Democratic Party (United States)

Democratic Party
ChairpersonJaime Harrison
Governing bodyDemocratic National Committee[1][2]
U.S. PresidentJoe Biden
U.S. Vice PresidentKamala Harris
Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer
House Minority LeaderHakeem Jeffries
Founders
FoundedJanuary 8, 1828 (1828-01-08)[3]
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Preceded byDemocratic-Republican Party
Headquarters430 South Capitol St. SE,
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Student wing
Youth wingYoung Democrats of America
Women's wingNational Federation of Democratic Women
Overseas wingDemocrats Abroad
Membership (2023)Decrease 45,916,356[4]
Ideology
Colors  Blue
Seats in the Senate
48 / 100[a]
Seats in the House of Representatives
213 / 435
State governorships
23 / 50
Seats in state upper chambers
857 / 1,973
Seats in state lower chambers
2,425 / 5,413
Territorial governorships
4 / 5
Seats in territorial upper chambers
31 / 97
Seats in territorial lower chambers
9 / 91
Election symbol
Website
democrats.org Edit this at Wikidata

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Since the 1850s, its main political rival has been the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party was founded in 1828. Martin Van Buren of New York played the central role in building the coalition of state organizations that formed a new party as a vehicle to elect Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. The Democratic Party is often called the world's oldest active political party.[18][19][20] The party supported expansive presidential power,[21] the interests of slave states,[22] agrarianism,[23] and geographical expansionism,[23] while opposing a national bank and high tariffs.[23] It split in 1860 over slavery and won the presidency only twice[b] in the fifty years between 1860 and 1910, although it won the popular vote a total of four times in that period. In the late 19th century, it continued to oppose high tariffs and had fierce internal debates on the gold standard. In the early 20th century, it supported progressive reforms and opposed imperialism, with Woodrow Wilson winning the White House in 1912 and 1916.

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, the Democratic Party has promoted a social liberal platform that includes support for Social Security and unemployment insurance.[5][24][25] The New Deal attracted strong support for the party from recent European immigrants but diminished the party's pro-business wing.[26][27][28] From late in Roosevelt's administration through the 1950s, a minority in the party's Southern wing joined with conservative Republicans to slow and stop progressive domestic reforms.[29] Following the Great Society era of progressive legislation under Lyndon B. Johnson, which was often able to overcome the conservative coalition in the 1960s, the core bases of the parties shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.[30][31] The party's labor union element has become smaller since the 1970s,[32][33] and as the American electorate shifted in a more conservative direction following Ronald Reagan's presidency, the election of Bill Clinton marked a move for the party toward the Third Way, moving the party's economic stance towards market-based economic policy.[34][35][36] Barack Obama oversaw the party's passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. During Joe Biden's presidency, the party has adopted an increasingly progressive economic agenda.[37]

Starting in the New Deal era, the party's traditional support base consisted of organized labor, Catholics, mainline Protestants, American Jews, and African Americans.[38] On social issues, it advocates for abortion rights,[39] the legalization of marijuana,[40] and LGBT rights.[41] On economic issues, the party favors significant increases in healthcare coverage, universal child care, paid sick leave, and supporting unions.[42][43][44][45] In foreign policy, the party supports liberal internationalism, as well as tough stances against China and Russia.[46][47][48]

