Download History of Political Parties in the U.S.

Social Studies Lesson Plan Template
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Title: History of Political Parties in the U.S.
Lesson Author: Gina Rumbolo, Tommy George
Key Words: Federalist, Democratic-Republican, Democratic, National Republican, Whig
Grade Level: 12
Time Allotted: 60 minutes (approximately)
Rationale/ Purpose (so what?)
Because students will be or are already of age to begin voting and involving themselves in the political process, it is
important for them to understand the history of political parties to see where the parties have been and where they
are headed. Students should understand why there have been two dominant parties throughout time in order to see
how easy or difficult it will be for a party they might choose to identify with to influence politics.
Key Concept(s) include definition:
• Two-party system – a system of government that encourages the dominance of two main parties.
• Political party – a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections,
control government and influence government policies.
• Majority representation - a system in which an office is won by the single candidate who collects
the most votes.
• Proportional representation – a system in which legislative seats are given to a party in proportion
to the vote that party wins in an election.
• Plurality – The number by which the vote of the winning choice in such a contest exceeds that of
the closest opponent.
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NCSS Standard(s)
SOL Information (As written in the Virginia SOL “Curriculum Framework” for the grade level)
NCSS Theme (s) with indicators:
1. Individuals, Groups and Institutions
a. help learners analyze group and institutional influences on people, events, and elements of culture in both historical and
contemporary settings;
b. assist learners in identifying and analyzing examples of tensions between expressions of individuality and efforts used
to promote social conformity by groups and institutions;
2. Civic Ideals and Practices
a. assist learners to understand the origins and interpret the continuing influence of key ideals of the democratic
republican form of government
b. provide opportunities for learners to practice forms of civic discussion and participation consistent with the ideals of
citizens in a democratic republic
c. facilitate learner efforts to locate, access, analyze, organize, synthesize, evaluate, and apply information about selected
public issues -- identifying, describing, and evaluating multiple points of view;
SOL:
Essential Knowledge
Essential Skills
(minimum for SOL Resource Guide)
(minimum for SOL Resource Guide)
GOVT.3c The student will demonstrate knowledge of the concepts of
democracy by recognizing majority rule and minority rights;
GOVT.6a The student will demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and
national elections by describing the organization, role, and
constituencies of political parties.
GOVT.6c The student will demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and
national elections by examining campaign funding and spending.
GOVT.6d The student will demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and
national elections by analyzing the influence of media coverage,
campaign advertising, and public opinion polls.
GOVT.1a The student will demonstrate mastery of the social studies
skills citizenship requires, including the ability to analyze primary and
secondary source documents;
GOVT.1d The student will demonstrate mastery of the social studies
skills citizenship requires, including the ability to distinguish between
relevant and irrelevant information;
GOVT.1d The student will demonstrate mastery of the social studies
skills citizenship requires, including the ability to select and defend
positions in writing, discussion, and debate.
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Guiding Question(s):
• How have the two main parties changed and evolved over time?
• Why do we have two main parties?
Assessment Tool(s):
• Main points put on butcher paper by each group
• Group presentation
Background: How does this lesson fit into a unit of study? Looking backwards, looking forwards
This would be the first lesson in a unit on political parties. The next lesson would be on the role of 3rd
parties coupled with party organization and functions.
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Lesson Objective(s):
Students will be able to:
1. Identify the two main parties in each of the three party systems that have existed over time along with key
information, issues, events, elections and/or people for each system.
2. Identify and explain why the U.S. governmental system favors a two-party system.
Historical Source(s): (include copies in materials
Additional Materials/Resources: (include
section)
copies in materials section)
• Information on the The Presidential Election
Campaign Fund Act from the Federal
Election Committee (Material G)
• Selection criteria from the Commission on
Presidential Debates (Material H)
• Excerpt from an Interview with Professor J.
David Gillespie, Presbyterian College about
ballot access (Material I)
• Article II, Section. 1 of the U.S. Constitution
(Material J)
• History of parties flow chart (Material A)
• Group work directions (Material B)
• History of the first party system (Material
C)
• History of the second party system
(Material D)
• History of the third party system part 1
(Material E)
• History of the third party system part 2
(Material F)
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Procedure/Process:
JUST DO IT! The “Hook”: (A high-interest activity that introduces new content with connections to students’ prior
knowledge. Between 1-5 minutes (Could also introduce the days guiding question)
Obj #
See
above.
