Abstract: BEFORE we can determine why the two-party system persists in the United States, or even that we have a two-party system, we must first establish what a political party is. This is not difficult if we take into account only what avowed party members do, but it becomes a wordy and profitless exercise if we try to reconcile the views of those who classify party activities according to their own purposes. Thus to a statesman trying to develop a new national unity, parties and factions and cabals are one and the same. Lord Belhaven, appealing in 1706 to the Parliament of Scotland to reject union with England and pointing to the evils of English polity, said that "factions have now become independent, and have got footing in councils, in Parliaments, in treaties, in armies, in corporations, in families, among kindred; yea, man and wife are not free from their political jars." President Washington, in his farewell address, warned against the "baneful effects of the spirit of party." Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler, who achieved national solidarity through violence, destroyed political parties through violence. To the founding patriot and to the dictator a party is any group opposed to him. Legislatures in republican states define parties quantitatively. If a body of citizens wishes to nominate candidates