The US Republican Party was founded in 1854 as a coalition of anti-slavery groups. (An earlier Republican Party, founded in 1791, eventually evolved into the Democratic Party.) In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as the first Republican president. The Republican Party is generally recognized as the more conservative of the two main American parties, though this is a difficult judgement to make, and ignores the areas, civil rights for example, in which parts of the Democratic Party have often been to the right of most Republicans. It was not really until the latter third of the 19th century that this case could seriously be made. As the Democrats became the party of the cities, of the immigrants and the industrial working class, the Republicans became the party of the big corporations and of the rural élite. It was quite common to find a state, Illinois was a good example, where large cities like Chicago were entirely Democratic, and all the small towns and rural areas were entirely Republican.
It was Republican support for the emerging huge economic conglomerates, called ‘Trusts’, the pioneers of the rail-roads or steel production, for example, which finally gave the Republicans this image of supporting ‘corporate America’, but it has never been a simple middle and upper class/ Republican versus working class/Democrat split, in parallel to much of Europe. Indeed, the Progressive era, lasting roughly from 1890–20, was partly Republican-inspired. Not until the economic depression which led to the Democrats’ introduction of the New Deal in 1933 were the parties policies very clearly distinguishable. In the post-war world the Republicans have been identified with a more straightforward conservative programme—low taxes, low welfare provision, concern over law and order, pressure for laissez-faire economics and a general dislike of government interference. Historically, the Republicans tended to do well in elections at the personal, but not legislative level, controlling few state legislatures and effectively being in a permanent minority in the federal Congress, but holding the presidency for most of the post-war period and consistently winning many state governorships. The difference in voter behaviour appeared to be explained by the belief that Democrats make good representatives of the people, charged with looking after local interests, whereas Republicans are better at controlling an executive. However, during the 1990s this pattern was broken, as the Republicans won majorities in both houses of the federal Congress during a Democratic presidency, and gained control of numerous state legislatures.
This is the complete article, containing 407 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