Processing Activity and Procedure -include directions,
Check for Evidence of Understanding
question frames, assignment detail to be given to
-Either Formal or Informalstudents (these should all be made into explicit materials (Checks Essential Knowledge and Skills)
(e.g. see material A), and time estimates
What is a political party? Can you name some of the parties we
Oral student response
have in the United States? What are they? (5 minutes)
Often people can identify the Democratic and Republican parties because those are the two main parties we
Transition: have in the United States currently. Over time there have been 3 party systems. In each system, there
were two dominant parties. Show flow chart, material A, on the different two party systems.
Identify the two main parties in each of the party systems along
with key information, issues, events, elections and/or people for
each system. The teacher should divide the class into four
groups. Each group will have information about a different party
system. The third party system was broken into 2 handouts
because of its length, therefore there are 4 handouts. In their
Objective
groups students should read over the information about the
Written group response and presentation
#1
party system they were assigned. On butcher paper, each group
should summarize the important information, key people and key
issues. (15 minutes) Each group will present the summarized
information to the rest of the class as other groups take notes.
(10 minutes) See Material B for student directions and Materials
C-F for information on the party systems.
Just do it.
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Transition:
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Now that we have seen how the two main parties have evolved over time let’s look at why only two parties
dominate the system.
In order to be able to identify and explain reasons why our
system of government favors a two-party system, students will
break into groups to read through primary documents and
discuss their findings. Leave students in the same 4 groups that
they were in before. Each group will be given a document. See
Objective
material G-J for the documents. As the groups read through the
Oral student response and discussion
#2
documents they should be asking themselves: Does what we
have read make it difficult for 3rd parties to be successful? If so,
how? These questions will be projected on a slide as seen in
Material K. (10 minutes) Groups will share and discuss their
findings with the whole class. Notes should be taken when other
groups are presenting. (10 minutes)
Now that you guys have been able to look at the history of political parties and the way our system is
Transition: structured today, let’s take some time to reflect. Introduce closure/writing prompt and have students
complete it. (10-15 minutes)
Closure/Writing Prompt:
On your own piece of paper, answer the following questions:
-Does our system favor a two-party system? Why or why not?
-Do you think that the process 3rd party candidates have to go through is fair? Is it effective?
-From what you have learned today, do you think it is possible for a 3rd party candidate’s
campaign to be successful? If so, what do you define as success?
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MATERIAL A
History of U.S. Political Parties
Federalists
Democratic
Democratic
VS.
VS.
VS.
Democratic Republican
National
Republican
(Whig)
Republican
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MATERIAL B
Directions
In your groups:
1. Read through the information on your group’s
handout.
2. Discuss within your groups what information is most
important.
3. On the large piece of paper, summarize the
important information, key people and key issues.
4. You will be presenting what you wrote to the rest of
the class.
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MATERIAL C
The First Party System
Early Nonpartisanship (pre-party system)
The framers of the Constitution of the United States made no provision in the governmental structure for
the functioning of political parties because they believed that parties were a source of corruption and an
impediment to the freedom of people to judge issues on their merits. James Madison argued in his
"Federalist Paper #10" against a system in which "factions" (his word for parties) might be able to seize
control of the government. George Washington, in accordance with the thinking of his fellow Founding
Fathers, included in his cabinet men of diverse political philosophies and policies.
Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties.
Within a short time informal parties did develop, even though their adherents still insisted they
disapproved of parties as a permanent feature in American politics. One faction, commonly identified
with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice-President John Adams, became known as
the Federalist party. Federalists favored an active federal government, a Treasury that played a vital role
in the nation's economic life, and a pro-British foreign policy. It drew especially strong support from
merchants, manufacturers, and residents of New England. The other faction, whose central figures were
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and fellow Virginian James Madison, became known as the
Republican or Democratic - Republican party (this party should not be confused with the modern
Republican party). The Jeffersonian Republicans advocated a limited federal government, little
government interference in economic affairs, and a pro-French foreign policy. They were particularly
popular with debt-ridden farmers, artisans, and southerners. The structure of government in the U.S. was
conducive to the formation of political parties. The carefully elaborated system of checks and balances,
established by the Constitution, makes executive and legislative cooperation necessary in the
development of policy. Further, the division of legislative powers between the federal and state
governments, as provided in the Constitution, makes it necessary for advocates of such policies as the
regulation of commerce to seek representation or strength in both the federal and state legislatures. As
these ends were too complex and difficult to achieve by impermanent groupings, the formation of
permanent political organizations was inevitable. The Jeffersonian Republicans held power for 28 years
following the inauguration of President Jefferson in 1801. During this period, the Federalist Party
became increasingly unpopular. It ceased functioning on the national level after the War of 1812,
leaving the Republican Party as the only national political organization.
