Republican Party

Republican Party (USA) Also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP). The present Republican Party was formed in 1854. Its early success was built upon a successful coalition among north-eastern evangelicals and north-western farmers. With Abraham Lincoln it won its first presidential election in 1860, a result that triggered the US Civil War (1861–5). In 1869–1932 it lost only four such contests, two each to Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. However, its traditional social base was eroded through the country's rapid industrial progress, which created a growing number of industrial workers in the cities. In its efforts to find a response to the increasing problems of an industrial and urban society without losing its agricultural base, it split when Theodore Roosevelt formed his Progressive Party and promised reform and regulation to deal with socio-economic problems.

After World War I the party's isolationist policy, and its focus on domestic economic expansion brought it back to power, in three successive Republican Presidencies under Harding, Coolidge, and H. J. Hoover. The party was thus strongly identified with the unprecedented prosperity of the 1920s. It was also associated with the overheating of the economy and financial speculation which led to the Wall Street Crash and the ensuing Great Depression. With their ideas of economic and military non-interventionism Republicans had difficulty adapting to the turbulent 1930s, and were thus defeated by the Democrats under F. D. Roosevelt in four consecutive presidential elections. By the end of World War II the Republican Party had recovered somewhat, but surprisingly lost a further presidential election to Truman in 1948. It regained the White House only through the massive, non-partisan popularity of General Eisenhower in 1952.

Thereafter, while the GOP continued to have problems in gaining control of Congress, in presidential politics it profited from a number of political, social, and economic shifts. Under the Democratic Presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson (1961–9), civil rights legislation and desegregation undermined the strength and unity of Democratic support in the south, previously a backbone of Democratic support. This was further eroded through its identification with the Vietnam War. The Republicans also gained a strong base in the so-called ‘Sunbelt’ of the south-west. In addition, it benefited greatly from the economic prosperity and growth in the west, where ‘new’ electronic and high-technology companies became concentrated. As a result the GOP was the dominant party in presidential politics in the 1970s, though Nixon's Watergate scandal and Ford's rather lacklustre leadership led to the brief Democratic presidency of Carter (1977–81).

Dominant in the 1980s once again, the GOP flourished under Reagan, whose policies of huge military spending and tax cuts (at the cost of a record budget deficit) did much to consolidate the Republican electoral base, which was to a large extent dependent on defence spending and government contracts. This presented the GOP with a fundamental dilemma in the 1990s: as a budget deficit of $268.7 billion by 1991 called for an inevitable cut in government expenditure, this was bound to hit two of its major constituencies, those working for the military directly, or firms dependent on military contracts. Following George Bush's decision to raise taxation (contrary to his earlier promises), the Republicans lost the 1992 presidential elections. In the 1994 elections to Congress, the Republicans led by Gingrich managed to square the circle, by focusing demands for expenditure cuts on welfare payments, which affected primarily the Democratic constituency. However, by 1996 this had backfired and given President Clinton his greatest boost for re-election, as he managed to portray Gingrich and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, as cold-hearted and uncaring. For the 2000 presidential elections, George W. Bush managed to reunite the GOP and reignite it through the chance of victory. Once in office, Bush abandoned his slogans of ‘compassionate conservatism’ by endorsing anti-environmental legislation, and by proposing a large tax cut which mainly benefited wealthy taxpayers. Bush also restored the bond between the GOP and its constituency in the military, through vast increases in military expenditure. Bush's immense personal popularity following September 11 contributed greatly to the GOP's success in the 2002 mid-term elections, when it regained control of the Senate and increased its lead in the House of Representatives. This left the GOP free to enact Bush's more controversial policies on education and economics, and support his judicial nominees. It also strengthened its indebtedness to Bush as he prepared his re-election bid in 2004

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