Two-party system

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"Two-party state" redirects here. For telephone call recording laws and notification and requirements, see Telephone call recording laws § Two-party consent states.

A two-party system is a

"winner takes all" or "first past the post" election systems.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The electoral competition
is mostly limited to the two major parties.

In such systems, while chances for third-party candidates winning election to major national office are remote, it is possible for groups within the larger parties, or in opposition to one or both of them, to exert influence on the two major parties.[7][8][9][10][11][12] In contrast, in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia and in other parliamentary systems and elsewhere, the term two-party system is sometimes used to indicate an arrangement in which two major parties dominate elections but in which there are viable third parties or independents that do win some seats in the legislature, and in which the two major parties exert proportionately greater influence than their percentage of votes would suggest. Explanations for why a political system with free elections may evolve into a two-party system have been debated. A leading theory, referred to as Duverger's law, states that two parties are a natural result of a winner-take-all voting system.

Generally, a two-party system becomes a dichotomous division of the political spectrum with an ostensibly

right-wing
party: the
Labour Party versus the Nationalist Party in Malta
.

Other parties in these countries may have seen candidates elected to local or subnational office.[13]

Europe

Malta

Main article: Politics of Malta

Malta is somewhat unusual in that while the electoral system is single transferable vote (STV), traditionally associated with proportional representation, minor parties have not had much success. Politics is dominated between the centre-left Labour Party and the centre-right Nationalist Party, with no third parties winning seats in Parliament between 1962 and 2017 and since 2022.[14]

Russia

Post-Soviet Russia was close to having a competitive two-party system in 1999 when two "parties of power" (specifically, socio-political associations and parliamentary factions) were formed in the 3rd State Duma - Unity and Fatherland – All Russia. However, by the end of 2001, both had united into one pro-presidential party - United Russia.

On 24 March 2006, a meeting was held between the deputy head of the presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, and the chairman of the Russian Party of Life, Sergey Mironov, and 30 deputies from the Russian Party of Life. At the meeting, Surkov first openly formulated the idea of building a two-party system in the country, in which, depending on the circumstances, the Kremlin could rely on one of the two system-forming parties.[15] Surkov described the problem as follows: "Society does not have a "second leg" that it can shift to when the first one goes numb. Russia needs a second major party," which, according to the presidential administration's plan, should, in the future, gain the votes that are currently collected by parties "of a leftist bias and with a strong nationalist flavor." At the same time, Surkov left the role of the "main leg" for the coming years to United Russia: "The largest party, around which the political process will be built for a considerable time, in my opinion, of course, should be United Russia." Vladislav Surkov advised Russian Party of Life activists to rely on the protest electorate rather than on administrative resources: "It is better that this [protest] electorate, which is opposed to all types of administration, will be attracted to you than to destructive forces." A transcript of the meeting was published on 16 August 2006.[15][16]

The

A Just Russia party, which emerged in 2006, with some support from President Vladimir Putin
, positioned itself as a competitor to United Russia within the framework of a potential two-party system.

However, as a result of the fact that during the Duma elections of 2007, Putin politically headed the United Russia party, which won an absolute victory in the elections, by the end of 2007, a dominant-party system had emerged in Russia, in which United Russia has a constitutional qualified majority in the Duma.

Spain

Main article:
Political parties in Spain

A report in

Spanish economic crisis, a series of political corruption scandals and broken campaign promises. He argued that the emergence of the new Citizens and Podemos parties would mean the political system would evolve into a two-bloc system, with an alliance of the PP and Citizens on the right facing a leftist coalition of PSOE, Podemos and the United Left.[18] Far-right Vox
party became the third largest group on the Spanish parliament recently.


United Kingdom

In countries such as

Commonwealth countries, a majority party will form the government and the minority party will form the opposition, and coalitions of lesser parties are possible; in the rare circumstance in which neither party is the majority, a hung parliament
arises. Sometimes these systems are described as two-party systems, but they are usually referred to as multi-party systems or a two-party plus system. There is not always a sharp boundary between a two-party system and a multi-party system.

North America

Canada

consensus government model rather than through a political party system. The provincial legislative assembly of Alberta currently has only two parties; two-party representation has also historically been common in the legislative assemblies of British Columbia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
, although all did elect some third-party members in their most recent provincial elections.

