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The American Two-Party System
Why 3rd Parties Fail
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Today in Class
• Take out your Rubric and do the self evaluation
• Take out a sheet of paper and number 1-14
• Read the article on your desk and relate back to the 3rd Parties
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Reasons why America has a two party system
• Consensus on Core Issues
• Single member districts
• Winner-take-all system
• Legal barriers to 3rd Parties
• The Force of Historic Tradition
• 3rd Parties excluded from debates
• Raising campaign funds ($) Barriers or Obstacles to 3rd Parties (Why 3rd Parties Fail)
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Consensus on Core Political Issues• Americans share a strong commitment to a group of
core values: freedom/liberty, political equality, individualism, equality under the law
• Most Americans fall under the “umbrella” of the conservative and liberal ideology and call themselves moderates (between the two)
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Single member districts• Most American elections are held in single-member
districts, in which only one candidate is elected to each office
• Candidate who receives the most votes (Plurality) is the winner (difference between a plurality election and majority election)
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• Many other countries, political seats (offices) are awarded to parties that come in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place that still win votes. (not in the United States)
• Example: If one state had 10 legislative seats in Congress, and a party wins 20% of the vote, that party would win 2 Congressional seats in Congress
• In the United States, the winner of the plurality (highest number of votes) wins.
• No political seats awarded for 2nd place in the U.S.• Winner-take-all system of the electoral college. The winner of a
state’s popular vote (plurality) wins all of that state’s electoral votes for President (Example: 1992 Presidential election…Ross Perot)
Winner-take-all system
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Clinton: 44,857,747 370
Bush: 39,798,913 168
Perot: 19,722,042 0
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Legal barriers to 3rd Parties• The names of Democratic and Republican
candidates are automatically place on state ballots in most states
• In contrast, minor party candidates must persuade registered voters to sign petitions in order to have their names placed on the ballot
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The Force of Historic Tradition• America has had a two-party system since 1800• Our two-party system has generated self-
perpetuating laws and traditions• Today, most educated Americans have learned the
political ideology and goals of the two major parties and have grown comfortable with them
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3rd Party Candidates are excluded from Presidential Debates
• Many Presidential debates are organized and held by private organizations and groups (such as the league of women voters)
• These private groups can invite and exclude whoever they choose (many minor party candidates get left out)
2008
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Raising Money• Both the Republican and Democratic parties do an
excellent job of raising money for their candidates• The two major parties have a detailed network and
large organization to raise money• Most people only donate money to the two major
parties (safe bet)• Minor parties (3rd parties) have a difficult time raising
money for their campaign
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Presidential Campaign Spending in 2008
Candidate (Party)
Amount raised Amount spent VotesAverage spent per vote
Barack Obama (D)
$778,642,962 $760,370,195 69,498,215 $10.94
John McCain (R)
$383,913,834 $358,008,447 59,948,240 $5.97
Ralph Nader (I) $4,496,180 $4,187,628 738,720 $5.67
Bob Barr (L) $1,383,681 $1,345,202 523,713 $2.57
Chuck Baldwin (C)
$261,673 $234,309 199,437 $1.17
Cynthia McKinney (G)
$240,130 $238,968 161,680 $1.48
Excludes spending by independent expenditure concerns.Source: Federal Election Commission[1]
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Questions?