United States

=== Political parties ===
{{main|Political parties in the United States|Political party strength in U.S. states|List of political parties in the United States}}
[[File:US state Legislature and Governor Control.svg|thumb|U.S. [[State governments of the United States|state governments]] (governor and legislature) by party control:
{{legend|#33f|[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] control}}
{{legend|#f33|[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] control}}
{{legend|#829|Split control}}]]

The Constitution is silent on political parties. However, they developed independently in the 18th century with the [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] and [[Anti-Federalist Party|Anti-Federalist]] parties.<ref name="Hofstadter-1969-iv">{{cite book |last1=Hofstadter |first1=Richard |title=The Idea of a Party System : The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840 |date=1969 |publisher=University of California Press |page=iv |isbn=9780520013896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wG5rCKm8SmAC&q=%E2%80%9Cdid+not+believe+in+parties+as+such,+scorned+those+that+they+were+conscious+of+as+historical+models%22 |access-date=5 October 2022}}</ref> Since then, the United States has operated as a de facto [[two-party system]], though the parties in that system have been different at different times.

The two main national parties are presently the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] and the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]. The former is perceived as [[Liberalism in the United States|relatively liberal]] in its political platform while the latter is perceived as [[Conservatism in the United States|relatively conservative]].<ref>[[Matthew Levendusky]], ''The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans'' (U Chicago Press, 2009)</ref> Each has a [[United States presidential primary|primary system]] to nominate a [[Ticket (election)|presidential ticket]], and each runs candidates for other offices in every state in the Union. [[Third party (U.S. politics)|Other smaller and less influential parties exist]] but do not have the national scope and breadth of the two main parties.