Third parties often have no chance of gaining real representation in Congress or in statehouses. Minor political parties win an occasional seat, but their impact in legislatures is negligible. Republicans and Democrats have dominated our government since 1930s.
Why?
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. We must remember that the weakness of minor parties in the United States are caused by dominated political parties that determines our economic and social well-being by power.
When Your Heart Condemns You
14 hours ago
1 comment:
Jim,
The problem facing minor political parties is one with which I am familiar. The principal reason for the difficulties facing such 'third' parties lies not necessarily in the level of electoral support which they can or cannot attract but rather in the voting method itself and manipulation of it by the major political parties (especially those which have benefitted from it). Let me use the results of the 2007 elections in Scotland to explain. Changes in the level of representation started with the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 using a hybrid method of First Past The Post (Simple Majority) plus List Members using the Aditional Member System of Proportional Representation to give a proportional number of elected representatives. The most significant changes, however, came with the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote method of Proportional Representation for the local council elections in 2007. The table below shows the comparison to 2003 when FPTP was used -
Election of Councillors
Party 2007 (Change) 2003
SNP 363 (+182) 181
Labour 348 (-161) 509
Independent 192 (-39) 231
Lib.Dems. 166 (-9) 175
Conservatives 143 (+20) 123
Despite the fiasco of rejected ballot papers, due to political interference in the design of the ballot paper for the Scottish Parliament elections and resistance from within the Labour Party to the introduction of STV-PR, the real winners were the people. Much has been written here about the Labour Party having lost an election after 50 years of dominance, in parts of Fife where I live it is nearer 100 years. The Labour Party has still not come to terms with the results of those elections.
Changes to the electoral system in the USA would be very difficult due to the requirements of the Constitution of the United States, however, at state level it could be a different matter. But in any case, any changes are a matter for the people in the individual state(s).
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