Profile: The Republican Party

The Republican Party - also known as the Grand Old Party or GOP - was founded in the 1850s, drawing in members of the northern Democrats and others opposed to the expansion of slavery into the new western territories of the US.

Eisenhower ended American "isolationism" during his two terms

The slavery issue shattered America's established political landscape and catapulted the Republicans from almost nowhere straight to the White House when Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860.

Victory for the North and the Republicans in the civil war cemented the power of the party and also solidified the new political landscape in which the still resentful South became solidly Democratic.

Initially radical and supportive of voting and civil rights for blacks, the Republicans were slowly forced to moderate their position to maintain their electoral dominance enabling Republican candidates to win five out of seven presidential elections between 1868 and 1892.

By the late 1880s the rise of industry and corporations transformed America and Republicanism was transformed with it, as industrial and business interests began to dominate the party.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it Abraham Lincoln Republican president 1861-65

The party also became associated with Protestantism and groups who felt threatened by the new waves of immigration, from Ireland, Italy and then later from Eastern Europe.

In 1912 the rise of the Progressive Party, led by former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, split the Republican vote.

The party was sent crashing into third place in terms of electoral college votes, helping Woodrow Wilson regain the White House for the Democrats.

As Progressivism's fire dimmed the Republicans reunited along a pro-business line, leading to a renewed hold on the White House from 1920 until 1932.

The shock of the Great Depression and the failure of President Hoover to come to terms with the problems it brought opened the way for the Democratic "New Deal" under Franklin D Roosevelt.

Prior to World War II isolationism tended to dominate the Republican view of America's role in the world.

But in the post-war landscape anti-communism took an increasingly prominent role and the selection of the moderate and popular General Eisenhower led to an eight-year hold on the White House from 1952-1960.

Conservatism ascendant

Through the 1960s the emergent conservative wing, first witnessed in Barry Goldwater's 1964 candidacy, began to push out liberal Republicans.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) Ulysses S Grant (1869-1877) Rutherford Hayes (1877-1881) James Garfield (1881) Chester A Arthur (1881-1885) Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) William McKinley (1897-1901) Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) William H Taft (1909-1913) Warren G Harding (1921-1923) Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) Richard Nixon (1969-1974) Gerald R Ford (1974-1977) Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) George H W Bush (1989-1993) George W Bush (2001-present)

Richard Nixon came to power in 1968 after appealing to what he called the silent conservative majority of America, concerned about issues such as the rise of radicalism, law and order, and also implicitly, of race.

From 1968 to 1992, the Republicans held the presidency with one short period from 1976-1980 when Jimmy Carter won the White House following the Watergate scandal.

As the South moved away from the Democrats and the north-eastern liberal wing of the party faded, Republicanism became more ideologically coherent.

The conservative tide found its fullest expression in the Reagan presidency between 1980 and 1988.

His populist programme of reduced government, tax cuts, increased defence spending and anti-communism, inflicted on the Democrats some of the heaviest defeats in their history.

Republicans had high hopes for his successor, George Bush, but in spite of his record on foreign policy, the Bush presidency proved a disappointment to many conservatives.

'Contract with America'

Campaigning on Mr Bush's failure to address domestic problems, Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992, giving the Democrats control of the House, Senate and the White House for the first time in 12 years.

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first Ronald Reagan Republican president 1981-89

But despite unified control, the Democrats proved unable to pass substantial legislation, noticeably on healthcare, and a newly resurgent conservatism led by House Republican leader Newt Gingrich recaptured control of Congress in 1994 under the banner of the radical "Contract with America".

The anti-government populism of the Contract proved hard to put into practice, allowing President Clinton to exploit public fears that the Republican Congress was going too far and helping him defeat Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election.

As a result of these trends, Republicans split into a number of different wings of the party - anti-government populists, pro-business internationalists, isolationists, supply side economy supporters and moralists.

But then a new, more moderate brand of Republicanism emerged, in particular around Texas Governor George W Bush, son of the first President Bush.

It was on the younger Bush and his "compassionate conservatism" that Republicans pinned their hopes for an election victory in 2000.

Although he lost the popular vote, a Supreme Court decision eventually handed him victory over Vice-President Al Gore by ordering a halt to over a month of recounts of ballots in Florida, where the Democrat was disputing an extremely close and controversial result. In spite of this limited mandate, the GOP controlled both the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952.

Despite running as a centrist and pledging bipartisanship in the wake of the election fiasco, his first acts as president betrayed the influence of the right-wing of the party. He appointed a largely conservative cabinet and his administration became the most overtly religious in living memory.

In contrast to the internationalism of his father, George W Bush withdrew US support for the Kyoto treaty on global warming and declared his opposition to the International Criminal Court. Tax cuts became the central plank of his domestic policy.

The 'war on terror'

The 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington transformed the Bush presidency. What had previously been an administration openly hostile to foreign entanglements was given a new focus following his declaration of a "war on terrorism".

George W Bush is hoping for a second term

As a result, President Bush enjoyed the highest approval ratings in history, and sustained them for well over a year.

The blank cheque Congress handed President Bush after 11 September and the policy vacuum in the national security establishment gave radical Republicans advocating a more assertive US foreign policy - dubbed "neoconservatives" - unprecedented influence in the White House.

The party of Newt Gingrich's anti-government revolution was now backing vastly increased military spending, despite growing fiscal deficits, and the biggest expansion of the federal bureaucracy since World War II with the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security.

By the November 2002 mid-term elections, Republican strategists were able to use President Bush's popularity and his robust response to 11 September to cement the GOP's position as the party of patriotism and national security.

As a result, the party scored a remarkable victory. For the first time since 1934, the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a mid-term election. The Republicans won back control of the Senate, giving them a position of dominance in Washington not seen since the Eisenhower era.

Iraq turning point

The president used this new mandate to push through his decision to go to war in Iraq. Initial success in Iraq allowed the Republicans to keep their hold on Congress and the White House in 2004, with President Bush stressing that only he and the Republicans could successfully prosecute the war in the Gulf and keep America safe from terrorism.

By 2006 however, the continuing presence of US troops in Iraq was proving unpopular. American casualties mounted, and the Republicans were routed in the November mid-term elections, losing control of both houses of Congress to a newly-resurgent and increasingly anti-war Democratic Party.

Even conservatives within the Republican Party began to question the president's record in Iraq, and to express disquiet at the succession of Republican corruption scandals in the run-up to the elections.

The Republicans are now facing a divisive presidential campaign, with no consensus about the way forward in Iraq or for the party itself.