Third Parties

For Thursday read https://leedrutman.substack.com/p/how-i-updated-my-views-on-ranked.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO READ AND DISCUSS NEXT WEEK?

Drutman: "American-style two-party democracy is the outlier. Multiparty democracy with proportional representation is the norm among advanced industrial nations."

Examples of multiparty systems:  Canada (not pr), Britain (not pr), Israel (pr)

Review Causes of the two-party system:

• Duverger's "Law" (Hershey 39-40)
• Electoral college
• Ballot access
• Campaign Finance
• Party-centered organization of Congress and legislatures

Types of Third-Party Movements

• Ongoing issue-based or ideological parties
• The LP
• Short-lived movements
• Thurmond and Henry Wallace 1948
• George Wallace 1968 (no relation)
• Anderson 1980
• Perot 1992

Reasons for Third Party Bursts:

• Major party deterioration and issue responsiveness
• Economic decline
• Unacceptable major party candidates

Reasons for the brevity of the bursts

• Major parties coopt the third party agenda: Wilson coopts TR on Progressive reform, FDR coopts Socialists on social programs, Nixon coopts G. Wallace on law & order, Clinton coopts Perot on deficit control.
• Perception of spoiler effect:  Nader in 2000, Stein in 2016 (report in Mother Jones)

Case for multiparty system:  greater turnout.  

But note an alternative explanation:  long ballots create election fatigue.  There are 90,837 governments in the U.S. In addition to the federal government, the 50 states and DC, there are 3,031 county governments, 35,705 township and municipal governments, 12,546 independent school districts and 39,555 other special-purpose local governments. More than 500,000 Americans hold elected office.

Multiparty democracy leads to more complex political thinking, more policy-focused and positive campaigning, and more compromise-oriented politics.   Israel?

Multiparty democracy leads to more broadly legitimate, inclusive, and moderate policymaking.

Multiparty democracies represent racial minorities much more fairly.  India?