With the formation of human communities, methods of governing and regulation individuals in the society had to arise, and thus began Politics. Politics deal with organized governance and can be regarded as the methods achieving and exercising positions of power in the organized governance. Politics has been debated since antiquity by various scholars and philosophers. From Aristotle in his Politics to Plato in his Republic and even the numerous works of Confucius have all tried to postulate the best political system to organize people along. While there are numerous political systems the predominant political system in the world and United States in particular are the democratic systems.
In United States, there are two prominent political parties; Democratic Party and the Republican Party with various smaller parties being present. The two parties’ dominance is clearly enunciated by the fact that the parties have won all the presidential elections since 1852 and always controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The dominance means that either party has always been in power in America. The two main parties have always had various differences since their creating, in fact, Republican Party originated from those differences.
Understanding the differences between the political parties is of paramount importance if one is to hope to understand or even gain an insight of the American political system. As such, in this paper the main philosophical and ideological differences of these main parties and various lesser parties shall be examined. Also, the methods that each party advocates for in handling various issues and the main motivations of these parties.
Approaching the parties’ main differences from a philosophical and ideological perspective it is apparent that the parties have several main differences. The differences include; the liberal or left-leaning versus conservative or right-leaning stance, the economic ideals and the human, social ideals. Differences of the political parties exert a great influence on their policies and even their candidates, especially the presidential candidate. During the elections, the differences impact greatly on the parties support depending on present issues and how the Americans would want them tackled.
The Republican Party is generally based on American conservatism in contrast to the Democratic Party that is based upon American Liberalism (classical liberalism). Scholars such as Gregory Schneider have identified the American conservatism as, “rule of law and Christian religion” accompanied by respect for traditions. For the Republicans, their conservatism lays emphasis on socially conservative policies (preservation of family values and traditions), while supporting economically liberal policies such as the free markets and limited government. Democrats, on the other hand, promotes and advocates liberal policies both social and economic approaches. The economic liberalism is the modern liberalism not the classical liberalism. As such Democrats propose more government regulation of business and finance and favor progressive taxation.
The differences between Republican Party and the Democratic Party in regulating the economy are mostly in the government’s role in the economy. The Republican Party favors a more limited role of the government in regulating the economy, a hands-off approach. The Republican Party advocates for less regulation of businesses especially regulations seeking to focus profits to other areas such as retirement payouts, environmental concerns, healthcare benefits and labor union interests. Democratic Party, on the other hand, is more reliant on government influence on the economy’s direction and minimize the profit motive of the businesses. The party is occasionally called, “tax and spend” because the increased regulation is accompanied by increased cost that is supported by increased taxation.
On the social aspect of the parties, the Democratic Party is based on social and community responsibility while the Republicans are based on justice and individual rights. Democrats are generally more liberal and believe that the government should put the common good or the greater good above the interests of the individual in welfare terms. Democrats policies include tax plans to help the less privileged. The Democrats also state that a countries (moral) values must evolve and change over time and as such they regularly support controversial choices including gay marriages and Pro-choice camps. Republicans are more conservative with a belief that the solutions lie with the individual rather than the government. With a view of less governmental interference, the Republican Party believes in lacks a strong support for welfare rights. The party holds economic equity in a higher regard than the general equality. The Republican Party has a strong Christian background with the conservative morals affecting their stand. The morals lead to a general disapproval of “immoral” acts such as abortions and occasionally gay marriage.
In the contemporary politics, various relevant and significant issues have arisen in United States that the Democrats and the Republicans have differed on how to deal with them. These challenges include Heath Care, Social Programs and Issues, Foreign Policy, and Energy Issues and Environmentalism. Both parties proffer solutions to these issues but in most instances differ on the solution and on occasionally on the definition of the problem.
