A two-party system is a form of party system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Left-right politics or the Left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions political ideologies, or political parties In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities Syncretic politics involves taking political positions that attempt to reconcile seemingly opposed ideological systems usually by combining some elements associated with the A party platform, also known as a Manifesto, is a list of the principles which a Political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose A party system is a concept in comparative Political science concerning the system of government by political parties. A dominant-party system, or one party dominant system, is a Party system where only one Political party can realistically become the Government A multi-party system is a system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition Non-partisan democracy (also no-party democracy) is a system of representative government or organization such that universal and periodic Elections A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of Party system Government in which a single Political party A political spectrum (plural Spectra) is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes See also List of political parties by United Nations geoscheme This is an overview of political parties by country, in the form of a table with a link See also List of political parties by country This is a lists of political parties by United Nations geoscheme around the world in the form This is a list of political parties around the world by ideology. A party system is a concept in comparative Political science concerning the system of government by political parties. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral An election is a Decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office As a result, all, or nearly all, elected offices end up being held by candidates endorsed by one of the two major parties. Coalition governments occur only rarely in two-party systems, though each party may internally look like a coalition. A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a Cabinet of a parliamentary Government in which several parties cooperate

Under a two-party system, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature (or a legislative house in a bicameral system), and is referred to as the majority party. In Government, bicameralism (bi + Latin la ''camera'' chamber is the practice of having two legislative or Parliamentary chambers Thus a bicameral The other party is referred to as the minority party.

Notable examples of countries with "two party systems" include the United States and Jamaica. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Jamaica (ˈdʒəˈmeɪkə} is an Island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. Some countries that feature weak third or fourth parties, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are often thought of as being two party states as well, as actual governance of the country may be dominated by only two parties even though other parties may have reasonable bases of support. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Contents 1 How and why it occurs 1.1 How it began in the U.S. 2 Advantages and disadvantages 3 References

How and why it occurs

Often general elections have rules that allow any number of candidates to be placed on a final ballot as long as those candidates meet some minimum requirements, often based on signatures of support gathered. A general election is an Election in which all or most members of a given political body are up for election This type of general election promotes coalition building outside of the election process. These coalitions or political factions have, over time, become formalized associations called political parties with rules and procedures for selecting the candidate most likely to win in order to put forward the strongest candidate for the General Election. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral In such a system the two most well organized and unified parties will ultimately have recurring success. Since there can only be two successful parties, then the two parties often become more like coalitions of factions that would have otherwise been their own discrete parties in other electoral systems. A voting system allows voters to choose between options often in an Election where candidates are selected for public office. These unified parties are held together despite their differences because their common political beliefs outweigh their differences and because of the threat of vote splitting. Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates and

Vote splitting can affect the outcome of an election when a plurality and not majority is required to win. A majority, also known as a simple majority in the US, is a Subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group In this scenario, two candidates which may represent a majority political viewpoint both receive votes that would have otherwise gone to the other candidate, thus "throwing" the election to a candidate that may have received far less than majority support. A Two-round system with a non partisan primary reduces concerns over vote splitting, because the top two candidates' names from the primary will be printed on the final ballot. The two-round system (also known as the second ballot or runoff voting) is a Voting system used to elect a single winner In this scenario, the voter still has an opportunity for tactical voting to select the better candidate in the final election. In Voting systems tactical voting (or strategic voting or sophisticated voting) occurs when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her

Two-party systems, by their nature, allow third parties to occasionally arise, gain support and ultimately supplant one of the two major parties. This is the scenario that occurred when the Labour Party replaced the Liberal Party in the 20th century United Kingdom and when the Republican Party replaced the Whigs in the 19th century United States. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s and a third party The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Whig Party was a Political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Under Duverger's law third parties may rise to prominence within the two-party system but only at the ultimate expense of one of the two former major parties. In Political science, Duverger's law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a Two-party system. The system re-stabilizes into two-party mode after a three-party interlude.

In countries that use proportional representation (PR), especially where the whole country forms a single constituency (like Israel), the electoral rules discourage a two-party system; the number of votes received for a party relates directly and proportionally to the number of representative seats won, and new parties can thus develop an immediate electoral niche. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Duverger identified that the use of proportional representation would make a two party system less likely. Maurice Duverger (born June 5 in Angoulême, France, 1917 is a French Jurist, Sociologist and Politician.

How it began in the U. S.

America's first President George Washington, did not belong to a political party. George Washington (February 22 1732 December 14 1799 served as the first President of the United States of America (1789&ndash1797 and led the He believed they did not best serve the people's interests. This made him America's only President who was elected as an independent (not affiliated with a party), though John Tyler was expelled from his party a few months after taking office. John Tyler Jr (March 29 1790 January 18 1862 was the tenth President of the United States (1841-1845 and the first ever to obtain that office via succession John Tyler Jr (March 29 1790 January 18 1862 was the tenth President of the United States (1841-1845 and the first ever to obtain that office via succession Most of America's founding fathers were opposed to political parties, and wanted none of them in the U. S.

