Guest Blogger: Jake H.
Pros and Cons of the Two Party System
***Disclaimer: Any reference to America excludes the state of Nebraska***
As those of you who were awake on Monday probably know, it appears we are going to be studying political parties in the near future of APLG. America has many political parties, but in reality only two have significant influence on our country. The Democratic and Republican parties dominate the American political process, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon. There has been a long-raging debate on the effectiveness of our unofficial “two party system”, and I will highlight some of its pros and cons.
Pros: Despite what always happens in congress, it is easier for two parties to compromise than it is for three, four, five, or more to compromise on an issue. Having just two major candidates in an election would remove the need for runoff voting, or anything like that, thus saving time and taxpayer money. It encourages politicians to be more centric to appeal to the most voters. It avoids small political parties that only focus on one issue and don’t really care about anything else.
Cons: It divides the country into two main groups: democrats vs. republicans, liberals vs. conservatives. It lumps people into one broad category, rather than a specific area the person is interested in. It polarizes our nation and makes for bipolar power shifts in every election like those we talked about on Monday. It makes it extremely difficult for third-party candidates to win an election, because of fierce blue or red party loyalty, and because people don’t want the minor candidates to take away votes from their favorite major candidate (thanks Ralph).
In conclusion, there are many pros and cons to our two party system, but ultimately a multiple party system would be better for America. I’m not saying we should have like over nine thousand parties or anything, but a fewbc more would make a great improvement.
posted by erdecker @ 9:01 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Great prep for today's class Jake. Let's hope everyone had a chance to read your comments before our quiz. Interested to see other students responses to America's 2 party system. Keep it! It is as American as mom or apple pie. or Dump it! Let's let some others try and play the game.
Mr. Thompson
While it would be nice to have more than two parties, it would be illogical with the format of government we have now. It would be hard to change our current system of congress and the mindset of the American public.
With more parties it would be even harder to get anything done. Though it would bring many more ideas and views to the table, getting five or so groups to agree on something would be extremely hard. If we think nothing gets done today, imagine what it would be like if the President was one party, the House was dominated by a different, and the Senate was dominated by a different party !
I think that while there are problems with a Two-Party System, changing it to a multi-party system would just complicate things. I think people would still mainly vote Democrat or Republican, and only a small percentage of voters would branch out and vote for an unfamiliar party. It is much more simple and effective the way we have it now, and unless we abolished the idea of Democrat or Republican completely, far too many people would still associate themselves with that party to make it worthwhile to change.
Many people who say they are conservative or liberal don't strictly believe EVERYTHING their party says they should. Even though it would probably be impossible, would it be better to not have parties? Maybe then candidates could say what they ACTUALLY believe in or plan on doing instead of just saying what they need to to get elected.
A problem with going from the two party system to a multiparty system is that the two primary parties right now have a monopoly on the sides of an issue. Each party has a certain viewpoint and the other party has the other viewpoint. An additional party would have to work very hard to get their viewpoint out there, because most Americans already know which views align with which parties. If America is to have a multiparty system, the third parties have a lot of work to do.
One of your "Pros" appealing to the majority of the people could also be a negative because leaders can promise alot and not follow through. This can make it difficult to know if a candidate is really passionate about a policy or just trying to win votes without the intention of follow through.
I also thought people were being more independent rather than our country dividing into Democrats and Republicans? (more purple rather the blue and red)
I think that haveing a mulit-party system would complicate things much more, and politics doesn't need anymore complications. In the case of a two party and a multi-party system we have to choose a lesser of the two "evils". The same goes for politics and children, they will never be perfect but you try and get them as close as you can to it.
I feel that even with a multi party system many would still vote democrat or republican. like others said swithcing to that multi party system would be more complicated, but i think it would definitely be interesting.
I liked how Katie said that we are more of a purple country then a red and blue. But it isnt just in our country it is in our classes... we have the few extremes but if you look at the graphs we are a very vibarant purple.
I also agree with Katie's purpling! Well for someone like me, either confused or completely in the middle, an extra party may clarify things and have the same views as me. So, three "main" parties could be beneficial.
With three it wouldn’t be nearly as hard as 100s parties trying to vote, and it would be more democratic!
And for Taylor, I agree with the no party system. In a way that reflects Thoreau’s views. But would fail because everyone has different morals and America would never come to a consensus. :(
A multi-party system would force parties to work together more instead of just trying to get a majority and shutting the minority party out.
A no party system like we have on the local level would be good too, but probably will never happen for financial reasons.
Having a multi-party system in our country would bring many benefits to our government. It would present more ideas and beliefs in the government, however our country cannot afford to have a multi-party system during these troubled times in our country. Our government already has a hard time getting things passed such as the Health Care Bill through congress. Imagine getting bills, laws, and etc. through a multi-partied congress. With today's problems and issues our country does not need anymore factors slowing down our process of recovery because even with our dominated 2 party system we still aren't getting things done fast enough to solve our growing problems!!
Ramon F Banzon
It wouldnt necessarily be more difficult to pass legislation in congress with more parties. Instead of disagreeing on everything like our 2 main parties do, the multiple parties would agree with different other parties on different issues. Instead of being split 50-50, it might be split 33-33-34, so instead of a deadlocked bill, we might have a 67-33 majority of opinion, thus allowing the bill to pass. Right, now bill arent being passed because the two main parties are noto cooperating. A system with more parties would force the parties to work together more since it would be much more difficult to attain a filibuster-proof majority. We have pretty much always had a two-party system, we might as well try something new...
Ok so in an IDEAL world, multiple parties would be better. That way decisions won't be too extreme or biased (yay for purple). But since the "government is run by men and not angels", it would be WAY too complicated to run more than one party; we would get nothing done. Even if bills were easier to pass in a 3 party system cuz we'd only need like 34%, there would still be like 66% that didn't like it, even if they were different parties...
Personally i think Taylor's idea makes the most sense, but unfortunatly it would be super-di-dooper hard to organize. Presidents become nominated becuase they climed up there party; for a system of random morals to exist it would take a lot manpower.
Jake, your post is very well thought out, and i agree with what your saying. But there is no possible way for our country to shift into that direction. This is a government paradigm we are facing right now, the people believe that this the direction we need. When in actuality we need CHANGE
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