Caribbean

The

People's Progressive Party and APNU which is actually a coalition of smaller parties. The politics of Trinidad and Tobago are between the People's National Movement and the United National Congress. The Politics of Belize are between the United Democratic Party and the People's United Party. The Politics of the Bahamas are between the Progressive Liberal Party and the Free National Movement. The politics of Barbados are between the Democratic Labour Party and the Barbados Labour Party
.

United States

Main article: Political parties in the United States
See also: First Party System, Second Party System, Third Party System, Fourth Party System, Fifth Party System, and Sixth Party System

The United States has two dominant political parties; historically, there have been few instances in which third party candidates won an election. In the First Party System, only Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party and Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party were significant political parties. Toward the end of the First Party System, the Democratic-Republicans were dominant (primarily under the Presidency of James Monroe).

Under the

National Republicans were formed in support of John Quincy Adams. After the National Republicans collapsed, the Whig Party and the Free Soil Party
quickly formed and collapsed.

In 1854 began the

Reconstruction Era
the Republicans remained the most popular party nationally while the Democrats remained dominant in the South.

During the Fourth Party System from about 1896 to 1932, the Republicans remained the dominant Presidential party, although Democrats Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson were both elected to two terms.

The

Dwight Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, Democrats retained firm control of the Presidency until the mid-1960s. In Congress, Democrats retained majorities in both houses for 60 years until the Republican Revolution
, broken only by brief Republican majorities.

There was a significant change in U.S. politics in 1960,[19] and this is seen by some as a transition to a sixth party system.

Since the mid-1960s, despite a couple of landslides (such as Richard Nixon carrying 49 states and 61% of the popular vote over George McGovern in 1972; Ronald Reagan carrying 49 states and 58% of the popular vote over Walter Mondale in 1984), Presidential elections have been competitive between the predominant Republican and Democratic parties and no one party has been able to hold the Presidency for more than three consecutive terms.

In the 2012 United States presidential election, only 4% separated the popular vote between Barack Obama (51%) and Mitt Romney (47%), although Obama won the electoral vote (332–206).

Throughout every American party system, no third party has won a Presidential election or majorities in either house of Congress. Despite that, third parties and third party candidates have gained traction and support. In the election of

Progressive. In the 1992 Presidential election, Ross Perot
won 19% of the popular vote but no electoral votes running as an Independent.

Modern

Third Parties have encountered various blocks in getting onto ballots at different levels of government as well as other electoral obstacles, such as denial of access to general election debates. Since 1987, the Commission on Presidential Debates, established by the Republican and Democratic parties themselves, supplanted debates run since 1976 by the League of Women Voters. The League withdrew its support in protest in 1988 over objections of alleged stagecraft such as rules for camera placement, filling the audience with supporters, approved moderators, predetermined question selection, room temperature and others.[20] The Commission maintains its own rules for admittance[21] and has only admitted a single third-party candidate to a televised debate, Ross Perot, in 1992.[22]

Some parts of the US have had their own party systems, distinct from the rest of the country.

Africa

Ghana

The Republic of Ghana since its transition to democracy in 1992 have a strongly institutionalized two-party system led by New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress.[23]

Zimbabwe

The

Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the opposition coalition Movement for Democratic Change
.

Australia

Main article:
Political parties of Australia

House of Representatives

Since the 1920s, the

federal government
) has in effect been a two-party system.

Since the end of World War II, Australia's House of Representatives has been dominated by two factions:

The Coalition has been in government about two-thirds of time, broken by 4 periods of Labor governments: 1972-1975, 1983-1996, 2007-2013, and since 2022.

The ALP is Australia's largest and oldest continuing political party, formed in 1891 from the Australian labour movement. The party has branches in every state and territory.

The Coalition is a near-permanent alliance of several parties, primarily the Liberal Party of Australia (Australia's 2nd largest party) and National Party of Australia (4th largest). It was formed after the 1922 Australian federal election, when the Nationalist Party (ancestor of today's Liberal Party) lost its absolute majority, and was only able to remain in government by allying with the Country Party (now called the National Party). Under the Coalition agreement, if the Coalition forms government then the Prime Minister will be the leader of the Liberals, and the Deputy Prime Minister will be the leader of the Nationals. In theory, disagreements between the Coalition's constituent parties would lead to the Coalition being broken. However, the last time that this has happened at the federal level was in 1939-1940.

