Research Paper on:
Development of Political Parties in the United States

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
American history is replete with a number of political ideologies and developments. One of the underlying themes was the development of the two-partied political system that  we observe today. The two-party system was not something which was envisioned and agreed upon during the early history of the country, however. Indeed, it entailed considerable disagreement  and controversy. Developing a suitable system, however, was at the forefront of our founding fathers concerns even during the earliest years of our history. This development, in fact,  went hand-in-hand with the concept of democracy itself. Political parties are extremely important in the management of power in American democracy. Irish  and Prothro (1971) note political parties are peaceable agencies which are instrumental in expressing public reaction to government:  "Political parties may be viewed as democratic equivalents of groups found in all governments- those supporting the established regime and those conspiring to overthrow it".  To understand the deeply rooted concept of political parties we must transgress deeply into history.  Political parties were not a concept which was visualized by the framers of the U.S. Constitution who felt that popular elections equated to direct control of the government by  the people (Irish and Prothro, 1971). This has simply not been the case, however. Political parties are, in fact, essential to the functioning of any group of people  (Irish and Prothro, 1971). These parties serve to organize large groups of individuals into cohesive units who, although they can have slightly divergent viewpoints, agree on common policies and