Two party system

What is a two-party system?

a party system in which 2 major parties regularly win the vast majority of votes (80% of popular vote), capture nearly all (90%) of the seats in legislature and alternately control the executive

What is the evidence of a two-party system? (4)

• popular vote

• seats in the legislature

• control of the executive

• state government

How does the US popular vote display a two party system?

• in the 7 elections between 1992 and 2016, the Dems and Reps accounted for more than 80% of the popular vote on every occasion

  • e.g.

    • 1996 → 91%

    • 2004 → 99%

    • 2012 →99%

    • 2016 → 94%

Why was the share of the vote between the two parties lower (81%) in 1992?

Ross Perot had gotten 19% of the popular vote → however his vote was too spread out to gain any EC votes

Similarly, why was the share of the vote lower (86%) in 1968?

• George Wallace’s third party campaign was focused o realigning disillusioned white Democratic voters who opposed desegregation following the 1960s civil rights movement

• George Wallace got 13.5% of the vote and won 46 electoral college votes since his votes were concentrated in the previous ‘Solid South’

  • Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi

How is the distribution of seats in the legislature evidence of a two party system?

• following the 2016 elections, only 2 members of the Senate were independent

  • Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Angus King (Maine)

• however Sanders really is a democrat since he was only opposed by a Republican

  • also clear from the 2016 presidential primaries- he ran as a democrat

• 2012→ 2 independents but side with Democrats

  • Sanders and Lieberman

• 2020 → 2 Ind Senators

  • Sanders and Angus King

• 2024- only 2 independent Senators

  • Sanders and Angus King

How is control of the executive evidence of a two-party system?

in the White House, every president since 1853 has either been a Republican or Democrat

How is state government evidence of a two-party system?

• in Jan 2017, 49 state governors were either Democrats or Republicans

• in jan 2009, all state governors were R or D

• in Jan 2011, only Rhode Island had an independent governor

what are the reasons for the two-party system? (3)

• electoral system of FPTP

• Broad Party ideologies

• primary elections

How does the electoral system give rise to the two-party system?

• FPTP makes it difficult for third parties to actually win even though they may get a fair share of the popular vote

  • 3rd party support is usually widespread but shallow

• under the winner-takes-all system, they pick up no rewards

• 3rd parties merely lowers the percentage of the vote needed by the major party candidate to win the election

How do broad party ideologies give rise to a two party system?

the two-major parties encompass a wide ideological spectrum, so there isn’t enough room for 3rd parties to attract enough support

How do primary elections make it difficult for third parties to be elected?

• primaries help major parties become more responsive to the electorate, minimising the need for protest voting

  • decreases support for third parties since protest votes often go to third parties

• campaign finance is expensive so difficult for smaller third parties to gain momentum

What does the 50-party system theory assert?

• that the US has not a 2 party system but a 50 party system

  • ‘two party system’ conveys the idea of two disciplined, centralised parties

• however federalism means that elections are run on a state basis, and these parties differ on a regional and state level

  • e.g. Texas Republicans differ from Massachusetts republicans

What does the two party system insinuate and how does the US system differ?

• meas that two major parties ALTERNATE power

• however in the US they seem to have power at the same time

  • e.g. one party controls the White House ad other controls one or both Houses of Congress

What is the purple argument?

parties are actually indistinct and instead conver a wide range of the spectrum:

• e.g. Democrats in 1990s stealing Rep issues like deficit reduction and welfare reform

• Clinton argued that the era of Big government is over

• Bush expanded the federal budget (arguably for the War in Middle East)