DEMOCRATIC PARTY

DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The modern Democratic Party is the descendant of the DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY, an early-nineteenth-century political organization led by THOMAS JEFFERSON and JAMES MADISON. Also known as the Jeffersonian Republican Party, the Democratic-Republican Party began as an antifederalist group, opposed to strong, centralized government. The party was officially established at a national nominating convention in 1832. It dropped the Republican portion of its name in 1840.

Despite destructive struggles and philosophical shifts, the Democratic Party remains a dominant political force in the United States. The Democrats compete for office with the Republicans, their counterparts in the United States’s de facto two-party system though third-party candidates and independents have experienced increasing success at both the state and federal levels, with Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, a former professional wrestler and Navy Seal, being the most visible example. He won the gubernatorial race as a member of the state’s REFORM PARTY.

The Democratic Party of the late 1990s supports liberal government policies in social and economic matters. The early party disapproved of federal involvement. Jefferson, Madison, and James Monroe—Virginians who were each elected president of the United States—favored limited powers for the national government. The fundamental change in Democratic philosophy was the result of fluid coalitions and historical circumstance. The master coalition builder and founder of the modern Democratic Party was ANDREW JACKSON, a populist president who was portrayed as a donkey by political satirists. Jackson transformed presidential politics by expanding party involvement. (The donkey later became the symbol for the Democratic Party.)

The transformation began after Jackson’s
first unsuccessful bid for the White House. In
the 1824 presidential election, Jackson won the
popular vote but failed to win a majority in the
ELECTORAL COLLEGE. The U.S. Constitution
requires the House of Representatives to select
the president under these circumstances. When
the House chose JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Jackson
was incensed—and began a four-year campaign
to win the next presidential election.
With help from political adviser and future
president MARTIN VAN BUREN, Jackson won the
presidency in 1828.

Jackson had benefited from growth in the
nation’s population and from laws that
increased the number of U.S. citizens eligible to
vote. In the 1824 presidential election, about
365,000 votes had been counted. In the 1828
election, over 1 million votes were cast, an
increase that clearly helped Jackson, the socalled
people’s president.

In reaching his goal, Jackson laid the
groundwork for a strong party system.He set up
an efficient Democratic political organization by
forming committees at the local, district, and
state levels; holding rallies and conventions; generating
publicity; registering new voters; and
getting people to the polls.

Jackson also backed the newly created convention
system for nominating presidential candidates
and was himself nominated for
reelection at the 1832 Democratic convention.
The original purpose of conventions was to
allow local input in the political process. In Jackson’s
time, conventions were forums for debate
and deal making.

As the Democratic Party changed in form
and purpose, alliances became more difficult.
Relations between southern and northern
Democrats were increasingly strained. Southern
states sought the reduction of tariffs, or taxes on
imports, whereas northern states favored tariffs
to safeguard their manufactured goods. Some
southern Democrats suggested that individual
states could nullify federal tariff laws.
Even more troublesome was the issue of
STATES’ RIGHTS and SLAVERY. The regional split
within the party widened over the designation
of new territories as free or slave states. The
breaking point was the 1860 national convention.
The Democrats were divided—the southern
faction favored John C. Breckinridge, and
the northerners selected STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
Although Douglas advocated limited national
control, or popular sovereignty, the southern
delegates were not appeased. Republican nominee
ABRAHAM LINCOLN capitalized on the dissension
in the Democratic Party and won the
election.

Following Lincoln’s election came a twentyfour-
year spell with no Democrat in the White
House. After the Civil War, Democrats were
denounced in the North because they had not
supported legislation to finance the war or to
enlist new soldiers. Meanwhile, the South
became solidly Democratic in response to the
Republicans’ unpopular Reconstruction policies.
During the nineteenth century, the Democrats
also created powerful urban political
machines such as New York City’s TAMMANY
HALL. In these systems, people were offered
political jobs or money in exchange for voter
loyalty. Immigrants tended to support the
Democratic Party and machine politics as a way
to gain a foothold in their new country. Unfortunately,
the machines became sources of corruption
and graft.

In 1884, Democratic nominee GROVER
CLEVELAND, of New York, was elected president
with a pledge to end political patronage and
support for the gold standard. Again, factionalism
undermined Democratic strength. WILLIAM
JENNINGS BRYAN, a powerful Democratic orator,
supported free coinage of silver currency. He
tapped into the discontent of southern and
western farmers who sought government assistance.
He also drew support from the labor
movement. With Bryan as the unsuccessful
Democratic presidential nominee in 1896, 1900,
and 1908, the party’s original position on limited
government was all but abandoned.
Factionalism was the party’s strength as well
as its weakness. On the one hand, it gave minority
interests a chance to be heard. However, successful
coalitions among the different interests
were difficult to achieve. The traditional Democratic
alliance consisted of labor supporters,
immigrants, farmers, urban interests, and
southern populists. Later, African Americans
and northern liberals joined the coalition.
After Bryan’s losses, the Democrats were
determined to regain the White House. In 1912,
former Princeton University President WOODROW
WILSON won the nomination on the forty-sixth
ballot of the Democratic convention. A liberal
reformer, Wilson defeated Republican WILLIAM
HOWARD TAFT and third-party candidate
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Wilson’s accomplishments
as president included lowering tariffs,
establishing the FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,
backing antitrust legislation, and leading the
country during WORLD WAR I. However, the
Republicans regained the presidency in 1920
with a huge victory by WARREN G. HARDING.
The Republicans prevailed for the next
decade. Finally, in 1932, the Democratic Party
triumphed at the polls with the election of New
York’s FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. Roosevelt
introduced his sweeping NEW DEAL to pull the
nation out of the Great Depression. Ambitious
government programs helped put many businesses
and millions of people back on their feet.
The Roosevelt administration openly embraced
social WELFARE programs and economic regulation.
Elected president in 1932, 1936, 1940, and
1944, Roosevelt was the only president in U.S.
history to win four terms in office, before the
constitutional limitation of two consecutive
terms was put in place in 1951 with the ratification
of the TWENTY-SECOND AMENDMENT to the
U.S. Constitution. He also steered the nation
through most of WORLD WAR II.
After Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Vice President
HARRY S. TRUMAN assumed office. In 1948,
after Truman had supported key CIVIL RIGHTS legislation, a cadre of southern Democrats rebelled by joining the Dixiecrat Party, a group
advocating states’ rights and SEGREGATION. The
Dixiecrats eventually disbanded, and some
southern Democrats switched to the REPUBLICAN
PARTY. This shift began in earnest with the
election of DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER in 1952 and
peaked with the election of RONALD REAGAN in
1980 and 1984.

