Three reasons why the U.

S, unlike many other democracies in the world, has a two-party

system.

a) The “winner takes all” model of elections

One of the main reasons why only two main parties are dominant in the United States is

that; usually winning is quite simple since the US creates a model of "winner takes all." Most

countries assign all votes they receive through electoral colleges to a majority party. That implies

that, when at least just one party has a higher proportion, it does not actually matter if a party has

5 or 25% of the votes. There is absolutely nothing for the runners-up and for every other

contender. Thus, this model only allows major parties to exist and get voted in Congress or as

POTUS, since this third party will indeed have to defeat both Democratic and Conservative

parties, and this is nearly unachievable upto this moment (Bibby & Maisel, 2019).

b) The great influence left by the Founding Fathers

Originally, there was no intention of having parties once the American Constitution was drafted.

Indeed, the Founding Fathers, Madison and Hamilton, even opposed the notion of political

parties. The founding Fathers were afraid that the parties could endanger politics in the still

young country, and the first US president, George Washington, even believed that there would

be no political parties at all. However, although at first Madison and Hamilton were opposed to a

party system, both apparently afterwards changed their ideologies, and were primary leaders and

rivals of the first two parties, the Democratic and the Federalists. Since then, two political parties

have existed at different eras in US history, but the supremacy of two major parties has never

been beaten (The US two party system, n.d.).

c) High degree of upward mobility permitted by a rich economy.

It could be claimed that the great degree of upward mobility provided by a prosperous and ever-

expanding economy is the fundamental reason for dominance of only two parties in America. As

a result of this mobility, class consciousness in the United States has never grown in a way that

would support the development of large communist or socialist parties. Parties in the United

States are not as closely linked to the great ideological and social movements that have shaped

political culture in Europe, and other countries, over the last two centuries.

Some notable third party candidates for president in recent times.

 Ralph Nader who was a political activist, writer, lecturer and lawyer, launched

presidential campaign in 2000 on 21 February. As a motivator to run, he cited "the crisis

of democracy." He was chosen as the Green Party candidate, representing the party in the

2000 US presidential election.

 On behalf of the United States Libertarian Party, the Convention delegates of the

party selected Bob Barr the 2008 presidential elections.

 Finally, in 2016, the Libertarian Party nominated Gary Johnson, who was the 29th

Governor of New Mexico, to run or the President of the United States (Haynes, 2019).
References

Bibby, J. F., & Maisel, L. S. (2019). Two Parties—Or More?: The American Party System.

Routledge.

The US two party system. (n.d.). Info USA. Retrieved August 14, 2021, from https://www.info-

america-usa.com/the-us-two-party-system/

Haynes, D. (2019). Presidential Nominations. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.