Republican Party Research Paper

Political parties are made up of coalitions of people and organizations. Over the years, the Republican Party, the more conservative party, has become aligned with businesses and business interests, while the Democratic Party, the more liberal party, has aligned with the labor unions and minorities and women. In turn, these alignments have shaped the positions of the parties on major public policy issues facing America.

Republicans, because of their alignment with business interests, favor supply-side economics: the idea that cutting taxes and regulations will lead to businesses expanding, hiring more workers, and thus improving the economy. Democrats, because of their alignment with workers and minorities, believe in demand-side economics:

The Republicans usually favor limits on regulation when it comes to issues that affect businesses while Democrats usually favor stronger regulations on matters that affect clean air and climate issues and on monopolistic industries. In the past, members of both parties favored setting strong clean air standards through the EPA, created by a Republican administration, but today, partly due to increased polarization of the parties and a cost-benefit analysis that shows the costs of those standards are concentrated while the benefits are diffuse, the Republicans are more likely to favor less regulation than the Democrats on the

Democrats, on the other hand, have placed abortion rights in their party platforms and generally have approved same-sex marriages.

These religious issues have helped remake party coalitions. Women and LGBT communities have increasingly voted Democratic in recent years, along with secularists and liberal mainline Protestant religious communities. Evangelicals and church members who regularly attend services have aligned with the Republicans. To retain these members, the parties have regularly taken positions to favor their constituents on these issues.

These, and civil rights issues, have also tended to alter the regional makeup of the parties. Evangelical religions are based most strongly in the South, which switched from the Democratic Party to Republican majorities following the civil rights era. The South is now a Republican stronghold, whereas before it was a Democratic stronghold. Likewise, the Democrats now have a stronger base in the inner cities and coastal areas than Republicans due to shifts in