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MATERIAL D
History of U.S. Political Parties:
The Second Party System
Democratic Republican candidate James Monroe was reelected in the first presidential contest without
party competition since Washington’s time. The lack of partisan competition under Monroe in what was
called “The Era of Good Feelings” weakened his party, the Democratic Republicans. Before 1824, the
role of parties in gathering the popular vote was relatively unimportant because relatively few people
were entitled to vote. But the states began to drop restrictive requirements for voting after 1800. With
the expansion of suffrage, more states began to allow the voters to choose the presidential electors,
rather than Congress. In 1824, the party’s nominee was challenged by three other Democratic
Republicans, including John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, who proved to be more popular
candidates among the voters in the ensuing election.
Although Jackson won a plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral vote in 1824, he did not win
the necessary majority in the Electoral College. The House of Representatives had to decide the winner.
It chose John Quincy Adams over the voter’s choice, Jackson. The disagreement among party leaders of
the Democratic Republican party became so intense that the party split in two.
Followers of Jackson represented the common people in the expanding South and West and its members
called themselves Democrats. The label National Republicans applied to John Quincy Adam’s faction
of the former Democratic Republican party. Adams’s followers called themselves National Republicans
to signify their old Federalist preference for a strong national government, but the symbolism did not
appeal to the voters and the National Republicans lost to Jackson in 1832.
Elected to another term, Jackson began to assert the power of the nation over the states (acting more like
a National Republican than a Democrat). His policies drew new opponents. A coalition made up of
former National Republicans, and Jackson haters formed the Whig Party in 1834. The name referred to
the English Whigs who opposed the powers of the British throne; the implication was that Jackson was
governing like a king. For the next thirty years Democrats and Whigs alternated in the Presidency.
However, the issues of slavery and sectionalism eventually destroyed the Whigs from within. Although
the party had won the White House in 1848 and had taken 44 percent of the vote in 1852, the Whigs
were unable to field a presidential candidate in the 1856 election.
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MATERIAL E
History of U.S. Political Parties:
The Third Party System (Part 1)
In the early 1850s, antislavery forces (including some Whigs and antislavery Democrats) began to
organize. At meetings they recommended the formation of a new party, the Republican party, to oppose
the extension of slavery into the Kansas and Nebraska territories. It is this party, founded in 1854 that
continues as today’s Republican party.
The Republican party entered its first presidential election in 1856. It took 33 percent of the vote and its
candidate (John Fremont) carried eleven states-all in the North. Then in 1860, the Republicans
nominated Abraham Lincoln. The Democrats were deeply divided over the slavery issue and actually
split into two parties. The northern wing kept the Democratic label and nominated Stephen Douglas.
The Southern Democrats ran John Breckinridge. A fourth party, the Constitutional Union party,
nominated John Bell. Lincoln took 40 percent of the popular vote and carried every northern state.
Breckinridge won every southern state. But all three of Lincoln’s opponents together still did not win
enough electoral votes to deny him the presidency.
The election of 1860 is considered the first of three critical elections under the current party system.
The election of 1860 divided the country politically between the northern states, whose voters mainly
voted Republican, and the southern states, which were overwhelmingly Democratic. The victory of the
North over the South in the Civil War cemented Democratic loyalties in the South.
For forty years, from 1880-1920, no Republican presidential candidate won even one of the eleven states
of the former Confederacy. Republicans had not been able to get support from the South until 1920,
when Warren G. Harding carried Tennessee. The Republicans later won five southern states in 1928,
when the Democrats ran the first Catholic candidate, Al Smith. Republican Presidential candidates won
no more southern states until 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower broke the pattern of Democratic
Dominance in the South-ninety years after that pattern had been set by the Civil War.
