Centralization of power with Feds hurts 3rd parties?

[BlackJack8324]

By Pradeep Chhibber and Ken Kollman
Tuesday, August 17, 2004; Page A15

Third parties have little or no chance of gaining real representation in Congress or in statehouses. Minor political parties and independents win an occasional seat, but their impact in legislatures is negligible. All this gives rise to a persistent myth about our two-party system, one that is as misplaced as it is widespread: that the United States has always been a two-party country and that there's little to be done about it short of substantial constitutional engineering.


But the truth is that the United States has not always been so dominated by two parties. Third parties (sometimes even fourth, fifth and sixth parties) once competed successfully in congressional elections, winning significant portions of the popular vote and often gaining seats in Congress. This was true for most of the 19th century and even the early part of the 20th.

Politicians and voters follow power. The decline in voting for minor parties has corresponded to the increasing power of the national government relative to the states. The adoption of a national income tax and subsequent expansion of the federal government with the New Deal created pressures to develop fully national political parties. As the federal government gained more authority relative to the states and localities, voters wanted their votes to go for parties that would have a say in the great national questions of the day, rather than on the issues raised in state or local politics.

As the national government has become more powerful relative to state and local governments, national policies have come to matter more to voters. It's no surprise that turnout is sometimes abysmally low for state and local elections.

Our neighbor to the north provides further evidence of the influence of centralization on the ability of third parties to win votes. Quite a few parties received significant vote shares in the 2004 elections for the House of Commons in Canada. The smaller parties that managed to win substantial votes have their roots in provincial politics, and they drew enough votes from those provincial roots to have a say in national politics. Their success is largely due to the fact that Canada is one of the most decentralized nations in the world.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6681-2004Aug16.html

[Trillo]

1. There was a professors website linked on an old thread here on DU,

that explained how the various electoral processes we use in the U.S. favor the major parties and disfavor minor ones. Unfortunately, I have lost the link.

Anyone have it? (it's background color was blue)

[chuck555]

2. When third parties ....

have something to offer they might just get an elected office.

[bemildred]

3. You mean it is not merely a coinkydink that

we have had exactly the same two major parties since the Civil War?
I thought it was some sort of law of nature or something. You know
like gravity?