Under the Radar
Why does the U.S. have two major parties?
To date, America’s first president is the only president who did not belong to a political party, but George Washington’s administration laid the groundwork for the formation of the country’s first two major parties, which were founded by members of his Cabinet. The Federalist Party was formed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.
Those parties changed in the decades that followed. The Democratic-Republican Party became simply the Democratic Party during Andrew Jackson’s administration, while the Federalist Party faded into irrelevance and was later replaced by the Whig Party, which dissolved before the Civil War and thus allowed the ascendance of the Republican Party. Every federal election since the Civil War has been contested primarily by candidates from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Under the Constitution, Congress is made up of single-member districts awarded based on plurality rule (such as first past the post) elections, while nearly all states award their Electoral College votes for the presidency on a first past the post basis as well. Political scientists note that such elections tend to produce two-party political systems in a theory known as Duverger’s law.
Click here to read about Duverger's Law, then join the conversation/ argument:
How do you feel about two-party dominance of U.S. politics?
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