were Democratic elected officials (mostly in the South) who were considerably more conservative than many Republican senators and governors (for example, Nelson Rockefeller ). Even Jimmy Carter , who ultimately served as
10230-616: The party line" because of constituent opposition to it, and "cross the aisle" to vote with the opposition, have (relatively) little to fear from their party. An elected official may change parties simply by declaring such intent. At the federal level, each of the two major parties has a national committee (the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee ) that acts as the hub for much fund-raising and campaign activities, particularly in presidential campaigns. The exact composition of these committees
10340-453: The past, are only used in private organizations (such as electing the board members for a corporation or a student organization), or have only ever been made as proposals but not implemented. Among the Ranked systems these include Bucklin voting , the various Condorcet methods ( Copeland's , Dodgson's , Kemeny-Young , Maximal lotteries , Minimax , Nanson's , Ranked pairs , Schulze ),
10450-512: The politics of Northeastern leaders such as Nelson Rockefeller , Jacob Javits , and Henry Cabot Lodge . The latter steadily lost influence inside the GOP after 1964. Civil rights legislation driven by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson , such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 , along with Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and later President Richard Nixon 's " Southern strategy ", began
10560-528: The presidency when Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. This election marked the beginning of the Democratic and Republican parties as the major parties of America. The anti-slavery Republican Party emerged in 1854. It adopted many of the economic policies of the Whigs, such as national banks, railroads, high tariffs, homesteads, and aid to land grant colleges. After the defeat of the Confederacy in
10670-464: The question of whether slavery should be permitted in the country's new territories in the West. The Whig Party attempted to straddle the issue with the Kansas–Nebraska Act , where the status of slavery would be decided based on popular sovereignty (i.e. the citizens of each territory, rather than Congress, would determine whether slavery would be allowed). The Whig Party sank to its death after
10780-438: The rank and file idealized Clay for his comprehensive perspective on the national interest. Conversely, they disdained those they identified as "party" politicians for pandering to local interests at the expense of the national interest. The party met in national convention in late 1831 and nominated Clay for the presidency and John Sergeant for the vice presidency. The Whig Party emerged in 1833–1834 after Clay's defeat as
10890-693: The ratification of the Constitution, and the Anti-Administration party (Anti-Federalists), which opposed a powerful central government and later became the Democratic-Republican Party . The subject of political parties is not mentioned in the United States Constitution . The Founding Fathers did not originally intend for American politics to be partisan. In Federalist No. 9 and No. 10 , Alexander Hamilton and James Madison , respectively, wrote specifically about
11000-423: The second round; in these cases the second round is decided by plurality voting. Some countries use a modified form of the two-round system, such as Ecuador where a candidate in the presidential election is declared the winner if they receive 40% of the vote and are 10% ahead of their nearest rival, or Argentina (45% plus 10% ahead), where the system is known as ballotage . In some cases, a runoff may be held using
11110-661: The single transferable vote. Among the proportional voting systems that use rating are Thiele's voting rules and Phragmen's voting rule . A special case of Thiele's voting rules is Proportional Approval Voting . Some proportional systems that may be used with either ranking or rating include the Method of Equal Shares and the Expanding Approvals Rule . In addition to the specific method of electing candidates, electoral systems are also characterised by their wider rules and regulations, which are usually set out in
11220-486: The system. Party-list proportional representation is the single most common electoral system and is used by 80 countries, and involves voters voting for a list of candidates proposed by a party. In closed list systems voters do not have any influence over the candidates put forward by the party, but in open list systems voters are able to both vote for the party list and influence the order in which candidates will be assigned seats. In some countries, notably Israel and
11330-889: The two-party system, third political parties have appeared from time to time in American history, but seldom lasted more than a decade. They have sometimes been the vehicle of an individual (as in Theodore Roosevelt 's "Bull Moose" party , and Ross Perot 's Reform Party ); had considerable strength in particular regions (such as the Socialist Party , Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, Wisconsin Progressive Party , Conservative Party of New York State , and Populist Party ); or continued to run candidates for office to publicize ideas despite seldom winning even local elections ( Libertarian Party , Natural Law Party , Peace and Freedom Party ). The oldest third party
11440-556: The vast majority of which are current or former British or American colonies or territories. It is also the second most common system used for presidential elections, being used in 19 countries. In cases where there are multiple positions to be filled, most commonly in cases of multi-member constituencies, there are several types of plurality electoral systems. Under block voting (also known as multiple non-transferable vote or plurality-at-large), voters have as many votes as there are seats and can vote for any candidate, regardless of party,
11550-409: The votes received by each party by a divisor or vote average that represents an idealized seats-to-votes ratio , then rounding normally. In the largest remainder system, parties' vote shares are divided by an electoral quota . This usually leaves some seats unallocated, which are awarded to parties based on which parties have the largest number of "leftover" votes. Single transferable vote (STV)
11660-574: Was the Anti-Masonic Party , which was formed in upstate New York in 1828. The party's creators feared the Freemasons , believing they were a powerful secret society that was attempting to rule the country in defiance of republican principles. By 1840, the party had been supplanted by the Whig Party. Some other significant but unsuccessful parties that ran a candidate for president include: the Know Nothing or American Party (1844–1860),
11770-514: Was the dominant party among white southerners, and was then the party most associated with the defense of slavery. Following the Great Society under Lyndon B. Johnson , the Democratic Party became the more progressive party on issues of civil rights, and they would slowly lose dominance in southern states until 1996. Since the mid-20th century, Democrats have generally been in the center-left and support social justice , social liberalism ,
11880-407: Was the largest political party, with 72 million registered voters (42.6% of a total 169 million registered) claiming affiliation. Although his party lost the election for president in 2004, Barack Obama would later go on to become president in 2009 and continue to be the president until January 2017. Obama was the 15th Democrat to hold the office, and from the 2006 midterm elections until
11990-500: Was used in colonial Rhodesia for the 1962 and 1965 elections . The elections featured two voter rolls (the 'A' roll being largely European and the 'B' roll largely African); the seats of the House Assembly were divided into 50 constituency seats and 15 district seats. Although all voters could vote for both types of seats, 'A' roll votes were given greater weight for the constituency seats and 'B' roll votes greater weight for
12100-791: Was usually in opposition during this period, although it often controlled the Senate or the House of Representatives or both. The Democrats were known as "basically conservative and agrarian-oriented", and like the Republicans, the Democrats were a broad-based voting coalition. Democratic support came from the Redeemers of the Jim Crow " Solid South " (i.e. solidly Democratic), where "repressive legislation and physical intimidation [were] designed to prevent newly enfranchised African Americans from voting". Further Democratic support came from small farmers in
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