After The War, The U.s. Democratic And Republican Differences And Consensus

This paper works on the consensus and difference in ideology and policy including the national and international poIicies between the Democratic and Republ ican of postwar America. Firstly, in the area of ideology, the two parties respectively delegated the Neo-liberal ism and the Neo-conservatism. The basic difference between them resulted from a different understanding of I iberty and equal ity of western value system and the natural ly deep contradiction in western democracy. The Democratic party emphasized much more equality than the Republican party, which included the equality of politics and law and the actual equality, so the Democratic party proposed to enlarge the government power and build welfare state to help the weak masses, moreover, it still took a liberal attitude to some questions such as civil right, social culture and I ife sty I e and traditional ethics and international affairs. However, the Republican party paid more attention to individual I iberty and accepted the unequal rationality, consequently it was against the government to interfere in economy, and it was for limiting welfare state what's more, it took a conservative attitude to most'of nationaI and international affairs. Ideological consensus between the two parties was based on a general agreement on most basic democratic value of the united states such as the capital ist, economic institution and democratic government, and democratic procedural regulatory and so on. Secondly, in the area of the national policy, this paper principal ly studies the social economic and welfare pol icy and civil r i ght poIi cy, espec i a I I y rac i a I and sexuaI equaIi ty poIi cy, and other public policies. The difference in the social economic and welfare policy between the two parties can be seen as follows: The postwar Democratic party be I ieved in the keynes i an i sm, so it executed inflationary economic and welfare policy. Because the economic situation of postwar America changed constantly, the macro economic regulation policy of the Democratic party in power inherited the traditional keynesian ism and developed it further. By the 1970s, the inflationary economic and welfare policy of the Democratic party f inal ly resulted in an economic stagflation crisis. In the whole 1970s, the economic policies of two parties swung to and fro until the Republican Reagan came into power. Reagan, who delegated the Republ ican party, and be I ieved in the conservatism economy, advocateddiminishing the interference of state to ska let ion size and executed shrunken economic and welfare policy. The consensus, exactly policy convergence in the economic and welfare pol icy between the two parties showed stage feature. At the first stage from the middle of 1940S to the end of 1970s, the convergence of the two parties was direct from the r ight to the left, that is, the cause of the consensus of two parties was that the RepubIi can foI I owed the ma i n poIi c i es of the Democratic , the second stage which is from 1970s to the present was reversed. As for the ci vi I r ight, including the pol icies of the racia I and sexual equality and other public policies, the differences were more than consensus between the two parties. Thirdly, in the area of the foreign policy, the differences between the postwar two parties i nc I uded the d i v i s i on of the theoret i ca I bas i s and the emphas i s of the aim and the extent of the interference of international affairs and the knowledge of the international organization and institution of the foreign policies of the two parties, however, the consensus in the fore i gn po I i cy wh i ch was based on the common nat i ona I i nterest was much more than the division. Finally, the latter of the paper studies the reason of the difference and consensus, and simply values "difference and consensus " politic.