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This list of political parties in the United States contains past and present political parties in the United States. Introduction Legally, the United States functions as a multi-party system – although political parties have no specific role under the U.S. Constitution, they are regulated by the constitutions of the individual states, which organize elections to both local and federal offices. In practice, since the mid 1800s, the country has been limited to a two-party system with occasional inlets made by third parties. This is largely a consequence of the first-past-the-post election system and restrictive ballot access laws imposed on the other political parties. There have been many political parties other than the two dominant ones, but most third parties are generally considered to be of only minor and short-lived political significance. Categorizing U.S. political parties For the purposes of this article, the political parties are grouped into four sections. The first section is “Current major parties”, as the term is defined above. The second section is called “Current third parties” and it consists of those parties that have achieved (or, in the lead-up to an election, are reasonably expected to achieve) ballot status for their respective candidates for President of the United States in states with enough electoral votes to have a theoretical chance of winning. The third section is called “Current minor and regional parties that have endorsed candidates” and consists of all the other currently active parties which have candidates. The last section, “Historical political parties”, is for political parties that are defunct. It can be argued that since no party other than the Republican and Democratic parties, have the voting power to win major elections, it would be wise for smaller parties to unite under one umbrella thus strengthening their voting base/power. Such unity, it is argued, could be done under a separate political entity, thus maintaining the original parties and their specific agendas. A large amount of Third Parties argue that it is in the best interest to maintain separation and offer an alternative system of a multi-party government. An alternate means for categorizing U.S. political parties, historically and currently, is to apply the Federal Election Commission's definition of "national committees" retroactively back in time to the beginning of the U.S. To see such a list, see Richard Winger's article in the Election Law Journal, April 2006 (Vol. 5 no. 2), which can be read on-line at http://www.liebertonline.com/loi/elj. Within that article, the list of parties is in Appendix A. Current major parties See also: Current third parties Each of these non-major parties had ballot status for its presidential candidate in states with enough electoral votes to have had a theoretical chance of winning the 2004 presidential election. See also: Current minor and regional parties that have endorsed candidates These parties do not have ballot status for their presidential candidate in enough states to have even a theoretical chance to win. Some do not have presidential candidates at all, but do have candidates for other offices. Historical political parties NOTE: The following list of historical parties report only parties that are no longer functioning entities. Some of the parties still in existence were also major players in the below mentioned party systems. First Party System (before 1824) Second Party System (1824–1854) Third Party System (1854–1896) Progressive Era/Fourth Party System (1896–1932) New Deal/Fifth Party System (1932–1964) Later 20th century See also Other lists Further reading | |||||||
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