Why Are Political Parties Formed

Political parties have been a part of the United States governmental structure for a long time. But a question that is always asked is, “since political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, how and why were they formed?” They are interesting perspectives that are fabricated mainly because of the disputes by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Their different views on who should govern, the structure of government, economics, and foreign policy caused the whole country to be spilt. To clarify, who should govern someone that knows how to lead, the structure can either be central based or not central based, the economics is the actual state of the U.S. economy, and the foreign policy is the interaction that the U.S. should have …show more content…
These viewpoints were pretty much the opposite of each other and show how this issue helped to form political parties.
In addition to Hamilton and Jefferson disagreeing on who should govern the country, they disputed on the structure of the actual government itself. The structure of the government played a role in the formation of political parties. Hamilton favored a strong central government and thought that the American government should be modeled on the British system. In addition, he wanted to increase the number of federal employees and happened to support a loose interpretation of the Constitution. Lastly, he thought that individual liberties, such as freedom of speech, should sometimes be restricted. Of course Jefferson thought extremely differently about it. He favored a weak central government, but strong state governments. He preferred a more democratic government. He wanted to reduce the number of federal employees and favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Also, he believed that laws, rather than being restricted must protect individual liberties. The structure of government was clearly another part as to why political parties were …show more content…
In addition, he established a national bank, wanted to maintain internal taxes and wanted to use the national debt to establish credit. Both had valid ideas on what to do in terms of economics, but it still left room to form different opinions.
Another issue, in addition to the U.S. economy, was the foreign policy. Jefferson and Hamilton thought of the idea of foreign policy very differently. Hamilton believed in and supported Britain because he liked their central-based government and respected it as well. Jefferson believed that America was obligated to help France because the coming together of political parties was similar to the revolution they both experienced, making him favor France over any other country. Political parties were formed because they couldn’t agree on this dispute. The combination of who should govern, the structure of the government, the economics, and the foreign policy all contribute to the formation of political parties. These topics are so open-ended and open to interpretation that they were bound to be looked at differently by different people. Because not everyone is not going to have the same opinion, different groups will be formed all due to the fact that people cannot agree on just one