Fourth Party System facts for kids
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United States presidential election results between 1896 and 1928. Blue shaded states usually voted for the Democratic Party, while red shaded states usually voted for the Republican Party.
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The Fourth Party System is a name historians and political scientists use for a special time in American politics. This period lasted from about 1896 to 1932. During these years, the Republican Party was usually in charge. The only exception was when Democrats won the White House in 1912 and held it for eight years.
Many history books call this same time the Progressive Era. It was a time when people wanted to make big changes to society. This period started after a tough economic time called the severe depression of 1893. It also began with a very important election in 1896.
The Fourth Party System included major events like the Progressive Era itself, World War I, and the start of the Great Depression. The Great Depression changed American politics a lot. It led to a new political era called the Fifth Party System. In this new system, the Democratic Party and its New Deal Coalition became very powerful.
People during this time cared about many things. They wanted the government to control big businesses and railroads. They also debated about money, like whether to use gold or silver. Other issues included taxes on imported goods (tariffs), the rights of workers, and stopping child labor. People also wanted a better banking system and less corruption in politics. They pushed for new ways to vote, like primary elections, and for people to directly elect senators. The first federal income tax was introduced. There were also important discussions about racial segregation, making government work better, and giving women the right to vote.
In foreign policy, the US was involved in the Spanish–American War in 1898. They also thought about Imperialism, the Mexican Revolution, and World War I. After WWI, there was a big idea to create the League of Nations for world peace. Important leaders of this time included presidents William McKinley (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt (Republican), and Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). Other key figures were William Jennings Bryan (a Democrat who ran for president three times) and Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (a progressive Republican from Wisconsin).
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How the Fourth Party System Began
This political period started with big changes in 1894–1896. The Republican Party won the 1896 election against William Jennings Bryan and his Democratic Party. This first win was close. But when Republicans won again in 1900 by an even larger amount, businesses felt more confident. This led to a long time of economic growth. Many of the old political issues and leaders from the previous era disappeared.
Most groups of voters stayed the same. But some changes happened. Republicans became very strong in the industrial Northeast. They also gained new support in states that bordered the North and South. This made it easier for the Progressive Movement to bring new ideas and goals to politics.
During this time, a new generation of leaders came forward. The older leaders, who had fought in the Civil War, were retiring. Younger people took their place. These new leaders cared more about social justice and fixing the unfairness caused by big industrial businesses.
The Democratic Party had been less powerful in national politics after the Civil War. But they started to become strong again during this time. This was partly because new groups of immigrants began to vote. Woodrow Wilson becoming president was a big moment for Democrats. He was part of a new generation of Democrats who were not connected to the issues of slavery and the Civil War. Meanwhile, the Republican Party briefly supported progressive ideas under Theodore Roosevelt. But they soon went back to being the party that supported big business and less government involvement in the economy.
Tariffs and Their Impact
Tariffs are taxes on goods imported from other countries. Republicans believed high tariffs helped American businesses sell more. They also thought tariffs would lead to higher wages for factory workers and better prices for farmers' crops. This idea helped keep the Republican Party united.
However, some progressive politicians disagreed. They said tariffs helped big companies create monopolies. Democrats argued that tariffs were a tax on everyday people. Tariffs were most popular in the Northeast. They were most opposed in the South and West. The Midwest was where the debate was strongest.
A big fight over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 caused problems within the Republican Party. This fight helped lead to changes that favored the Democrats.
Progressive Reforms for a Better Society
Progressives were worried about how political campaigns were funded. They thought there were too many secret deals between party leaders and businesses. Journalists, called "muckrakers," investigated and exposed these corrupt connections.
New laws and changes to the Constitution were made to weaken the power of party leaders. These changes included primary elections, where voters directly choose candidates. They also allowed people to directly elect senators, instead of state legislatures choosing them.
Theodore Roosevelt also worried about how much influence businesses had on the government. When William Howard Taft seemed too friendly with pro-business politicians, Roosevelt broke away from his old friend and party. He ran for president in 1912 as the leader of the "Bull Moose" Progressive Party. This split among Republicans helped Woodrow Wilson win the election in 1912. It also left pro-business conservatives in charge of the Republican Party. Later, the Republican Party elected Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In 1928, Herbert Hoover became the last president of the Fourth Party System.
Many Progressives, especially in the Democratic Party, supported labor unions. Unions later became very important to the Democratic Party during the Fifth Party System.
The Great Depression began in 1929. This economic crisis ended the nation's hopeful mood and ruined the Republican Party's chances. In 1928, Al Smith started a shift in voters. He built a new group of supporters among ethnic groups and in big cities. This change marked the end of the Fourth Party System's politics. It helped bring in the Fifth Party System with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition.
