# Parties Hub Map of content for **US political parties** — the major two, active third parties, and the defunct historical parties that shaped American politics. Parties live in `Foundations/` because a party is part of the constitutional-adjacent operating system through which power is organized, contested, and transferred. This index is organized on the standard political-science framework of **party systems**: successive stable configurations of parties, coalitions, and issue cleavages, punctuated by [[Realignment]]. Scope here is **US-only**. Foreign parties (e.g. the Nazi Party, Chinese Communist Party, the Canadian parties, Vox, National Rally) live in `Organizations/` as foreign actors. ## The Active Parties | Party | Status | Founded | Role | |---|---|---|---| | [[Republican Party]] | active | 1854 | Major party (the right pole; the spine of this KB) | | [[Democratic Party]] | active | 1828 | Major party (the left pole; world's oldest active party) | | [[Libertarian Party]] | active | 1971 | Largest third party; minimal-government / [[Libertarianism]] | | [[Green Party]] | active | 2001 | Left third party; ecology + the left-side spoiler case | | [[Reform Party]] | active | 1995 | [[Ross Perot]] populism; a dress rehearsal for Trumpism | | [[Constitution Party]] | active | 1991 | Far-right paleoconservative / [[Christian Nationalism]] | | [[Working Families Party]] | active | 1998 | Progressive fusion-voting party; cross-endorses Democrats to pull them left | ## The Party System Spine Each era is a distinct configuration of parties and cleavages; the transitions between them are the [[Realignment]]s that are the analytical engine of this folder. ### [[First Party System]] (c. 1792–1824) [[Federalist Party]] vs. [[Democratic-Republican Party]] — the founding cleavage over the scope of federal power. The Federalists died after the [[War of 1812]]; the Democratic-Republicans split into the two branches of the next era. ### [[Second Party System]] (c. 1828–1854) [[Democratic Party]] vs. [[Whig Party]] — mass democracy over [[Jacksonian Democracy]] and the [[American System]]. Minor and transitional parties: [[National Republican Party]], [[Anti-Masonic Party]], [[Free Soil Party]], [[Know-Nothing Party]]. The system was destroyed by slavery. ### [[Third Party System]] (c. 1854–1896) [[Republican Party]] vs. [[Democratic Party]] — Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the [[Compromise of 1877]]. The agrarian [[Populist Party]] insurgency closed the era. ### [[Fourth Party System]] (c. 1896–1932) Republican ascendancy after the 1896 realignment; the Progressive Era. [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s [[Bull Moose Party]] split the GOP in 1912. ### [[Fifth Party System]] (c. 1932–1968) The New Deal coalition makes the [[Democratic Party]] the majority party. The [[Dixiecrats]] revolt of 1948 is the first crack over civil rights. ### [[Sixth Party System]] (c. 1968–present) The great party switch via the [[Southern Strategy]]: the parties trade their regional bases. Active third parties — [[Libertarian Party]], [[Green Party]], [[Reform Party]], [[Constitution Party]] — operate at the margins of a polarizing two-party order. ### [[Seventh Party System]] (proposed, c. 2016–present) The contested claim that the [[MAGA]] realignment under [[Donald Trump]] inaugurated a new system organized on a populist-vs-establishment and diploma-divide axis. ## Analytical Through-Lines - **Realignment** — [[Realignment]]: how party systems begin and end; the master frame for every transition above. - **The great party switch** — [[Southern Strategy]] · [[Dixiecrats]]: how the party of Lincoln became the party of the white South and the party of segregation became the party of civil rights. - **The nativism lineage** — [[Anti-Masonic Party]] → [[Know-Nothing Party]] → … → modern immigration politics: conspiracy-and-grievance mass mobilization recurring across eras. See [[Nativism]]. - **Third-party spoilers** — [[Bull Moose Party]] (1912), [[Reform Party]] (Perot), [[Green Party]] (Nader/Stein): how a winner-take-all, [[Duvergers Law]] system structurally punishes third parties and converts them into spoilers. - **The economic-nationalist thread** — [[Federalist Party]] → [[National Republican Party]] → [[Whig Party]] → early [[Republican Party]]: the developmental, pro-industry [[American System]] tradition. ## Adjacent Machinery - [[Campaign Finance Hub]] — how parties and their allied committees are funded - [[Electoral College]] · [[National Popular Vote Interstate Compact]] — the rules that shape two-partyism - [[Congress]] — where party majorities govern ## Tooling - `Parties.base` — filterable database views (active vs. defunct, by party system, by ideology)