DEMOCRATIC PARTY

liberal political party in the Republic of South Africa that was established in 1989 by the merger of the Progressive Federal Party (q.v.) with two smaller liberal parties, the National Democratic Movement and the Independent Party. The Democratic Party supported full voting and other civil rights for South Africa's black majority and constitutional changes toward that end. in the United States, one of the two major political parties. The Democratic Party has historically represented organized labour, minorities, and progressive reformers. The party's traditional symbol is the donkey, and its theme song, since the 1930s, has been Happy Days Are Here Again. The party can be traced to 1792, when a national group of voters began supporting Thomas Jefferson with the name Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, to emphasize antimonarchical sentiments. The party, or faction, was known by various designations until, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson in the 1830s, it adopted its present name. Jefferson had established the party on the principle of popular government, but its early presidentsJefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adamswere aristocrats by birth, breeding, and education. Not until 1829 did a so-called man of the peopleJacksonbecome president. Between 1837, when Jackson retired, and 1860, four Democratic presidentsMartin Van Buren, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchananwere elected. The Democrats won every presidential election except those of 1840 and 1848. But during the 1840s and '50s the party began to undergo serious internal strains over the issue of slavery and its extension to the Western territories. Southern Democrats, led by Jefferson Davis, insisted on the protection of slavery in all the territories, while Northern Democrats, led by Stephen A. Douglas, advocated the doctrine of popular sovereignty, under which the settlers in a territory could vote to ban slavery from their midst. The party split over the slavery issue in 1860 at its presidential convention in Charleston, S.C. The Northern Democrats nominated Douglas as their presidential candidate, and the Southern Democrats adopted a proslavery stance and nominated John C. Breckinridge as their presidential candidate. This North-South split proved disastrous to the Democrats; the newly formed, antislavery Republican Party won its first national victory under Abraham Lincoln in 1860, receiving a majority of votes in the electoral college because of the split. From 1860 to 1900 the Democratic Party held the presidency for only eight years, during the two terms of Grover Cleveland (188589, 189397). In the postwar decades white Southerners associated the Republican Party both with the prosecution of the Civil War and with Radical Reconstruction; these voters subsequently remained firmly Democratic until the mid-20th century. The Democratic Party at this time was basically conservative and agrarian-oriented; its members were opposed to big business and protective tariffs and in favour of cheap-money policies. In 1896 the party once more split disastrously over the free-silver and Populist program of its presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, who lost that year's election. Through their support of economic radicalism under Bryan's leadership, the Democrats once again after 1896 became a minority party. But the need for government to regulate America's increasingly industrialized and corporatized economy resulted in the early 20th century in the party's gradual renascence. The Democrats returned to power in 1912 with Woodrow Wilson, mainly because the Republican vote was divided between William Howard Taft and the Progressive Party candidate, Theodore Roosevelt. Under the slogan of the New Freedom, Wilson obtained legislation for a broader federal regulation of banking and industry, among other reforms. Wilson was reelected in 1916, but his idealistic stance ultimately proved less attractive to the public than the Republicans' frank embrace of big business amid the spectacular prosperity of the 1920s. The Democrats lost the presidential elections of 1920, 1924, and 1928. The Great Depression and the Republicans' evident inability or unwillingness to take governmental action against its grievous consequences swept the Democratic Party back into power in 1932 under the candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt's vigorous New Deal policies and his inspired political skills brought small farmers into coalition with other groups that were to become firmly DemocraticNorthern urban voting blocs, organized labour, blacks and other minorities, liberals, intellectuals, and reformers. This coalition enabled the Democratic Party to retain the presidency until 1952, turned it into the majority party in the country, and gave it control of at least one and usually both houses of Congress throughout most of the rest of the 20th century. Roosevelt was reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944 and upon his death was succeeded by Harry S. Truman, who was narrowly elected in 1948. The Democrats lost the presidency in 1952 but regained it with John F. Kennedy's election in 1960. The party's role in championing civil-rights and desegregation legislation under Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, lost it the traditional allegiance of many of its former Southern supporters. Johnson was elected president by a landslide in 1964. But widespread popular support for Johnson's liberal Great Society legislative program was largely negated by bitter opposition to American participation in the Vietnam War, and the divided Democrats lost the 1968 presidential election to the Republicans. The Democrats recovered the presidency for one term under Jimmy Carter (197781). But Carter was defeated for reelection by the conservative Republican Ronald W. Reagan, who was succeeded in 1988 by Republican George Bush. The Democrats continued control of Congress, however, except briefly in the Senate (198187). They regained the presidency in 1992 with the election of Bill Clinton but lost control of both the House and Senate in 1994. Clinton's support of international trade agreementswhich generally were opposed by organized labourand his efforts to restrain the growth of government spending on social programs signaled a shift toward a more conservative, business-oriented philosophy within the party. He was reelected in 1996.