To What Extent Does America Have A 2 Party System?
TO WHAT EXTENT DOES AMERICA HAVE A 2 PARTY SYSTEM?
A two party system is one in which usually two main parties fight for the office of the President. However, this does not prevent other political parties from existence. America is said to have a 2 party system to a great extent. This is because America has two main political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, who seriously compete for political influence and every four years seek to capture the presidency. This has usually always been the case. In America several other third and minor parties continue to run. However, it is only the Republicans and the Democrats that have a chance of achieving the presidency and a majority in Congress. The smaller parties in America find it hard to gain power nationally, although they are sometimes well established in various states.
There are several factors that lead to America having a 2 party system. Firstly, there is only one position of presidency available and the president is not the leader of the majority party. Hence, it is not possible for coalitions of more than one party to share the position, as can happen in a cabinet system, e.g. UK. To avoid coalitions a simple plurality electoral system, first past the post, is used. This system discriminates against smaller parties as it is un-proportional and does not give equal value to all votes. Also, mostly bigger parties with wide spread support tend to do well compared to minor parties. Smaller parties would have more chance of gaining support and representation in the legislature if a proportional system was to be used.
Secondly, the campaigning involved is costly and needs a long time to be planned. Candidates seek to make progress and win support via the primaries which requires a great deal of organisational and financial backing. Therefore, smaller parties cannot afford it as they do not have access to large scale funding and have only limited resources.
Thirdly, there is a wide appeal for both the major parties. Once the presidential candidate is chosen, the leading parties seek to show that they appeal to the interests of the nation, the concerns of the electorate and the diverse ...
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Secondly, the campaigning involved is costly and needs a long time to be planned. Candidates seek to make progress and win support via the primaries which requires a great deal of organisational and financial backing. Therefore, smaller parties cannot afford it as they do not have access to large scale funding and have only limited resources.
Thirdly, there is a wide appeal for both the major parties. Once the presidential candidate is chosen, the leading parties seek to show that they appeal to the interests of the nation, the concerns of the electorate and the diverse elements of the population. This makes it difficult for the minor parties to carve out a distinctive identity which is not already catered for. For e.g. Roosevelt won the support of the farmers by introducing agricultural subsidies.
Furthermore, both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party are large organisations which tend to look after the interests of a variety of groups across America. Between them they look after the interests of all sections of the society, being sufficiently flexible to come up with new ideas that become important over the years, e.g. anti abortionists and gun rights campaigners stay in the Republican Party to push their agendas.
In addition to that, there are several barriers to the advancement of third parties and minor parties. Firstly, In America the rules for ballot access in national elections are written by the sates and not by the national government. This makes access for the ballot difficult for independents and minor parties. The states that use these laws include Alaska, California, Hawaii and New York. In the 2000 elections, Ralph Nader, a Green Party candidate, was unable to secure a place on the ballot in seven states. In many cases these barriers are not insurmountable, but they force minor parties to devote their energies and financial resources to ballot access. Whereas, the main parties can concentrate on their campaigning. Secondly, a large number of states allow 'straight-ticket voting' where a voter can simple cast a vote for a particular party's candidate in all posts that it is contesting. This discourages the voter from looking at the entire ballot and seeing that the minor party candidates are standing for certain posts. Hence, minor party candidates gain twice as many votes in regions that do not allow straight ticket voting. Thirdly, as 2000 elections emphasised presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College votes. Therefore, only those minor parties who have concentrated support in a region, e.g. the Southern States, tend to do well. For e.g. in 1992 Ross Perot received 19% of the popular vote, but no ECVs. Also, the federal campaign finance laws can assist minor parties if they gained over 5% of the vote in preceding presidential election. Newly formed parties will gain nothing and full funding is offered only to parties gaining at least 25% in the preceding election. However, the Republican and Democrat national conventions attract a subsidy from the Federal Election Commission.
However, there are several arguments that can be put forward to say that America is not a two party system. Firstly, the most important argument is the fact that the USA has separate elections for the executive and the legislative branches (and for the two houses of Congress) means that different parties can be in control. Hence, there is no clear government or opposition, which is an important element of two party system.
Secondly, the major parties are organised on a state basis rather than a national basis. It is sometimes said that the United States has not a two party system but rather a one hundred and two party system. This is because the two main parties are split into a variety of different organisations.
Other factors that show that the United States is not a two party system are that the national parties only meet together once every four years on National Party Conventions. Although the Republicans and the Democrats have a great deal of power as being the two major parties in America, their national committees have limited resources and power. Also there are significant regional differences within the parties. For e.g. in the northeast and on the west coast. Republicans lean toward economic conservatism and a degree of social liberalism. In the south, party supporters tend to be cultural and religious conservatives.
Hence, looking at the arguments above I can clearly see that America has a two party system to a greater extent than it has a multi party system. This is because most of the time Republicans and Democrats tend to do well and gain presidency. Whereas the independents and minor parties have little or no support nationally, but tend to do well in regions such as the South where they have concentrated pockets of support. However, the major constituent of a two party system, that is government and opposition, is said to be missing from the political system in America. This proves that American political system has elements which do not make it a two party system.