One reason for Australia's two-party system is because the House of Representatives (which chooses the Prime Minister of Australia) is elected through the instant-runoff voting electoral system. Although voters can preference third parties and independents above the major parties, and the voting method has a reduced spoiler effect, there is still only one member per electoral division (ie: a winner-take-all system) and so major parties tend to win the vast majority of seats even if they need to rely on preferences to do so. For example, a Labor candidate may win a seat with 30% of the vote for Labor and 21% from Australian Greens voters who ranked Labor second.

Senate

On the other hand, the

Liberal Democrats and Family First
.

Some Australian states have seen the rise of minor parties at either the state or federal level (eg: Centre Alliance in South Australia, Katter's Australian Party in northern Queensland, and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in western New South Wales), while some have seen long periods of dominance by one party. Some parties are absent entirely in parts of the country.

Latin America

Most Latin American countries also have

Central American Republic and Peru, with fights focusing specially on opposing/defending the privileges of the Catholic Church and the creole aristocracy. Other examples of primitive two-party systems included the Pelucones versus Pipiolos in Chile, Federalists versus Unitarians in Argentina, Colorados versus Liberals in Paraguay and Colorados versus Nationals in Uruguay.[25]

As in other regions, the original rivalry between liberals and conservatives was overtaken by a rivalry between

right-wing authoritarian parties, now in peace, make some similar two-party systems in countries like Nicaragua between the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Liberals and in El Salvador between the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and the Nationalist Republican Alliance
.

The traditional two-party dynamic started to break after a while, especially in the early 2000s; alternative parties won elections breaking the traditional two-party systems including

third parties in their respective countries.[26] In some countries like Argentina, Chile and Venezuela the political system is now split in two large multi-party alliances or blocs, one on the left and one on the right of the spectrum[25] Frente de Todos versus Juntos por el Cambio in Argentina, and Democratic Unity Roundtable versus Great Patriotic Pole
in Venezuela.

Asia

Lebanon

Main article: Politics of Lebanon

The

winner takes all
thesis.

South Korea

Main article:
Political parties of South Korea

South Korea has a multi-party system[28] that has sometimes been described as having characteristics of a two-party system.[29] Parties will have reconstructions based upon its leader, but the country continues to maintain two major parties. Currently these parties are the liberal Democratic Party of Korea and the conservative People Power Party.

Taiwan

Main article:
Political parties of Taiwan

conservative Kuomintang
.

South America

Brazil

Main article:
Political parties in Brazil

During the imperial period, since 1840, two great parties with a national base alternated its dominance between legislatures: the Liberal and the Conservative. These parties were dissolved in 1889, after the republic was instituted in Brazil, in which the registration of party directories came under the jurisdiction of the states.

its military dictatorship (1964–1985): on October 27, 1965, the Institutional Act 2 decree[31] banned all existing parties and conditioned the creation of new parties to the quorum of 1/3 of the then-elected National Congress; resulting in the creation of two parties: a pro-government party, the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA) and an opposition party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). Despite officially having a bipartisan system, complex electoral mechanisms, nominally neutral, were created to guarantee the prevalence of the ARENA in the National Congress, making Brazil, in practice, a dominant-party system in that period. The two parties were dissolved in 1979, when the regime allowed other parties to form.[32]

Comparison with other systems

Two-party systems can be contrasted with:

Causes

There are several reasons why, in some systems, two major parties dominate the political landscape. There has been speculation that a two-party system arose in the

Constitution, according to several views.[1][34] In addition, there has been more speculation that the winner-takes-all electoral system as well as particular state and federal laws regarding voting procedures helped to cause a two-party system.[1]

Voting ballot.
In a two-party system, voters have mostly two options; in this sample ballot for an election in Summit, New Jersey, voters can choose between a Republican or Democrat, but there are no third party candidates.
Jeffrey D. Sachs

Political scientists such as

first-past-the-post
voting arrangement tended to promote a two-party system:

The main reason for America's majoritarian character is the electoral system for Congress. Members of Congress are elected in single-member districts according to the "first-past-the-post" (FPTP) principle, meaning that the candidate with the plurality of votes is the winner of the congressional seat. The losing party or parties win no representation at all. The first-past-the-post election tends to produce a small number of major parties, perhaps just two, a principle known in political science as

Duverger's Law. Smaller parties are trampled in first-past-the-post elections.