  1. ^ "About the Democratic Party". Democratic Party. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 15, 2022. For 171 years, [the Democratic National Committee] has been responsible for governing the Democratic Party
  2. ^ Democratic Party (March 12, 2022). "The Charter & The Bylaws of the Democratic Party of the United States" (PDF). p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 27, 2022. Retrieved April 15, 2022. The Democratic National Committee shall have general responsibility for the affairs of the Democratic Party between National Conventions
  3. ^ Cole, Donald B. (1970). Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 1800–1851. Harvard University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-67-428368-8.
  4. ^ Winger, Richard (December 29, 2023). "December 2023 Ballot Access News Print Edition". Ballot Access News. Archived from the original on December 28, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Arnold, N. Scott (2009). Imposing values: an essay on liberalism and regulation. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780495501121. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020. Modern liberalism occupies the left-of-center in the traditional political spectrum and is represented by the Democratic Party in the United States.
  6. ^ "President Obama, the Democratic Party, and Socialism: A Political Science Perspective". The Huffington Post. June 29, 2012. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  7. ^ Hale, John (1995). The Making of the New Democrats. New York: Political Science Quarterly. p. 229.
  8. ^ Dewan, Shaila; Kornblut, Anne E. (October 30, 2006). "In Key House Races, Democrats Run to the Right". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  9. ^ Irwin, Lauren (October 13, 2023). "Democratic centrists offer to back McHenry as temporary House leader".
  10. ^ "Centrist Democrats target Lauren Boebert and Derrick Van Orden in 2024".
  11. ^ Stein, Letita; Cornwell, Susan; Tanfani, Joseph (August 23, 2018). "Inside the progressive movement roiling the Democratic Party". Reuters. Archived from the original on June 13, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  12. ^ Trudo, Hanna (August 26, 2023). "Progressives see promise in more diverse candidates, voters ahead of 2024".
  13. ^ "Progressives focus on local-level wins to reshape Democratic Party from the bottom up". PBS NewsHour. April 17, 2023.
  14. ^ Greve, Joan E. (November 9, 2022). "Progressive candidates score crucial wins in midterm elections". The Guardian.
  15. ^ Ball, Molly. "The Battle Within the Democratic Party". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  16. ^ Chotiner, Isaac (March 2, 2020). "How Socialist Is Bernie Sanders?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  17. ^ Bacon, Perry Jr. (March 11, 2019). "The Six Wings Of The Democratic Party". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  18. ^ M. Philip Lucas, "Martin Van Buren as Party Leader and at Andrew Jackson's Right Hand." in A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861 (2014): 107–129.
  19. ^ "The Democratic Party, founded in 1828, is the world's oldest political party" states Janda, Kenneth; Berry, Jeffrey M.; Goldman, Jerry (2010). The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in Global Politics. Cengage Learning. p. 276. ISBN 9780495906186.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kazin-2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Holt, Michael F. (1992). Political Parties and American Political Development: From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0807126097. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  22. ^ Bates, Christopher (2015). The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History. Taylor & Francis. p. 293. ISBN 9781317457404. The expansion engineered by Polk rendered the Democratic Party increasingly beholden to Southern slave interests, which dominated the party from 1848 to the Civil War.
  23. ^ a b c Staff. "Jacksonian Democracy: The Democratization of Politics". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved October 6, 2022. By the 1840s, Whig and Democratic congressmen voted as rival blocs. Whigs supported and Democrats opposed a weak executive, a new Bank of the United States, a high tariff, distribution of land revenues to the states, relief legislation to mitigate the effects of the depression, and federal reapportionment of House seats. Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury, an aggressive foreign policy, and expansionism. These were important issues, capable of dividing the electorate just as they divided the major parties in Congress.
  24. ^ Geer, John G. (1992). "New Deal Issues and the American Electorate, 1952–1988". Political Behavior. 14 (1): 45–65. doi:10.1007/BF00993508. hdl:1803/4054. ISSN 0190-9320. JSTOR 586295. S2CID 144817362. Archived from the original on December 29, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  25. ^ Grigsby, Ellen (2008). Analyzing Politics: An Introduction to Political Science. Cengage Learning. pp. 106–107. ISBN 9780495501121. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020. In the United States, the Democratic Party represents itself as the liberal alternative to the Republicans, but its liberalism is for the most part the later version of liberalism—modern liberalism.
  26. ^ Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University. ISBN 978-0-87840-724-8. Archived from the original on October 9, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  27. ^ Marlin, George J. (2004). The American Catholic Voter: 200 Years of Political Impact. South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine. ISBN 978-1-58731-029-4. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  28. ^ Michael Corbett et al. Politics and Religion in the United States (2nd ed. 2013).
  29. ^ Zeitz, Joshua (October 16, 2023). "The 'Unprecedented' House GOP Meltdown Isn't as Novel as You Think. And There Is a Way Out". Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
  30. ^ Zelizer, Julian E. (February 15, 2015). "How Medicare Was Made". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 4, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  31. ^ "Women More Likely to Be Democrats, Regardless of Age". Gallup.com. June 12, 2009. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
  32. ^ Kullgren, Ian (November 10, 2020). "Union Workers Weren't a Lock for Biden. Here's Why That Matters". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on November 3, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  33. ^ Frank, Thomas (2016). Listen, liberal, or, What ever happened to the party of the people? (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-62779-539-5. OCLC 908628802.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  34. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hale-1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wills-1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  36. ^ Edsall, Thomas B. (June 28, 1998). "Clinton and Blair envision a 'Third Way' international movement". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  37. ^ Hacker, Jacob S.; Malpas, Amelia; Pierson, Paul; Zacher, Sam (2024). "Bridging the Blue Divide: The Democrats' New Metro Coalition and the Unexpected Prominence of Redistribution". Perspectives on Politics: 1–21. doi:10.1017/S1537592723002931. ISSN 1537-5927.
  38. ^ Grossmann, Matt; Mahmood, Zuhaib; Isaac, William (October 1, 2021). "Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Unequal Class Influence in American Policy". The Journal of Politics. 83 (4): 1706–1720. doi:10.1086/711900. ISSN 0022-3816. S2CID 224851520. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  39. ^ Traister, Rebecca (March 27, 2023). "Abortion Wins Elections". The Cut. Archived from the original on April 6, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  40. ^ Gurley, Gabrielle (November 23, 2020). "Biden at the Cannabis Crossroads". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  41. ^ "Democratic Platform Endorses Gay Marriage". NPR. September 4, 2012. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  42. ^ Miranda Ollstein, Alice (August 12, 2022). "A bittersweet health care win for Democrats". POLITICO. Archived from the original on April 7, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  43. ^ Goodnough, Abby; Kaplan, Thomas (June 28, 2019). "Democrat vs. Democrat: How Health Care Is Dividing the Party". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  44. ^ Levy, Jonah (2006). The State after Statism: New State Activities in the Age of Liberalization. Harvard University Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780495501121. In the corporate governance area, the center-left repositioned itself to press for reform. The Democratic Party in the United States used the postbubble scandals and the collapse of share prices to attack the Republican Party ... Corporate governance reform fit surprisingly well within the contours of the center-left ideology. The Democratic Party and the SPD have both been committed to the development of the regulatory state as a counterweight to managerial authority, corporate power, and market failure.
  45. ^ U.S. Department of State. "A Mixed Economy: The Role of the Market". Thoughtco.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2017.
  46. ^ Ikenberry, John (2020). "America's Asia Policy after Trump". Global Asia.
  47. ^ Wong, Edward (September 6, 2022). "Biden Puts Defense of Democracy at Center of Agenda, at Home and Abroad". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
  48. ^ Cooley, Alexander; Nexon, Daniel H. (December 14, 2021). "The Real Crisis of Global Order". Foreign Affairs. No. January/February 2022. ISSN 0015-7120.


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