by Paul Shlesinger

Created on: July 26, 2010   Last Updated: December 22, 2010

In the USA there are two main political parties: The Democratic Party and the Republican Party.  While are many "third party” groups, such as the Libertarian party or the Green party, this article focuses on the philosophies of the Democratic and Republican parties.  Generally speaking, the philosophies of the Democratic and Republican parties are based on the beliefs held by the American public.  For issues where the American public is in disagreement, the political philosophies of the two main parties reflect this disagreement.  

In this article, I have broken the philosophies of each party into three main parts: social philosophy, fiscal philosophy, and security philosophy.  What is interesting is that these three parts are basically independent of (i.e. not related with) one other, which helps account for the large number of Americans who consider themselves independent (politically).  Additionally, I have attempted to generalize the basic philosophies as best I can, recognizing that most individuals who identifies themselves as Democrat or Republican may not agree with every aspect of the philosophy presented.  Finally, I have attempted to remain as objective as possible.  I am confident that Democrats and Republicans alike will find my descriptions equally unfair.  With that in mind, the basic philosophies are as follows.

Democratic Party:

In one word, the social philosophy of the Democratic Party could be summarized as “progressive”.  Democrats hold a liberal philosophy towards social issues such as gay marriage (support) and abortion (support).  This philosophy on social issues stems (in part) from a belief that morality is subjective.  Therefore, they believe that any attempt to govern based on morality could be interpreted as violating the religion clauses of the first amendment, either by establishing a religion based on such moral beliefs or prohibiting the free exercise of other moral beliefs that are progressive or different from traditional beliefs.  In general, their progressive philosophy tends to attract support from non-Christians and from younger individuals. 

The fiscal philosophy of the Democratic Party can be summarized by the word “equality”.  Fiscally speaking, Democrats believe that the Federal government should take an active role in attempting to better society because they believe that the Federal government has the expertise

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