The Similarities Between The First And Second Political Party System

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Though many things have changed, there are still many similarities between the first and second political party systems. The Democratic Party and the Democratic-Republican Party have a major similarity when it comes to economics. The Democratic Party did not support the American System because it called for a new national bank, uniform currency, and a protective tariff. The American System is the perfect example of the government influencing the economy, and the Democratic Party did not believe in this government intervention because they believed that it gave the wealthy even more privilege. Similarly, the Democratic-Republican Party did not want a government that influenced the economy. They wanted a government that was weaker and that would take a more hands off approach with regards to …show more content…

At first, the original parties were focusing on their international relations. The main issues that the first parties encountered were based around were topics such as trade, the military, and national debt. The Federalists wanted the government to regulate trade and spend more money on the military, where the Democratic-Republicans wanted just the opposite. Once the second generation of political parties developed, a lot of those issues were for the most part already resolved. Time was still spent on trade and developing the economy, but there were so many more issues that revolved around problems in the nation. The new issues were topics such as universal suffrage, slavery (civil rights), and territorial expansion. For example, the Whigs opposed slavery where the Democratic Party accepted it. The parties changed into dealing with topics like these because the nation was developing and changing. Once the first parties were able to establish the foundation of the nation, the second generation began to deal with all of these new issues that come hand and hand with a developed

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