We Need a Two-Party System

A common refrain of politically dissatisfied Americans is that the United States is in need of a multiparty system akin to the parliamentary arrangements that populate Europe. During the last presidential election cycle, I wrote in defense of casting a vote for a third-party presidential candidate. That post included a favorable discussion of our two-party system:

There is much to be commended about the two-party system as it exists in the U.S. today. The conglomerate, dynamic nature of the parties means that the they evolve by competing with each other to attempt to absorb new movements and the votes that come with them. (Cf. Democrats and Greens with Republicans and Tea Partiers. The question of what happens once that absorption takes place– the assimilation– is a subject for another post.) It really is not so dissimilar from multiparty, parliamentary-style democracies, the difference being that those systems wait until after an election to form a coalition government, while the American system forms would-be governing coalitions before the election.

That, at least, is how a successful two-party system ought to operate. If party platform decisions made by the Democratic National Convention drafting committee this month stick, though, that may be an indication we are moving closer to a one-party system than any sort of multiparty arrangement:

If you want to know why there might be protesters at the Dem Convention, start by looking at the party platform pic.twitter.com/4SizIfkfxH

— derek davison (@dwdavison9318) June 28, 2016

There is some nuance missing here (e.g., the rejection of the $15 minimum wage amendment leaves in place a minimum wage at that amount but will not index the amount to the inflation rate, as some wanted), and the platform is not final, but these policy decisions– as well as others not noted, including the rejection of a proposal opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement— appear to portend movement by the Democratic Party closer to the Republican Party, if not any meaningful sense of “the center.”

A functioning democracy needs a national political environment that features at least two political parties. Right now, it looks like America’s may be collapsing down to one.

Advertisement