The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson’s and James Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828, making it the world’s oldest active party.[9]
The Democrats’ once dominant worldview was classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, populism was a leading character. In the 1890s, under the influence of its three-time defeated presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, the party moved to the left from an economic point of view and, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, it has promoted a social-liberal platform,[4] supporting social justice and a mixed economy.[10]
Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business and southern conservative-populist anti-business wings. The New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities.[11][12][13] After FDR’s New Deal, the business wing withered and, between the 1960s and the 1990s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists,[14] with a smaller minority of conservative Democrats.
The party’s philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state.[15] It pursues a mixed economy by providing government intervention and regulation in the economy.[16] These interventions, such as the introduction of social programs, support for labor unions, moves toward universal health care and equal opportunity, consumer protection, and environmental protection form the core of the party’s economic policy.[15][17]
There have been 15 Democratic presidents: the first was Andrew Jackson, who served from 1829 to 1837. The most recent is the current one, Barack Obama, who has been in office since 2009.
In the 114th Congress, following the 2014 elections, Democrats hold a minority of seats in the House of Representatives as well as in the Senate. The party also holds 18 governorships and control of a minority of state legislatures.
