The Republican Party is also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP). The present Republic Party was formed in 1854. Its early success was built upon a successful coalition among 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 effort 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 adopting 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’ electronis and high-technology companies became concentrated.