Rough Balance: 1860-1894
From 1860 through 1894 the Republican party won eight of ten presidential elections. Some of its
success in presidential elections came from its practice of running Civil War heroes and from the
North’s domination of southern politics. An analysis shows that the Republicans and Democrats won an
equal number of congressional elections, each controlling the chamber for nine sessions between 18601894.
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MATERIAL F
History of U.S. Political Parties:
The Third Party System (Part 2)
Republican Majority: 1896-1930
Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, occupied the White House, and the country was in a severe depression.
The Republicans nominated William McKinley, governor of Ohio and a conservative, who stood for a
high tariff against foreign goods and sound money tied to the value of gold. The Democrats, already in
trouble because of the depression, nominated the fiery William Jennings Bryan. In stark contrast to
McKinley, Bryan advocated the free and unlimited coinage of silver-which would mean cheap money
and easy payment of debts through inflation. Bryan was also the nominee of the young Populist Party,
an agrarian protest party that had proposed the free-silver platform Bryan adopted. Conservatives,
especially businesspeople, were appalled by the Democrats’ radical turn and voters in the heavily
populated Northeast and Midwest surged towards the Republican party, many of them permanently.
McKinley carried every northern state east of Mississippi. The Republicans also won the House, and
they retained their control of it in the next six elections.
The election of 1896 helped solidify a Republican majority in industrial America and forged a link
between the Republican party and business. The Republican party dominated national politicscontrolling the presidency, the Senate and the House-almost continuously from 1896 until the Wall
Street crash of 1929, which bust big business’s bubble and launched the Great Depression.
A Democratic Majority: 1932-present?
The Republican’s majority status ended in the critical election of 1932 between the incumbent president
Herbert Hoover and the Democratic challenger, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt promised new
solutions to unemployment and the economic crisis of the Depression. His campaign appealed to labor,
middle-class liberals and new European ethnic voters. Along with Democratic voters in the South,
urban workers in the North, Catholics, Jews, and white ethnic minorities supported Roosevelt. The
relatively few blacks who voted at that time tended to remain loyal to the Republicans.
Roosevelt was swept into office in a landslide, carrying huge Democratic majorities with him into the
House and Senate to enact his liberal activist programs. Not only was Roosevelt reelected in 1936, 1940
and 1944, but Democrats held control of both Houses of Congress in most sessions from 1933 through
1994. In 1994 Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time in forty years.
In presidential elections, however, the Democrats have not fared so well since Roosevelt. They have
only won five elections (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton). In 1996, Clinton became the
first Democratic president since Roosevelt since Roosevelt to be reelected.
Signs are strong that the coalition of Democratic voters forged by Roosevelt in the 1930s has already
cracked. Certainly, the South is no longer solid for Democrats. Since 1952, in fact, it has voted more
consistently for Republican presidential candidates than for Democrats. We seem to be going into a
period in which party loyalties have become less important to voters as they cast their ballots.
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MATERIAL G
The Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act
Under the Internal Revenue Code, qualified Presidential candidates receive money from the Presidential
Election Campaign Fund, which is an account on the books of the U.S. Treasury.
The Fund is financed exclusively by a voluntary tax check off. By checking a box on their income tax
returns, individual taxpayers may direct $3 of their tax to the Fund (up to $6 for joint filers). Checking
the box does not increase the amount a taxpayer owes or reduce his or her refund; it merely directs that
three (or six) dollars from the U.S. Treasury be used in Presidential elections. Checkoff funds may not
be spent for other federal programs.
The funds are distributed under three programs:
Primary Matching Payments
Eligible candidates in the Presidential primaries may receive public funds to match the private
contributions they raise. While a candidate may raise money from many different sources, only
contributions from individuals are matchable; contributions from PACs and party committees are not.
Furthermore, while an individual may give up to $2,000 to a primary candidate, only the first $250 of
that contribution is matchable.
To participate in the matching fund program, a candidate must demonstrate broad-based support by
raising more than $5,000 in matchable contributions in each of 20 different states. Candidates must
agree to use public funds only for campaign expenses, and they must comply with spending limits.
