Editing Two-party system (section)

===British parties===
{{Main|Tories (British political party)|Whigs (British political party)}}
[[File:William III Landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688.jpg|thumb|Equestrian portrait of William III by [[Jan Wyck]], commemorating the landing at Brixham, Torbay, 5 November 1688]]
The two-party system, in the sense of the looser definition, where two parties dominate politics but in which third parties can elect members and gain some representation in the legislature, can be traced to the development of political parties in the [[United Kingdom]]. There was a division in [[Politics of England|English politics]] at the time of the [[English Civil War|Civil War]] and [[Glorious Revolution]] in the late 17th century.<ref>J. R. Jones, ''The First Whigs. The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis. 1678–1683'' (Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 4.</ref> The [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] supported [[Protestant]] [[constitutional monarchy]] against [[Absolute Monarchy|absolute rule]] and the [[Tory (British political party)|Tories]], originating in the [[Royalist]] (or "[[Cavalier]]") faction of the [[English Civil War]], were conservative royalist supporters of a strong monarchy as a counterbalance to the [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom|republican]] tendencies of [[Parliament]].<ref>Harris, Tim ''Restoration:Charles II and His Kingdoms 1660–1685'' Allen Lane (2005) p. 241</ref> In the following century, the Whig party's support base widened to include emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants.

The basic matters of principle that defined the struggle between the two factions, were concerning the nature of [[constitutional monarchy]], the desirability of a Catholic king, the extension of [[religious toleration]] to [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] Protestants, and other issues that had been put on the liberal agenda through the political concepts propounded by [[John Locke]],<ref>Richard Ashcraft and M. M. Goldsmith, "Locke, Revolution Principles, and the Formation of Whig Ideology", ''Historical Journal'', Dec 1983, Vol. 26 Issue 4, pp. 773–800</ref> [[Algernon Sidney]] and others.<ref>Melinda S. Zook, "The Restoration Remembered: The First Whigs and the Making of their History", ''Seventeenth Century'', Autumn 2002, Vol. 17 Issue 2, pp. 213–34</ref>

Vigorous struggle between the two factions characterised the period from the [[Glorious Revolution]] to the 1715 [[Hanoverian succession]], over the legacy of the overthrow of the [[Stuart dynasty]] and the nature of the new constitutional state. This proto two-party system fell into relative abeyance after the accession to the throne of [[George I of Great Britain|George I]] and the consequent period of [[Whig supremacy]] under [[Robert Walpole]], during which the Tories were systematically purged from high positions in government. Although the Tories were dismissed from office for 50 years, they retained a measure of party cohesion under [[Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet|William Wyndham]] and acted as a united, though unavailing, opposition to Whig corruption and scandals. At times they cooperated with the "Opposition Whigs", Whigs who were in opposition to the Whig government. The ideological gap between the Tories and the Opposition Whigs prevented them from coalescing as a single party.