The American two-party system characterizes the dominance of two major political parties that comprise the country’s largest number of elected officials. Of the two parties, the one with the most elected officials is usually referred to as the majority party whereas the other is labeled the minority party. At present, the majority party in the United States is the Democratic Party, while the Republican Party is the minority. The concept of political parties in the US was born in the 1796 elections country’s country first held elections at the local, state, and national levels. At the time, two major parties emerged the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, making the foundation for the current two-party system. However, the Federalist Party lost prominence in the subsequent elections. The country came to be dominated by one party that is the Democratic-Republican.
In the 1832 elections, the Federalist Party was revived and renamed the New Republican Party. The Democratic-Republican held a convention in 1844 to adopt one name for the party and avoid contradiction leading to the birth of the present-day Democratic Party. The New Republican Party advocates came to be loosely called the Whigs but it faced challenges in the handles of issues about slavery. The conditions favored the formation of a new party, and in 1854 the Republican Party was born. Despite the emergence of other smaller parties, the Democratic Parties and the Republican Party have dominated the US elections since then (Sidlow & Henschen, 2018). In the US, political parties are highly involved in the formation of government at all levels. Even though they are not recognized constitutionally, they are important instruments used in nominating candidates for public office and getting as many of them to be elected.
Reference
Sidlow, E., I., & Henschen, B. (2018). Principles of American government (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.