Republican president. The Republican Party is generally recognized as the
more conservative of the two main American parties, though this is a difficult
judgement to make, and ignores the areas,civil rightsfor example, in which
parts of the Democratic Party have often been to the right of most Repub-
licans. It was not really until the latter third of the 19th century that this case
could seriously be made. As the Democrats became the party of the cities, of
the immigrants and the industrial working class, the Republicans became the
party of the big corporations and of the rural e ́lite. It was quite common to find
a state, Illinois was a good example, where large cities like Chicago were
entirely Democratic, and all the small towns and rural areas were entirely
Republican. It was Republican support for the emerging huge economic
conglomerates, called ‘Trusts’, the pioneers of the rail-roads or steel produc-
tion, for example, which finally gave the Republicans this image of supporting
‘corporate America’, but it has never been a simple middle and upper class/
Republican versus working class/Democrat split, in parallel to much of
Europe. Indeed, the Progressive era, lasting roughly from 1890–20, was partly
Republican-inspired. Not until the economic depression which led to the
Democrats’ introduction of theNew Dealin 1933 were the parties policies
very clearly distinguishable. In the post-war world the Republicans have been
identified with a more straightforward conservative programme—low taxes,
low welfare provision, concern overlaw and order, pressure forlaissez-faire
economics and a general dislike of government interference. Historically, the
Republicans tended to do well in elections at the personal, but not legislative
level, controlling few statelegislaturesand effectively being in a permanent
minority in the federal Congress, but holding the presidency for most of the
post-war period and consistently winning many state governorships. The
difference in voter behaviour appeared to be explained by the belief that
Democrats make good representatives of the people, charged with looking
after local interests, whereas Republicans are better at controlling anexecu-
tive. However, during the 1990s this pattern was broken, as the Republicans
won majorities in both houses of the federal Congress during a Democratic
presidency, and gained control of numerous state legislatures.
Responsibility
An officer of the state, whether elected or appointed, whether from the civil
service, cabinet or police, has responsibilities. These may be clear-cut and
precise, directly involving their own acts, or very diffuse and relating to a duty
to oversee or share blame with others. In the first of these senses there is clearly
no definitional problem at all. The difficulty with the political notion of
responsibility is in the latter area. Here a person may be held responsible for
something done, or not done, by someone else for whom they have ‘respon-
Responsibility