Isn’t America’s fundamental disagreement about the kind of national government we Americans want still at the heart of the fracturing of the present two major parties that we now have?
Robert Dahl wrote 60 and 70 years ago on the pluralistic theory of democracy in America. In his “Who Governs?” in 1961, he postulated that we really have four political parties in the United States: national Democratic and Republican Parties and state Democratic and Republican Parties. And this system of four parties allowed for a more competitive and representative form of democracy.
This morning I wonder if we do not find ourselves almost one hundred years later in a very similar situation with regard to political parties and the political landscape in the United States that “we” (as a nation) found ourselves in 1829 when Andrew Jackson ascended to the Presidency? That election ushered in a period of intense political factionalism and partisan conflict, during which the Federalist Party, a conservative party favoring a strong central government and a powerful executive branch, lost traction and identity, and the Democratic-Republican Party, a more populist party favoring a weak central government and a strong role for the states, split into two factions: the Democrats, who supported Jackson, and the National Republicans, who opposed him. And within that split, the rivalry between these two parties was fierce, often leading to gridlock in Congress.
I shall immediately go to my favorite bookseller and turn loose of some of my hard-earned money to purchase “Founding Partisans.” (I also wonder this morning: is it only a coincidence that the release of this new book by Prof. Brands corresponds with the arrival of my social security check?)
That coincidence is a happy accident for me. None of the characters in my new book dreamed that government should send pension checks to people.
I think we still have factions within parties: left and moderate Dems, Reagan Republicans and Trump Republicans. We're a big country, so with only two parties we have to shoehorn odd partners together sometimes.
Isn’t America’s fundamental disagreement about the kind of national government we Americans want still at the heart of the fracturing of the present two major parties that we now have?
Robert Dahl wrote 60 and 70 years ago on the pluralistic theory of democracy in America. In his “Who Governs?” in 1961, he postulated that we really have four political parties in the United States: national Democratic and Republican Parties and state Democratic and Republican Parties. And this system of four parties allowed for a more competitive and representative form of democracy.
This morning I wonder if we do not find ourselves almost one hundred years later in a very similar situation with regard to political parties and the political landscape in the United States that “we” (as a nation) found ourselves in 1829 when Andrew Jackson ascended to the Presidency? That election ushered in a period of intense political factionalism and partisan conflict, during which the Federalist Party, a conservative party favoring a strong central government and a powerful executive branch, lost traction and identity, and the Democratic-Republican Party, a more populist party favoring a weak central government and a strong role for the states, split into two factions: the Democrats, who supported Jackson, and the National Republicans, who opposed him. And within that split, the rivalry between these two parties was fierce, often leading to gridlock in Congress.
I shall immediately go to my favorite bookseller and turn loose of some of my hard-earned money to purchase “Founding Partisans.” (I also wonder this morning: is it only a coincidence that the release of this new book by Prof. Brands corresponds with the arrival of my social security check?)
That coincidence is a happy accident for me. None of the characters in my new book dreamed that government should send pension checks to people.
I think we still have factions within parties: left and moderate Dems, Reagan Republicans and Trump Republicans. We're a big country, so with only two parties we have to shoehorn odd partners together sometimes.