Beginning with a $10 million base figure, the overall primary spending limit is adjusted each
Presidential election year to reflect inflation. In 2004, the limit was $37.31 million.
General Election Grants
The Republican and Democratic candidates who win their parties’ nominations for President are each
eligible to receive a grant to cover all the expenses of their general election campaigns. The basic $20
million grant is adjusted for inflation each Presidential election year. In 2004, the grant was $74.62
million.
Nominees who accept the funds must agree not to raise private contributions (from individuals, PACs or
party committees) and to limit their campaign expenditures to the amount of public funds they receive.
They may use the funds only for campaign expenses.
A third party Presidential candidate may qualify for some public funds after the general election if he or
she receives at least five percent of the popular vote.
Party Convention Grants
Each major political party may receive public funds to pay for its national Presidential nominating
convention. The statute sets the base amount of the grant at $4 million for each party, and that amount is
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adjusted for inflation each Presidential election year. In 2004, the major parties each received $14.592
million.
Other parties may also be eligible for partial public financing of their nominating conventions, provided
that their nominees received at least five percent of the vote in the previous Presidential election.
Taken directly from:
The Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/fecfeca.shtml#Campaign_Finance_Law
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MATERIAL H
Commission on Presidential Debates
2004 Nonpartisan Selection Criteria
The CPD's nonpartisan criteria for selecting candidates to participate in its 2004 general election
presidential debates are:
1. Evidence of Constitutional Eligibility
The CPD's first criterion requires satisfaction of the eligibility requirements of Article II, Section
1 of the Constitution. The requirements are satisfied if the candidate:
a. is at least 35 years of age;
b. is a Natural Born Citizen of the United states and a resident of the United States for fourteen
years; and
c. is otherwise eligible under the Constitution.
2. Evidence of Ballot Access
The CPD's second criterion requires that the candidate qualify to have his/her name appear on
enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College
majority in the 2004 general election. Under the Constitution, the candidate who receives a
majority of votes in the Electoral College, at least 270 votes, is elected President regardless of
the popular vote.
3. Indicators of Electoral Support
The CPD's third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15%
(fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion
polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly reported
results at the time of the determination.
Taken from:
Commission on Presidential Debates
http://www.debates.org/pages/candsel2004.html
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MATERIAL I
Ballot Access: Excerpt from an Interview with Professor J. David
Gillespie, Presbyterian College
QUESTION:
Does the American political system make it difficult for third parties to compete? Are there
disincentives in the system?
MR. GILLESPIE:
Absolutely. I would say that there are, basically, three kinds of constraints on third parties.
MR. GILLESPIE:
The number one structural barrier is state ballot access requirements. It is still very difficult to get on the
ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It's improved in recent years, because of third-party
candidates like George Wallace, Eugene McCarthy, John Anderson, and Ross Perot who brought court
cases against the ballot access system. They got a lot of the most restrictive access laws overturned in
federal courts. But it still takes somewhere between twothirds of a million and a million signatures
collected nationwide to get a candidate's name on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
There are all kinds of rules and they vary in each state -- if you're a third party or independent candidate,
you have to have a lawyer who's an expert on ballot access, and you've got to have a lot of money. Third
party campaigns, which tend not to be well financed anyway, spent a good portion of their money just
getting on the ballot in each state.
The major party candidates, on the other hand, are able to use their money for advertising and for getting
the percentage of popular support that entitles them to federal matching funds.
Taken from:
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Aug/31-415672.html
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MATERIAL J
Article II, Section. 1 of the U.S. Constitution
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his
Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term,
be elected, as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors,
equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the
Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the
United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at
least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the
Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and
transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives,
open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of
Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed;
and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the
House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person
have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the
President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each
State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two
thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after
the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the
Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse
from them by Ballot the Vice President.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=9&page=transcript
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Material K:
As you read ask yourself…
• Does what we have read make it
difficult for 3rd parties to be
successful?
• If so, how?
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Teacher Notes (Reflections/clarifications/explanations):
It is important to place students in heterogeneous groups by ability because
some of the information may be difficult to understand individually. In groups of
varying abilities, stronger students will be able to help weaker students
understand the information.
To scaffold group investigations, the teacher can pose one or two questions with
each question that guide discussion. Example: How difficult is it to be invited to
a debate? If you can’t get invited, how will you get the word out about your
platform?