One political expert explained it this way: "The election of 1896 started the Fourth Party System... but not until 1928, with Al Smith, did Democrats gain support from urban, blue-collar, and Catholic voters. These groups later became key parts of the New Deal coalition." In 1932, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won by a huge amount. This led to the New Deal coalition which was very powerful during the Fifth Party System after 1932.
Women's Fight for the Vote
From 1880 to 1920, women worked hard to define their role in politics. Women who supported a specific party often formed groups that helped the Republican and Democratic parties. When Roosevelt created the Progressive Party in 1912, it gave women a chance for more equality. A Progressive Party leader, Jane Addams, openly supported women's involvement in politics.
The Democrats, led by Woodrow Wilson, avoided the demands for women's right to vote. They said states should decide the issue. This was because Southern states strongly opposed women's suffrage. After New York Democrats supported suffrage, Wilson changed his mind. He then supported a national constitutional amendment. This amendment finally passed in 1920, with support from Tennessee.
Women's strong efforts to help the country during World War I energized supporters of women's suffrage. It also weakened those who opposed it. After the Progressive Party lost in 1912, women who supported parties continued to form helper groups in the main parties. After 1920, being included and having power in political parties remained important issues for women.
Former suffragists joined the League of Women Voters. They focused on making politics cleaner, supporting world peace, and helping local schools and public health. In the early 1920s, both major parties recognized women's interests. They also appointed a few women to visible government jobs. Congress passed a big welfare program that women wanted, called the Sheppard–Towner Act of 1921. By 1928, male politicians realized that women were less tied to one party than men. But women's opinions on political issues were similar to men's, except for peace and prohibition. Over the long term (1870–1940), women getting the right to vote at the state and national levels was linked to states spending more money and federal representatives voting more liberally.
Prohibition and Its Impact
In many parts of the country, prohibition was a very important part of progressive politics before World War I. Prohibition meant making alcoholic drinks illegal. This issue had strong religious and ethnic connections. Most Pietistic Protestants, like Methodists, Congregationalists, Disciples, Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Scandinavian Lutherans, were "dries." They supported prohibition as a way to solve social problems.
On the "wet" side, groups like Episcopalians, Irish Catholics, German Lutherans, and German Catholics opposed prohibition. They saw it as a threat to their social customs and personal freedom. People who supported prohibition also wanted direct democracy. This would allow voters to make laws without the state legislature.
In the North, the Republican Party supported the prohibitionists. The Democratic Party represented the interests of ethnic groups who opposed it. In the South, Baptist and Methodist churches played a big role in making the Democratic Party support prohibition. After 1914, the issue changed. Germans opposed Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy. However, in the 1920s, a sudden rise in big city crime linked to illegal alcohol sales (bootlegging) hurt support for prohibition. The Democrats then took up the cause to repeal prohibition. They finally succeeded in 1932.
America's Role in the World
The Spanish–American War in 1898 led to the end of the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The Treaty of Paris in 1898 gave the US control over former Spanish colonies. Whether the US should permanently own the Philippines was a big issue in the 1900 presidential election. William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat, strongly supported the war against Spain. But he spoke out against keeping the Philippines. Republicans, especially Vice-Presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt, strongly defended keeping the Philippines.
President Roosevelt later proudly talked about his success in gaining control of the Panama Canal in 1903. Democrats criticized this action. But their attempt to apologize to Colombia for how it happened failed.
The United States also became a major player on the world stage in the last years of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson tried to help negotiate peace in Europe. But when Germany started using unrestricted submarine warfare against American ships in early 1917, he asked Congress to declare war.
Wilson focused on diplomacy and money matters. At home, he started the first effective draft in 1917. He raised billions of dollars through Liberty loans. He also put an income tax on wealthy people. He set up the War Industries Board to manage wartime production. He encouraged labor unions to grow. He oversaw farming and food production through the Food and Fuel Control Act. He took control of the railroads. He also stopped left-wing groups that were against the war. Like European countries, the United States tried out a war economy.
In 1918, Wilson suggested several international reforms in his Fourteen Points. These included open diplomacy, freedom for ships to travel anywhere, equal trade conditions, fair handling of all colonial claims, and the creation of a Polish state. Most importantly, he wanted to create an association of nations. This would become the League of Nations. The League became very controversial for Wilson. Republicans refused to compromise on it. Voters in 1920 showed little support for the League, and the U.S. never joined it.
Peace was a major political topic in the 1920s, especially since women could now vote. Under the Harding administration, the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 led to a significant reduction in naval weapons for ten years.
The Roaring Twenties were a time of economic growth. On the international scene, a big problem was the money Germany owed to France and Great Britain after World War I. The US helped mediate this conflict. They did this first with the Dawes Plan in 1924 and then with the Young Plan in 1929.