— Sachs, The Price of Civilization, 2011[36]

Consider a system in which voters can vote for any candidate from any one of many parties. Suppose further that if a party gets 15% of votes, then that party will win 15% of the seats in the legislature. This is termed proportional representation or more accurately as party-proportional representation. Political scientists speculate that proportional representation leads logically to multi-party systems, since it allows new parties to build a niche in the legislature:

Because even a minor party may still obtain at least a few seats in the legislature, smaller parties have a greater incentive to organize under such electoral systems than they do in the United States.

— Schmidt, Shelley, Bardes (2008)[1]

In contrast, a voting system that allows only a single winner for each possible legislative seat is sometimes termed a

single-winner voting system and is usually described under the heading of a winner-takes-all arrangement. Each voter can cast a single vote for any candidate within any given legislative district, but the candidate with the most votes wins the seat, although variants, such as requiring a majority, are sometimes used. What happens is that in a general election, a party that consistently comes in third in every district is unlikely to win any legislative seats even if there is a significant proportion of the electorate favoring its positions. This arrangement strongly favors large and well–organized political parties that are able to appeal to voters in many districts and hence win many seats, and discourages smaller or regional parties. Politically oriented people consider their only realistic way to capture political power is to run under the auspices of the two dominant parties.[1]

In the U.S., forty-eight states have a standard winner-takes-all electoral system for amassing presidential votes in the

electoral votes from that state are awarded. In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, the presidential candidate winning a plurality of votes wins all of the electoral votes, a practice called the unit rule.[1]

Duverger concluded that "plurality election single-ballot procedures are likely to produce two-party systems, whereas proportional representation and runoff designs encourage multipartyism."

Electoral College system in the United States, by favoring a system of winner-takes-all in presidential elections, is a structural choice favoring only two major parties.[38]

Gary Cox suggested that America's two-party system was highly related with economic prosperity in the country:

The bounty of the American economy, the fluidity of American society, the remarkable unity of the American people, and, most important, the success of the American experiment have all mitigated against the emergence of large dissenting groups that would seek satisfaction of their special needs through the formation of political parties.

— Cox, according to George Edwards[35]

An effort in 2012 by centrist groups to promote ballot access by third-party candidates called Americans Elect spent $15 million to get ballot access but failed to elect any candidates.[39] The lack of choice in a two-party model in politics has often been compared to the variety of choices in the marketplace.

Politics has lagged our social and business evolution ... There are 30 brands of Pringles in our local grocery store. How is it that Americans have so much selection for potato chips and only two brands – and not very good ones – for political parties?

— Scott Ehredt of the Centrist Alliance[11]

Third parties

Main articles:
Third party (United States)
According to one view, the winner-takes-all system discourages voters from choosing third party or independent candidates, and over time the process becomes entrenched so that only two major parties become viable.

Third parties, meaning a party other than one of the two dominant parties, are possible in two-party systems, but they are often unlikely to exert much influence by gaining control of legislatures or by winning elections.[1] While there are occasional opinions in the media expressed about the possibility of third parties emerging in the United States, for example, political insiders such as the 1980 presidential candidate John Anderson think the chances of one appearing in the early twenty-first century is remote.[40] A report in The Guardian suggested that American politics has been "stuck in a two-way fight between Republicans and Democrats" since the Civil War, and that third-party runs had little meaningful success.[41]

Third parties in a two-party system can be:

  • Built around a particular ideology or interest group
  • Split off from one of the major parties or
  • Focused on a charismatic individual.[40]
Party affiliation in the United States according to a 2004 study: Democratic with 72 million, Republican with 55 million and third parties collectively with 42 million registered citizens[42]

When third parties are built around an ideology which is at odds with the majority mindset, many members belong to such a party not for the purpose of expecting electoral success but rather for personal or psychological reasons.

