Do political parties still have a role to play in American elections?

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 65%, University of Reading (Department of Politics), course: American Government and Politics, language: English, abstract: “The spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with illfounded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; forments occasional riot and insurrection.” George Washington, Farewell Address to the People of the United States, September 19, 1796.1 Although George Washington’s speech clearly resembles the political view of political parties in the late 18th century, it was during his administration when the first party organizations developed. Thus, “American political parties are among the oldest continuously established party organizations in the world.”2 Since they exist for more than two hundred years, the following essay is going to analyze if and which social and political changes have occurred that influenced the parties impact on selecting the presidential candidate. Do parties still have a role to play in American elections? I will at first briefly describe how American citizens elect their president. Secondly, in order to simplify the analysis, I refer to four distinct periods of party organization.3