US Report

This report on the United States of America is political in nature and is by no means comprehensive. It serves only to educate about political views and categorize the ideology of various policy-actors in America.

This section explains major and some minor political parties in terms of the Nolan Chart. To learn more about the Nolan Chart please see the issue article here.

The Party breakdown in America is, in comparison to other liberal democracies, somewhat lop-sided. The spread of ideologies have been encompassed into two large parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Overall, America is perhaps the most classically liberal country and political culture in the world, or at least the largest and most famous. The rule of law, rational and public legal code, written constitution, free markets and political republicanism are the main points of classical liberalism. It was the ideology of John Locke - perhaps the most famous European liberal philosopher - that inspired the American Founding Fathers at the time of the American Revolution. This history continues to find a place in modern American politics. The opponents on both sides of many American issues continue to claim some allegiance to freedom and rationality and the Constitution even while they advocate directly conflicting positions. There is effectively unanimous consensus in favor of the Constitution, free elections, and comparatively broad versions of free speech and legal rights.

America, in this sense, is a country with a more libertarian consensus than probably all other countries. Now, assuredly, it is nowhere near perfect-libertarian, and one could author many large web-sites and never explain all the details of America's non-libertarian past and present. However, the small size of the government, the near-religious adherence to free speech, the non-corporatist political culture and the popularity of tax cuts display this American commitment. This is not to say that many of these positions are not present in other countries or that tax cuts and free speech only exist in America, but the presence of many libertarian and anti-government positions persist in the United States and usually to a noticeably greater degree than in other countries. The libertarian consensus of America is to the detriment of communalist and egalitarian values like socialism, equality of assets, centralized economy, and widespread availability of government-subsidized services like health care, which one cannot find in America to anywhere near the degree one can find it in other Western countries.

The party environment, again, is very much balanced in favor of the two major parties. Beyond attitudinal factors such as exposure, proven records and public support, the two big parties also tend to engage in structural defenses. In many states and communities, the Democrats and Republicans pass ballot measures where all minor parties are listed as Independent, meaning a Libertarian, a Socialist and a Nazi might all look the same on the ballot to a less-informed voter. The most enduring factor behind the dual-party dominance is that the Democrats and Republicans are aggregate parties built up out of overlapping factions with different priorities and agendas. In a parliamentary system, these factions might each have a separate party, but in the American electoral system they coalesce into two opposing poles. The factional disputes take place during primaries and party operations. The strength of the two parties is all the more obvious when examining the party breakdown of the US Congress:

2004 Presidential Election November 2nd, 2004	Total Votes 122,293,332 (100%) 538 EV
George W. Bush (Rep) 62,040,610 (50.73%) 286 EV	Michael Badnarik (Libtn) 397,265 (0.32%)
John Kerry (Dem) 59,028,111 (48.27%) 251 EV	Michael Peroutka (Const) 144,498 (0.12%)
John Edwards (Dem) 0 (0.0%) 1 EV	David Cobb (Grn) 119,859 (0.10%)
Ralph Nader (Ind) 463,653 (0.38%)	Candidates < 100,000 99,336 (0.08%)

The Republican Party (also known as the GOP) is the mainstream right/classical liberal party in America. The Republicans are the most powerful party in America after their 2000 and 2002 victories. As a classical liberal party it is generally distrustful of an imposing welfare state despite largely accepting its existence in some form. It has business supporters, conservative religious elements, and a plethora of libertarian and anti-government groups. The platform urges relatively free markets, pro-life and pro-Second Amendment positions with liberalist and realist foreign policy advocates. It is affiliated with the International Democrat Union.

The Democratic Party is the mainstream left-liberal party in America. The Democrats are the second most powerful party in America since the Republican electoral victories in 2000 (Presidential) and 2002 (Congressional). It contains a strong left-liberal tradition and support for welfare and economic intervention policies, but ranges to strong unionist (agrarian) tendencies, corporate supporters, Hollywood elites, urban communalists, pseudo-anarchist groups and socialist elements. As found in the platform, it is pro-welfare state, pro-choice, pro-gun control, with some liberalist and many socialist foreign policy advocates. It is not affiliated with an international partisan organization.

The Libertarian Party is a north-libertarian party. The Libertarians are (somewhat arguably) the third most powerful party in America since they control more offices at the state and local levels than all other 'third' parties combined. It is dwarfed by the Republicans and Democrats, however. It is small and divided over certain issues, but gives major criticism in America to drug prohibition, taxation, welfare, business regulation and foreign/defense policy. The platform is for extremely free markets, pro-choice but against funding abortion, and pro-Second Amendment, with a few liberalists and realists and mostly libertarian-isolationist foreign policy advocates. It is not affiliated with an international partisan organization.

The Green Party is a left-socialist party. The Green Party of the US is (arguably) the third most powerful party in America, as the Green candidate Ralph Nader achieved third place in the 2000 Presidential election. It is very small and holds very few offices at any level. Extremely disorganized and split into disparate groups, the Greens in America are largely ineffective at policy but provide a protest voice to disaffected leftists. They range through the full spectrum of the left: Communists, anarchists, socialists, hippies, left-liberals, hard-left Democrats, and of course a strong pull with environmentalists. The main contingent is college and graduate students with more or less socialist or anarchist orientation. Decidedly pro-welfare state, pro-choice and pro-gun control, with socialist and other fair trade foreign policy advocates. It is affiliated with the Global Green Network.

The Constitution Party is a quite small far-right, populist-leaning party. Generally appealing to all manner of independent conservatives and far-rightists, the Constitution Party prides itself on adherence to American right-wing principles. The platform is very populist with regard to free trade and job migration but wants to see a dramatic reduction of government, is extremely pro-life, and pro-Second Amendment with realist and isolationist foreign policy advocates. It is not affiliated with an international partisan organization.