New York Magazine by Ryan Lizza in 2006 suggested that third parties arose from time to time in the nineteenth century around single-issue movements such as abolition, women's suffrage, and the direct election of senators, but were less prominent in the twentieth century.[44]

A so-called third party in the United Kingdom were historically the Liberal Democrats, prior to the Scottish National Party taken its place since the 2015 election by number of the House of Common seats. In the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats received 23% of the votes but only 9% of the seats in the House of Commons. While electoral results do not necessarily translate into legislative seats, the Liberal Democrats can exert influence if there is a situation such as a hung parliament. In this instance, neither of the two main parties (at present, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party) have sufficient authority to run the government. Accordingly, the Liberal Democrats can in theory exert tremendous influence in such a situation since they can ally with one of the two main parties to form a coalition. This happened in the Coalition government of 2010. The two party system in the United Kingdom allows for other parties to exist, although the main two parties tend to dominate politics; in this arrangement, other parties are not excluded and can win seats in Parliament. In contrast, the two party system in the United States has been described as a duopoly or an enforced two-party system, such that politics is almost entirely dominated by either the Republicans or Democrats, and third parties rarely win seats in Congress.[45]

Advantages

Some historians have suggested that two-party systems promote centrism and encourage political parties to find common positions which appeal to wide swaths of the electorate. It can lead to political stability

Italy, with a multi-party system, has had years of divisive politics since 2000, although analyst Silvia Aloisi suggested in 2008 that the nation may be moving closer to a two-party arrangement.[47] The two-party has been identified as simpler since there are fewer voting choices.[3]

Disadvantages

Two-party systems have been criticized for downplaying alternative views,[3][4] being less competitive,[7] median voter theorem, encouraging voter apathy since there is a perception of fewer choices,[3] and putting a damper on debate[4] within a nation. In a proportional representation system, lesser parties can moderate policy since they are not usually eliminated from government.[3] One analyst suggested the two-party approach may not promote inter-party compromise but may encourage partisanship.[4] In The Tyranny of the Two-party system, Lisa Jane Disch criticizes two-party systems for failing to provide enough options since only two choices are permitted on the ballot. She wrote:

Herein lies the central tension of the two–party doctrine. It identifies

citizens to accept two–party contests as a condition of electoral democracy.

— Lisa Jane Disch, 2002[48]

There have been arguments that the winner-take-all mechanism discourages independent or third-party candidates from running for office or promulgating their views.

the Huffington Post wrote that "the parliamentary system is inherently much more open to minority parties getting much better representation than third parties do in the American system".[51] After an election in which the party changes, there can be a "polar shift in policy-making" when voters react to changes.[3]

Political analyst A. G. Roderick, writing in his book Two Tyrants, argued that the two American parties (the Republican Party and the Democratic Party) were highly unpopular (as of 2015), are not part of the political framework of state governments, and do not represent the 47% of the electorate who identify themselves as "independents".

American president should be elected on a non-partisan basis,[52][53][54] and asserts that both political parties are "cut from the same cloth of corruption and corporate influence."[55]

Others have accused two party systems of encouraging an environment which stifles individual thought processes and analysis. In a two party system, knowledge about political leaning facilitates assumptions to be made about an individual's opinions on a wide variety of topics (e.g.

space program, a viral pandemic, human sexuality, the environment, warfare, opinions on police, etc.) which are not necessarily connected.

"The more destructive problem is the way this skews the discussion of the issues facing the nation. The media – meaning news sources from Fox News to the New York Times and everything in between – seem largely incapable of dealing with any issue outside of the liberal versus conservative paradigm. Whether it's dealing with ISIS, the debt ceiling, or climate change

, the media frames every issue as a simple debate between the Democratic and the Republican positions. This creates the ludicrous idea that every public policy problem has two, and only two, approaches. That's nonsense. Certainly some problems have only two resolutions, some have only one, but most have a range of possible solutions. But the "national" debate presents every issue as a simplistic duality, which trivializes everything." —Michael Coblenz, 2016[56]

History

British parties

Main articles: Tories (British political party) and Whigs (British political party)
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

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 republican tendencies of Parliament.[58]
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

religious toleration to nonconformist Protestants, and other issues that had been put on the liberal agenda through the political concepts propounded by John Locke,[59] Algernon Sidney and others.[60]

Vigorous struggle between the two factions characterised the period from the

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 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.

British emergence

The old Whig leadership dissolved in the 1760s into a decade of factional chaos with distinct "

Loyal Opposition to the governing party.[62]

In A Block for the Wigs (1783), James Gillray caricatured Fox's return to power in a coalition with North. George III is the blockhead in the center.

