unofficial English name of the Irish political party Fianna Fáil (q.v.).

French political party formed in May 1977 when the former National Foundation of Independent Republicans (Fédération Nationale des Républicains Indépendents)—founded in 1966 by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (Giscard d'Estaing, Valéry)—was merged with other small groups. It is conservative in domestic social and economic policies but internationalist in being pro-NATO and pro-European.

After Pres. Georges Pompidou's death, Giscard was elected president in May 1974 and tried to govern with a coalition of members of his own party and Gaullists, Radical-Socialists, and other centre-left groups. Eventually, personality and policy conflicts between the Gaullists and Giscardians resulted in the resignation of the Gaullist premier, Jacques Chirac (Chirac, Jacques), in 1976 and in an outright battle in the elections of 1978, in which the Republicans and their non-Gaullist allies achieved a modest victory. In a 10-candidate race for the presidency in 1981, however, Giscard lost in a runoff with the Socialist candidate, François Mitterrand.

in U.S. history, political party formed from the nucleus of the Anti-Federalists and the country's first opposition party. Formed in 1792 by supporters of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Thomas) in opposition to the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton, Alexander), the party developed into the Democratic-Republican Party (1798) and was the forerunner of the modern Democratic Party.

The term Republican was adopted in 1792 by supporters of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Thomas), who favoured a decentralized government with limited powers. Although Jefferson's political philosophy is consistent with the outlook of the modern Republican Party, his faction, which soon became known as the Democratic-Republican Party, ironically evolved by the 1830s into the Democratic Party, the modern Republican Party's chief rival.

The Republican Party traces its roots to the 1850s, when antislavery leaders (including former members of the Democratic, Whig (Whig Party), and Free-Soil (Free-Soil Party) parties) joined forces to oppose the extension of slavery into the Kansas and Nebraska territories by the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act. At meetings in Ripon, Wisconsin (May 1854), and Jackson, Michigan (July 1854), they recommended forming a new party, which was duly established at the political convention in Jackson.

At their first presidential nominating convention in 1856, the Republicans nominated John C. Frémont (Frémont, John C) on a platform that called on Congress to abolish slavery in the territories, reflecting a widely held view in the North. Although ultimately unsuccessful in his presidential bid, Frémont carried 11 Northern states and received nearly two-fifths of the electoral vote. During the first four years of its existence, the party rapidly displaced the Whigs as the main opposition to the dominant Democratic Party. In 1860 the Democrats split over the slavery issue, as the Northern and Southern wings of the party nominated different candidates (Stephen A. Douglas (Douglas, Stephen A) and John C. Breckinridge (Breckinridge, John C), respectively); the election that year also included John Bell (Bell, John), the nominee of the Constitutional Union Party. Thus, the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln, Abraham), was able to capture the presidency (presidency of the United States of America), winning 18 Northern states and receiving 60 percent of the electoral vote but only 40 percent of the popular vote. By the time of Lincoln's inauguration as president, however, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union, and the country soon descended into the American Civil War (1861–65).

The 1860 election is regarded by most political observers as the first of three “critical” elections in the United States—contests that produced sharp and enduring changes in party loyalties across the country (although some analysts consider the election of 1824 to be the first critical election). After 1860 the Democratic and Republican parties became the major parties in a largely two-party system. In federal elections from the 1870s to the 1890s, the parties were in rough balance—except in the South, which became solidly Democratic. The two parties controlled Congress for almost equal periods, though the Democrats held the presidency only during the two terms of Grover Cleveland (Cleveland, Grover) (1885–89 and 1893–97).

The prolonged agony of the Civil War weakened Lincoln's prospects for reelection in 1864. To broaden his support, he chose as his vice presidential candidate Andrew Johnson (Johnson, Andrew), a pro-Union Democratic senator from Tennessee, and the Lincoln-Johnson ticket subsequently won a landslide victory over Democrat George B. McClellan (McClellan, George B) and his running mate George Pendleton (Pendleton, George). Following Lincoln's assassination at the end of the war, Johnson favoured Lincoln's moderate program for the Reconstruction of the South over the more punitive plan backed by the Radical Republican members of Congress. Stymied for a time by Johnson's vetoes, the Radical Republicans won overwhelming control of Congress in the 1866 elections and engineered Johnson's impeachment in the House of Representatives (Representatives, House of). Although the Senate fell one vote short of convicting and removing Johnson, the Radical Republicans managed to implement their Reconstruction program, which made the party anathema across the former Confederacy. In the North the party's close identification with the Union victory secured it the allegiance of most farmers, and its support of protective tariffs and of the interests of big business eventually gained it the backing of powerful industrial and financial circles.

The Republicans were in severe turmoil at their 1964 convention, where moderates and conservatives battled for control of the party. Ultimately, the conservatives secured the nomination of Senator Barry M. Goldwater (Goldwater, Barry), who lost by a landslide to President Lyndon B. Johnson (Johnson, Lyndon B.), Kennedy's vice president and successor. By 1968 the party's moderate faction regained control and again nominated Nixon, who narrowly won the popular vote over Hubert H. Humphrey (Humphrey, Hubert H), Johnson's vice president. Many Southern Democrats abandoned the party to vote for the anti-integration candidate George C. Wallace (Wallace, George C.). Importantly, the 1964 and 1968 elections signaled the death of the Democratic “Solid South,” as both Goldwater and Nixon made significant inroads there. In 1964, 5 of the 6 states won by Goldwater were in the South; in 1968, 11 Southern states voted for Nixon and only 1 voted for Humphrey.

