Appraisals and Proposals II

Just a reminder: If we had ranked-choice voting for president, nobody would be complaining about @justinamash being a potential spoiler.

— Lee Drutman (@leedrutman) April 29, 2020

Examples of multiparty systems:  Canada, Britain, Israel

Causes of the two-party system:

• Duverger's "Law" (Hershey 37-38)
• Electoral college
• Ballot access

Types of Third-Party Movements

• Ongoing issue-based or ideological parties
• Short-lived movements
• Wallace 1968
• 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

Race and American Politics

• Bush 41 denounced Duke.
• Actual Edwin Edwards bumper sticker in 1991
• Economic anxiety v. racism -- additional research
• The political price
• Jack Kemp:  the road not taken

SCOTUS

• Crime
• Nixon and the courts
• Bork

Electoral College

• Nixon supported abolition.
• Bush 43 lost the popular vote but Americans accepted the outcome
• An unlikely critic
• National Popular Vote