Political Parties in the United States
When the Constitution was adopted in 1787, there was not a word in it about political parties. That was because the Founding Fathers disliked them. They feared parties would break the nation into factions fighting one another.
Their ideal was an “informed” public that picked the best qualified persons to represent them in government. However, as soon as elections were held, two parties evolved.
Why are there only two big parties in the USA? To understand this, we must look at the electoral system in the United States.
Read more in Access to English: Social Studies, pp. 201-205. Then do the tasks in the textbook and on this website.
Extra Tasks
Web resources
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The Democratic Party
(democrats.org) -
The Republican Party (GOP)
(gop.com) -
Animation: Gerrymandering: How drawing jagged lines can impact an election (TedED)
(ed.ted. com) -
Audio: American political parties (BBC)
(bbc.co. uk) "Letter from America" recording from 1976 by the legendary BBC correspondent Alistair Cooke