Title: Democratic Party | History, Definition, & Beliefs | Britannica
Headings: Democratic Party
Democratic Party
political party, United States
What does the Democratic Party believe in?
Why is the Democratic Party associated with the colour blue?
How is the Democratic Party different from the Republican Party?
Who are prominent Democrats?
History
Slavery and the emergence of the bipartisan system
A difficult transition to progressivism
Hear William Jennings Bryan deliver his “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention
The New Deal coalition
The civil rights era
From Watergate to a new millennium

Content: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
History
The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the United States and among the oldest political parties in the world. It traces its roots to 1792, when followers of Thomas Jefferson adopted the name Republican to emphasize their anti-monarchical views. The Republican Party, also known as the Jeffersonian Republicans, advocated a decentralized government with limited powers. Another faction to emerge in the early years of the republic, the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, favoured a strong central government. Jefferson’s faction developed from the group of Anti-Federalists who had agitated in favour of the addition of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States. The Federalists called Jefferson’s faction the Democratic-Republican Party in an attempt to identify it with the disorder spawned by the “radical democrats” of the French Revolution of 1789. After the Federalist John Adams was elected president in 1796, the Republican Party served as the country’s first opposition party, and in 1798 the Republicans adopted the derisive Democratic-Republican label as their official name. In 1800 Adams was defeated by Jefferson, whose victory ushered in a period of prolonged Democratic-Republican dominance. Jefferson won reelection easily in 1804, and Democratic-Republicans James Madison ( 1808 and 1812) and James Monroe ( 1816 and 1820) were also subsequently elected. By 1820 the Federalist Party had faded from national politics, leaving the Democratic-Republicans as the country’s sole major party and allowing Monroe to run unopposed in that year’s presidential election.