The Two Party System

As the political debate steps up in intensity, if that is even possible given the rancor of the last seven years, we run smack dab into the two party system practiced in the United States. Our system of political wrangling has its own set of considerations which differ from the parliamentary systems practiced in most of the world.

In most of the rest of the world the system in play is the parliamentary style. In such there are many different parties. For example in a "fantasy" system there would be the Liberals, Conservatives, Green Party, Social Democrats (almost the same as the American liberal), Communist, Libertarian, etc. The names in this case are made up; the ramifications of such a system are real and genuine.

For example I remember in 1978, when I fist started getting interested in politics, I heard an astounding statistic: In Italy there had been more governments than there had been years since the end of World War II! For the non-initiated, in the parliamentary system a "government" is formed after an election when numerous parties within the multi-party system get together to form a "coalition government" which then governs form a majority position.

When a nation practices a parliamentary system of governance there are many parties. Sometimes there are 15 or more political ideologies and each gets there own name and distinct identity. When a nation has so many different parties from which to choose the electorate is able to closely identify with one of the many different choices.

So, is it likely that any one party will acquire a 51% majority? Not very. When there are more than two choices a clear majority is not a very common experience. Another distinct difference between the American system and that of the parliamentary style is that when a voter casts a vote in the American system one is voting for a particular individual to lead their nation.