The Party System: Democracy Is Disagreement

The Party System: Democracy is Disagreement

The founding fathers based this country on freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, press, assembly, petition. Freedom to have your own opinion about the founding fathers. Freedom to have your own opinion on how our government should run. So with this much freedom, it's obvious someone's going to disagree. And that's where political parties come in. The Federalists versus the Anti-Federalists, a 210-year battle which still carries on today with the Democrats and Republicans. These first parties were very different, and each had their own view on how our country would be run, and how it would end up.

The each had opposing views and ideas for the new country of the United States. In the aspect of government, the federalists believed we should have a strong federal government with weak power of the states. The Republicans believed that the states should have individual power, and the government should be weak, just strong enough so that we could be on unified country. The Federalists viewed the constitution as a lenient document, which inferred powers not written specifically. The Republicans interpreted the constitution strictly, and if it didn't state the power directly, it was unconstitutional. For the leaders of our government, the Federalists saw that only men of nobility could be in power. They believed that the people were ill trained and educated and could not run the country. The Federalists thought the people would be influenced by power and greed. The Republicans on the other hand, thought the common people had their own smarts and could vote for what they needed. They didn't like the idea of rich, prominent men voting for them because they thought the officials would become corrupt with power.

For aspects of the future of the nation, the parties had more opposing thoughts and plans. The Federalists believed we should become a strong and industrialized nation and could be a world power, like Britain. The Federalists thought that we would be more powerful investing our money in industry and factories, not being a farming society. The Republicans felt that the future of America was to be an agrarian society with every man working for himself and selling the little extra he grew for profit. The Republicans felt that if we industrialized we would end up just like the mother country we broke away from, corrupt with power and cruel to their people. In the aspect of government and businesses the Republicans wanted nothing to do with it. They felt that the government should be as unobtrusive as possible and stay away from people's lives. With the government out of their hair they could do whatever they wanted within the limits of the laws, providing the greatest freedom attainable. Government should stay out of businesses no matter what, not destroying competition. The Federalists thought that the government should help struggling businesses in order to help the country's economy, and make sure the businesses are doing well.

Foreign policy vastly differed for each party. The Federalists thought that we needed to be a strong world power, maybe even achieve #1 in power. Federalists wanted to have a lot of involvement in foreign nations and have a strong military for diplomacy. They also believed in heavy tariffs on international imports in order to protect American businesses. The Republicans felt that we shouldn't be a world power and should worry about our own country. They believed we should be isolated and not intervene when a country has a problem. The Republicans believed that instead of military action we should take an economic approach. They also believed that there should be no tariffs on imported