A genuine two-party system began to emerge,

radical politician Charles James Fox.[64][65][66]

The two-party system matured in the early 19th century

"Pittite" Tories by Robert Peel, who issued the Tamworth Manifesto in 1834 which set out the basic principles of Conservatism – the necessity in specific cases of reform in order to survive, but an opposition to unnecessary change, that could lead to "a perpetual vortex of agitation". Meanwhile, the Whigs, along with free trade Tory followers of Robert Peel, and independent Radicals, formed the Liberal Party under Lord Palmerston in 1859, and transformed into a party of the growing urban middle-class, under the long leadership of William Ewart Gladstone. The two party system had come of age at the time of Gladstone and his Conservative rival Benjamin Disraeli after the Reform Act 1867.[67]

American

Although the

Democratic-Republican Party, centred on the differing views on federal government powers of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.[69][70] A consensus on these issues ended party politics in 1816 for a decade, a period commonly known as the Era of Good Feelings.[71]

Partisan politics revived in 1829 with the split of the Democratic-Republican Party into the

Republican Party
as one of the two main parties in the 1850s.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Note: in the politics of Australia, there are not two political parties but rather "two major political groupings"; for further information, see the Australian Coalition.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780495503224. Archived
    from the original on February 29, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
  2. ^ Wong Chin Huat, fz.com, July 29, 2013, When winner takes all Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...This "winner-takes-all" characteristic of political contestation then forces political groups to consolidate into two blocs, hence, the two-party system..."
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Regis Publishing, The US System: Winner Takes All, [dead link] Accessed August 12, 2013, "...Winner-take-all rules trigger a cycle that leads to and strengthens a system of few (two in the US) political parties..." (in Wayback Machine)
  4. ^ a b c d The Two Party System, Boundless Publishing, Two-party systems are prominent in various countries, such as the U.S., and contain both advantages and disadvantages Archived 2013-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013 "...There are two main reasons winner-takes-all systems lead to a two-party system...",
  5. ^ a b Eric Black, Minnpost, October 8, 2012, Why the same two parties dominate our two-party system Archived 2020-05-02 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...SMDP (single-member districts, plurality) voting system. ... This forces those who might favor a minor party candidate to either vote for whichever of the two biggest parties the voter dislikes the least, or to risk the likelihood that their vote will be "wasted" or, worse, that they will end up helping the major-party candidate whom the voter dislikes the most to win. Minor parties aren't banned, but they seldom produce a plurality winner, and their lack of success often causes the minor parties to wither and die...."
  6. ^ History Learning Site, Why America is a two-party state Archived 2015-06-08 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...The American electoral system – winner-takes-all – guarantees that any third, fourth party etc has no chance of winning...."
  7. ^ a b c Patrick Bashan, CATO Institute, June 9, 2004, Do Electoral Systems Affect Government Size? Archived 2020-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...The current system has many disadvantages, most notably its propensity to discriminate against minor parties operating outside the increasingly uncompetitive, cozy two-party system.... America's winner-takes-all electoral system may be the least bad option for those seeking to limit government involvement in the nation's economic life...."
  8. ^ George F. Will, October 12, 2006, Washington Post, From Schwarzenegger, a Veto for Voters' Good Archived 2017-05-20 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...That electoral vote system (combined with the winner-take-all allocation of votes in all states but Maine and Nebraska) makes it very difficult for third-party presidential candidates to be competitive..."
  9. ^ Ashley Ford, September 17, 2012, Cavalier Daily, Party of three: A third political party is an important aspect of the Virginia democratic process Archived 2020-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...The two party system forces the third party to join their group in a winner take all system..."
  10. ^ Two Party System, PBS, Two-Party System Archived 2019-11-17 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 12, 2013, "...Third-party or independent candidates face a slew of obstacles in American politics, from limited media coverage to legal barriers and Congressional leadership rules. Laws regarding third-party candidates also vary from state to state, presenting additional difficulties...."
  11. ^ a b Cillizza, Chris (July 24, 2011). "Voters' renewed anger at Washington spurs formation of third-party advocate groups". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 21, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  12. ^ Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake, May 18, 2012, The Washington Post, Americans Elect and the death of the third party movement Archived 2020-02-25 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed August 11, 2013
  13. ISBN 978-0231110358. Archived
    from the original on December 26, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2012 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Borg, Bertrand (June 6, 2017). "Marlene Farrugia's election met with counting hall taunts". Times of Malta. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2017. Malta's next legislature will feature an elected third party representative for the first time in more than 50 years, with Democratic Party leader Marlene Farrugia having made it into parliament.
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External links
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