The Democratic Party of the United States was founded in 1812 as a breakaway party from the Democratic-Republican Party. Through the Democratic-Republican Party the Democratic Party can trace its ancestry back to 1792 when it was founded by influential anti-federalist figures such as Thomas Jefferson and James Maddison.

Having vanquished its rival Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party split after the War of 1812, with the Democratic Party having the ascendancy. For the next few decades its main rival was the Whig Party who, after splintering over slavery, were replaced as the Democratic Party’s main rival in the 1850s by the emergent Republican Party, who were to be in power through the Civil War and the Reconstruction. Since then American politics has been the story of the fierce rivalry between these two parties.

During the 20th Century Democratic presidents presided over the First World War (Woodrow Wilson), the Second World War (F.D. Roosevelt & Harry S. Truman), and the start of the Cold War (Truman). They also produced two of the most iconic and popular American Presidents in John F. Kennedy in the 60s and Bill Clinton in the 90s.

The ideology of the Democratic Party is typically to the left of the Republican Party, being more liberal than its opponent. It attempts to project a pro-working class image and was active in promoting Civil Rights in the 1960s, despite opposition from its own southern party members. This stance has tended to translate to a voter-base amongst the poor, the trade-unionists, and the religious and ethnic minorities. It has come under fire from conservatives for a variety of reasons over the years such as over-regulation of business and increases in welfare spending.

From the 1970s, environmental concerns have given the party a new dimension to their interests. This concern is only likely to increase over the next few decades as the consequences of climate change begin to have increasingly profound effects both in the US and the rest of the world.

In the present day, Americans see the Democratic Party as the liberal option and the Republican Party as the conservative option. To foreign eyes the two parties look very similar, more like the two wings of a single center-right party. US politics, rather than being seen as a two-party system in the greatest democracy on Earth’ is seen more as a one-party state with no prospect of minority parties, who represent genuine political alternatives, such as the Green Party and the Socialist Party having any chance of success for the foreseeable future.