Through out the course of history many countries have either changed their type of government or their form of government and our country is no exception to this. Our forefathers had the wisdom to be aware of this and to draft a constitution that allowed for this flux in government as the needs changed without needing for their to be a collapse in government. Although the basis for a democracy was always there, these changes have included our begins as a uniparty system, our move to the bi-party system and our recent expanding move to a multiparty system. Although our country hasn’t needed great upheaval for these changes, nobody can say that any one of these given options is best because they all have their advantages and disadvantages to the people and our process of government.
A uniparty system is the idea that our country is ran by personal politics in which one candidate ran. This period was from 1816 to 1828. This detracted from our government because a democracy requires at least two parties to run. The advantages to this type of system is that since there are little clashes in the race for decisions, those decisions are made quickly (although not necessarily effectively). This was important during the time period because we were just establishing ourselves as a new country and the ability to make quick decisions helped to keep us from going back under the thumb of another country. The disadvantages to the uniparty system is that there weren’t many alternatives, so if you didn’t agree with the decisions there wasn’t much you could do about it. It also limits the amount of involvement within the political system so that the democrat way of government is not present and so that the Madisonian model could not be in effect since there were not enough opposing groups to check and balance each other. This leaves this system with a higher capacity for corruption and self-serving politics.
Our country then made the move to a biparty systems with the Federalists and the Republicans, which later became the Democrats and the Republicans after a slew of changes. This system added to the democratic model of government by now getting more people involved in the politics of the country. It also started adding to the Madisonian model of government since their were now two parties running that could help to check and balance each other out. On top of these advantages, other advantages for this type of system include the fact that there are now more options for people to choose from so that more people are being represented in their goals, beliefs and interests and a more clear outline of who can run and be elected are formed. Disadvantages for this system include the fact that since there are opposing parties and ideas, it is now a bit slower for decisions to be made and there is still the problem that if you don’t like these two groups, you are still out of luck.
The move that our country has made recently in our history has been to a multi-party system. The three main ones are the Republicans, Democrats and the Independent parties. This allows for an even great ability to check and balance each other out within the parties. The biggest other advantage to this system is that people have even more representation to choose from that matches their beliefs and goals and there is less room for corruption. Independent parties also help to act as a buffer between the two major opposing parties which tend to operate on opposite sides of the spectrum (sometimes to the extreme). The disadvantages of this system however, are that with even more parties it takes even longer to reach decisions which means that occasionally by the time decisions can be reached, the problem may already be too bad for that decision to work in which case the process has to start over again. It can also make it easier for politicians to mislead and abuse public opinion (through polls and media) since there is now possibly two many competing ideas and policies. This can also limit the odds of someone winning if they are not well not, even if they could be the best candidate because at this point campaigning, money and recognition play big rolls.
As we can see from this week’s readings and their integration with previous week’s readings, our government is not a fixed model but rather something that is in constant flux and changes as the times, needs and people change. As with everything else, new models and forms that we have found (such as the different party systems) have their advantages and disadvantages and what might be right for one time period isn’t necessarily the best for another. The best thing that we can do is our research so that we can keep ourselves honestly informed in the hopes that we will make the best decisions possible for us and our fellow citizens because this plays a large role in making sure that our government continues operating in a beneficial form.