Although Nixon was reelected by a landslide in 1972, Republicans made few gains in congressional, state, and local elections and failed to win control of Congress. In the wake of the Watergate Scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in August 1974 and was succeeded in office by Gerald R. Ford (Ford, Gerald R.), the first appointed vice president to become president. Ford lost narrowly to moderate Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter (Carter, Jimmy) in 1976. In 1980 Ronald W. Reagan (Reagan, Ronald W.), the charismatic leader of the Republican Party's conservative wing, defeated Carter and helped the Republicans to regain control of the Senate, which they held until 1987.

Reagan introduced deep tax cuts and launched a massive buildup of U.S. military forces. His personal popularity and an economic recovery contributed to his 49-state victory over Democrat Walter F. Mondale (Mondale, Walter) in 1984. His vice president, George Bush (Bush, George), continued the Republicans' presidential success by handily defeating Democrat Michael S. Dukakis (Dukakis, Michael S.) in 1988. During Bush's term, the Cold War came to an end after communism collapsed in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. In 1991 Bush led an international coalition that drove Iraqi armies out of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War. Congress continued to be controlled by the Democrats, however, and Bush lost his bid for reelection in 1992 to another moderate Southern Democrat, Bill Clinton (Clinton, Bill). Partly because of Clinton's declining popularity in 1993–94, the Republicans won victories in the 1994 midterm elections that gave them control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1954. They promptly undertook efforts to overhaul the country's welfare system and to reduce the budget deficit, but their uncompromising and confrontational style led many voters to blame them for a budget impasse in 1995–96 that resulted in two partial government shutdowns. Clinton was reelected in 1996, though the Republicans retained control of Congress.

In 2000 Texas Governor George W. Bush (Bush, George W.), son of the former president, recaptured the presidency for the Republicans, receiving 500,000 fewer popular votes than Democrat Al Gore (Gore, Al) but narrowly winning a majority of the electoral vote (271–266) after the Supreme Court of the United States ordered a halt to the manual recounting of disputed ballots in Florida. Bush was only the second son of a president to assume the nation's highest office. The Republicans also won a majority in both chambers of Congress (though the Democrats gained effective control of the Senate in 2001 following the decision of Republican Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont to became an independent). A surge in Bush's popularity following the September 11 attacks of 2001 enabled the Republicans to recapture the Senate and to make gains in the House of Representatives in 2002. In 2004 Bush was narrowly reelected, winning both the popular and electoral vote, and the Republicans kept control of both houses of Congress. In the 2006 midterm elections, however, the Republicans fared poorly, hindered largely by the growing opposition to the Iraq War, and the Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate. In the general election of 2008 the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain (McCain, John), was defeated by Democrat Barack Obama (Obama, Barack), and the Democrats increased their majority in both houses of Congress. The following year the Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman.

Although its founders refused to recognize the right of states and territories to practice slavery, the modern Republican Party supports states' rights against the power of the federal government in most cases, and it opposes the federal regulation of traditionally state and local matters, such as policing and education. Because the party is highly decentralized (as is the Democratic Party), it encompasses a wide variety of opinion on certain issues, though it is ideologically more unified at the national level than the Democratic Party is. The Republicans advocate reduced taxes as a means of stimulating the economy and advancing individual economic freedom. They tend to oppose extensive government regulation of the economy, government-funded social programs, affirmative action, and policies aimed at strengthening the rights of workers. Many Republicans, though not all, favour increased government regulation of the private, noneconomic lives of citizens in some areas, such as abortion, though most Republicans also strongly oppose gun-control legislation. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support organized prayer in public schools and to oppose the legal recognition of equal rights for gays and lesbians (see gay rights movement). Regarding foreign policy, the Republican Party traditionally has supported a strong national defense and the aggressive pursuit of U.S. national security interests, even when it entails acting unilaterally or in opposition to the views of the international community.

Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party formulate their platforms quadrennially at national political conventions (political convention), which are held to nominate the parties' presidential candidates. The conventions take place in the summer of each presidential election year; by tradition, the incumbent party holds its convention second. The Republican National Convention typically gathers some 2,000 delegates who are selected during the winter and spring.

Until the 1970s, few nationwide rules governed the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention. After the Democratic Party adopted a system based on state primaries and caucuses, the Republicans followed suit. More than 40 states now select delegates to the Republican convention through primary elections (primary election), while several other states choose delegates through caucuses. Virtually all Republican primaries allocate delegates on a “winner-take-all” basis, so that the candidate who wins the most votes in a state is awarded all the delegates of that state. In contrast, almost all Democratic primaries allocate delegates based on the proportion of the vote each candidate receives. As a result, the Republicans tend to choose their presidential nominees more quickly than the Democrats do, often long before the summer nominating convention, leaving the convention simply to ratify the winner of the primaries.