In 1960, Democratic nominee JOHN F.
KENNEDY became the first Roman Catholic to hold the Oval Office. Kennedy’s administration,
called the New Frontier, established the Peace Corps; weathered the CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, in which it convinced the Soviet Union to dismantle
long-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba and return the missiles to Russia; and lent support to INTEGRATION efforts in the South. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Vice President
LYNDON B. JOHNSON was sworn in as president.
He later defeated Republican BARRY M. GOLDWATER for the chief executive position in the 1964 general election.

Johnson strongly supported civil rights, a
position that further eroded the Democrats’
base of southern whites and northern labor and
ethnic voters. Johnson’s policies for U.S. military
involvement in Southeast Asia made him
unpopular at home and abroad. In 1968, after
Johnson declined a reelection bid, the Democrats
held a tumultuous convention in Chicago
that tarnished the image of party leaders and
Chicago police. As protesters and police officers
clashed on the streets, convention delegates
nominated Minnesota’s HUBERT H. HUMPHREY,
despite a groundswell of support for VIETNAM
WAR critic EUGENE MCCARTHY. Humphrey lost
the general election to Republican RICHARD M.
NIXON.
In 1976, Governor JIMMY CARTER, of Georgia,
reclaimed the White House and the South
for Democrats. Carter served one term, losing
the 1980 election to Republican Reagan.
Another southern Democrat, Governor BILL
CLINTON, of Arkansas, won the presidency in
1992 and again in 1996, becoming the first
Democratic president to win reelection since
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Under Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party
was led to what many believed to be a centrist
position. After the failure of his HEALTH CARE
plan in the early part of his term, Clinton
backed welfare reform and ran a budget surplus
through most of his presidency. At the same
time, Clinton did not shrink from all liberal
positions, vetoing Republican efforts to ban
partial-birth ABORTION and to reform BANKRUPTCY
laws to help creditors, among other
things, and allowing the government to be shut
down for a long period rather than give in to
Republican spending cuts.
The IMPEACHMENT of Clinton in 1999 furthered
the partisan divide in the country. Led by
a Republican Congress, the impeachment was
backed by a majority of Republicans and
opposed by a majority of Democrats. Despite
the embarrassment to Clinton, the impeachment
did not seem to hurt the Democrats in the
same way WATERGATE hurt the Republicans—
the Democrats actually picked up seats in the
House and the Senate in both the 1998 and 2000
elections.
Just how evenly the country was split
between the Republicans and Democrats was
illustrated by the 2000 election. Democratic
presidential candidate AL GORE won the popular
vote by over 500,000 votes; however, the Electoral
College was another story. A disputed ballot
count in Florida kept the election from being
officially decided for over a month after Election
Day. When it was over, GEORGE W. BUSH had
become president of the United States by a mere
537 votes, according to the Florida statewide
official tally. Bush beat Al Gore in the Electoral
College 271-266, one of the closest results in
U.S. history.
Ironically, considering that they won the
popular vote for president and picked up seats in
both the House and Senate, the 2000 election
paradoxically left the Democrats in their weakest position since the Eisenhower administration.
In addition to the presidency, the Republicans
controlled the House and the Senate by
slim majorities. In the Senate, that majority consisted
of one seat.
However, the decision by Republican Senator
Jim Jeffords, of Vermont, to become an independent
in 2001 gave the Senate majority to the
Democrats for the first time since 1994. Using
their majority, the Democrats were able to frustrate
President Bush on some of his proposed
policies, though they were too weak to pass legislation
on their own. The Republicans strengthened
their position after the 2002 election,
regaining control of the Senate and increasing
the number of seats they controlled in the
House. But they still did not have enough votes
to stop a Democratic filibuster in the Senate,
thus giving the Democrats a measure of power.
Some party activists felt at the end of the
2002 campaign that the Democratic Party had
lost its way with the centrist policies advocated
by former President Clinton and others—they
saw the way back to power to take the party in a
more liberal direction and to delineate more
strongly their differences with Republicans.
Others saw this as political suicide, pointing out
that Clinton was the only successful Democratic
candidate in the past quarter century.Whom the
Democrats nominate for the 2004 presidential
election was seen as an important determinant
of what direction the Democratic Party goes
from here, in an era when much of Middle
America appears politically ambivalent, fluctuating
across party lines.

FURTHER READINGS
Judis, John B., and Teixeira, Ruy. 2002. The Emerging Democratic
Majority. New York: Scribner.
Wilson, James Q. 2004. American Government: Institutions
and Policies. 9th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

CROSS-REFERENCES
Elections; Republican Party.