Hundreds of years ago the term politics was unheard of, the word lay scrambled among the alphabet, and the power behind the undeveloped word lay still. Today, politics is a well-known word to us all and the power behind it has governed us for many centuries. Differences of opinions in politics have created what we know as political parties. The political parties of the United States are the oldest in the world; among Democratic nations, they may also be the weakest. American voters attitudes and traditions are big factors in what makes our parties weak. .
A Political Party is a group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by giving them a party identification. Although there are more than two political parties, the Democratic and Republican Parties, have dominated the political system for hundreds of years. Other parties that exist but, are not very familiar are the Whig Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Worker Party, Communist Party of the United States of America, National Hamiltonian Party, National Prohibition Party, Peace and Freedom Party, and the Know-Nothing Party.
In the United States, the labels of the two major political parties have always had a relatively strong appeal for the voters. Because of that, third parties and independent candidates have rarely had much competitive success at the national or even the state level. There has hardly been a strong national party organization in this country. Though there have, however, been long periods in which certain state, city, and county .
components of the Democratic and Republican Parties have been organizationally powerful.
Political Parties were developed because of differences in opinions on subjects; each party was comprised of individuals with similar views. The question that seems to come into mind often is, "How do the parties really differ?" The answer is very complex, much depending on what aspect of the party we are looking at: their history, their policies and platforms, their leadership, their rank, and their level of government--national, state, or local.