Healthcare in United States is plagued by numerous issues including cost of healthcare, access to the healthcare and the challenges of insurance. Apparently, 37 percent of the Americans forgo medical care due to costs and a quarter of the American adults cannot or have problems paying their medical bills. The complicated nature of American insurance is also a major challenge with 32 percent of the patients spending time on the paperwork or resolving disputes with the insurer over denied payment of services they presumed were covered. The Democrats in line with their philosophy favor an increased governmental oversight of the healthcare to facilitate its access to all people. Democrats, such as the President Obama pushed for the legislation of the Affordable Health Care Act that was passed by a Democrat Congress in 2010. The act was created to deal with such issues by providing subsidies to help people pay for policies, requiring that all policies must cover some specified benefits. Nevertheless, the Republicans oppose such measures vehemently arguing that they will drive the overall prices up and also negatively affect the quality of health care in America.
Democrats are more inclined to support welfare programs and allocate more money to welfare, unemployment benefits, Medicaid, and food stamps. Republicans acknowledge the social problems but favor less funding and stricter and tighter controls for the welfare programs. The Republicans also favor the funding by the government of social programs that are privately ran. The privately ran social programs are in direct contrast with the Democrats who strongly believe that the federal and state governments should operate the social welfare programs.
The main parties disagree on what the United States foreign policy should be. In some instances, both parties have favored military intervention in other countries. Where military involvement is required the Republicans favor toppling and replacing the enemy regimes while the Democrats support targeted and surgical strikes on the regimes to destabilize them. United States is one of the largest donors in the world offering varying aid; financial, technical or military to various countries. Both parties also concur that the United State needs to aid various sectors and countries around the globe. However, both parties disagree on who should receive that aid and the nature of the aid to be offered.
Environmental concerns and energy issues are, usually, at loggerheads. The Democrats, usually, support environmental concerns while the Republicans favor the energy concerns. It has been humorously noted that in terms of energy concerns the parties operate as if they were dealing with two different planets. Democrats are presently pushing for the energy sources friendlier to the environment including wind and solar energy. The Democrats favor offering grants and subsidies to the energy efficient industries. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Republicans are pushing for more oil and coal drilling and exploration. The drilling and exploration of oil in Alaska is also a part of the Republican push. The Democrats oppose the Republicans plans citing environmental concerns. In accordance to their philosophical root, the Republicans favor allowing market forces to determine the types of energy used rather than government regulation.
The policies that these parties support can be argued to be motivated by their philosophical and ideological stands. Each of the party’s policies can be derived from the previously mentioned philosophical backgrounds. The Republicans economic liberty are demonstrated influencing their stance on the energy issues in United States where they advocate the type of energy used to be determined by market forces without government’s interference. The Democrats being oriented towards greater government’s regulation can be seen moving into the Healthcare system and attempting to change it. The parties’ policies are also greatly influenced by their supporters. The Republican Party main supporters are the conservative and predominantly Christian Americans, consequently the party’s policies are conservative with support against “un-Christian” policies such as gay marriages and abortions.
In conclusion, both the Republicans and the Democrats recognize the challenges facing America and have various approaches to solving them. These approaches are guided by each party’s ideologies. However, the party that most appeals to me is the Democratic Party. The key aspect of being more socially oriented would ensure that more people benefit from the welfare. A good example would be the aptly named “Obamacare” of the Affordable Health act that is attempting to restore sanity into the health care. The Democratic government’s concern with health care is in contrast will the republicans who would let the system go unchecked. The governmental regulation will also play a key in solving the present-day environmental challenges. The Republicans, on the other hand, seem less concerned with the environment and environmental issues with their plans to drill for more oil. Presently, United States should follow the lead of countries such as Germany that have implemented efficient renewable energy sources not escalate the problem. Furthermore, drilling oil in Alaska will interfere with the delicate Alaskan ecosystem. To summarize, in the next election, I will support the Democratic Party.
Works Cited
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Freeman, Joshua B and Steve Fraser. "Only Yesterday; The Strange Odyssey of the Republican Party." New Labor Forum (2013): 94-97. Online.
Huitt, Ralph K. "Democratic Party Leadership in the Senate." The American Political Science Review (2012): 333-334. Print.
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Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Environment, Energy and Climate Change, A Sourcebook for Political Parties. Berlin: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2013. Online.
