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The Idea of ​​the Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840 (Jefferson Memorial Lecture Series)

This paper traces the historical processes of thought which American political leaders slowly edged their complete philosophical rejection of the party and hesitantly began to embrace the party system. According to the author, “the emergence of a legitimate opposition party and political theory, which he accepted was something new in the history of the world, it requires a bold new act of understanding by his contemporaries, and it still requires study on our part.” Professor Hofstadter’s analysis of party ideas and development of legitimate opposition offers fresh look at the political crisis of 1797-1801, according to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Martin Van Buren, and other leading figures, as at the beginning of modern democratic politics.

The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840 (Jefferson Memorial Lecture Series)