America's first political party was the Federalist Party founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1792. The Federalist Party (or Federal Party) was an American political party in the period 1792 to 1816 with remnants lasting into the 1820s The Federalists favored a strong central government ruled by a wealthy educated elite, large cities with powerful industry, a national bank, strong military, treaty with Britain, and fewer rights for states and most citizens. Federalists controlled the government until 1801. George Washington supported many Federalist policies. America's second President, John Adams, was a member of the Federalist Party. John Adams (October 30 1735 July 4 1826 was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. ^[1]

America's second political party was the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1792 in order to oppose the policies of the Federalists. Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence James Madison Jr (March 16 1751 – June 28 1836 was an American Politician, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817 and one of the Founding The emergence of the Democratic-Republican Party marked the beginning of the U. S. two-party system. Jefferson was reluctant to create a party because he was opposed to political parties in general because of their power struggles for control of the government, but he felt that founding an opposition party was the best way to protect the rights of citizens from the consolidation of power in the federal government that the Federalists favored. The Democratic-Republican Party opposed the treaty with Britain, favored an agriculture-driven economy, spoke out against the Constitution (largely due to its initial vagueness and ambiguity), denounced the national bank, and promoted citizen's and states' rights. It became the dominant political party in the United States from 1800 until the 1820s, when it split into competing factions, one of which became the modern-day Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party.

Therefore, the two party system in the U. S. occurred to prevent one party from gaining too much power, by creating a second party with opposite policies.

Advantages and disadvantages

The two-party system's defenders argue that:

• Uncommon and unconventional ideas remain non-influential, so policies and governments do not change rapidly. While smaller parties find this exceptionally frustrating, proponents of the two-party system suggest that it enhances stability while eventually allowing for ideas that gain favor to become politically influential.
• Bickering of narrowly based ideological factions in multi-party systems can lead to a torpid legislative process. These factions, if they gain enough influence via winning seats, can adopt a "by any means necessary" mentality of furthering their agenda which can include purposely blocking or delaying important legislation.
• Two-party systems offer stronger, majority governments which can pass needed legislation without the fetterence of minor parties.

People against the two-party system argue that:

• Narrowly based ideological factions can force the major parties to help them in exchange for their support. This can create a chaotic and fluctuating system of alliances that intensifies confusion among voters. Additionally, this "tie-breaker" influence minor parties achieve can serve to undermine the true positions of the major parties.
• The ruling party's majority may still be based on a smaller segment of the population than coalition governments due to lower turnout, and votes cast that do not lead to the desired representative [1]. The majority of this body (20% plus one) rules the nation. [2]
• Legislative representation can skew wildly from the actual percentage of the vote a party wins. For example, the party with the second-highest total vote tally actually won a parliamentary majority in the 1847, 1852, 1874, and 1951 UK general elections, and the most seats in the January 1910, December 1910, 1929, and February 1974 elections. Results |} Total votes cast 482429 "Others" includes Irish Confederate Party. Results |} Note that while the Conservatives had in theory a slim majority over the Whigs the party was divided between protectionist and Peelite wings of which the former Results |} Total votes cast 2466037 "Others" include the Catholic Union. Results |} Total votes cast 28596594 All parties shown Conservative result includes the Ulster Unionists Votes summary Headline This is a list of United Kingdom general elections since the first in 1802 The United Kingdom general election of January 1910 was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The United Kingdom general election of December 1910 was held from 3 to 19 December The 1929 UK general election was held on 30 May 1929 and resulted in a Hung parliament. Results |} Total votes 31321982 All parties are shown The seats won by the Ulster Unionists are compared with those won by Unionist MPs in the 1970 election
• Elections based on geographical district representation can become subject to gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is a form of redistribution in which electoral district or Constituency boundaries are manipulated for electoral advantage
• Two-way elections encourage people to run negative campaigns.
• If one of the two parties becomes weak, a dominant-party system may develop. A dominant-party system, or one party dominant system, is a Party system where only one Political party can realistically become the Government In fact, a dominant party system has developed in almost every single country that has used first past the post (FPTP), at least at a regional level. The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member In the US, the Democrats often landslided in the southern portion up until the late 20th century, winning almost every seat available in most states in a phenomenon known as the Solid South. Solid South refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877 the end of the Reconstruction Mexico had a dominant party system until constitutional reforms added fairer proportional representation to the scheme.
• Campaign contributions can more easily corrupt a two-party system - since it has fewer players to receive donations. Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns.
• In an effort to attract voters, each party will adopt planks of the other party's platform, leading to the appearance in some skeptics' minds of a one-party system. A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of Party system Government in which a single Political party Examples include the American notion of a "Republicrat". The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Republicrat or Demopublican (also Republocrat or Demoblican)
• In The Federalist No. 10, James Madison decried the liability of representative legislatures to be controlled by single factions holding a majority of the seats. Federalist No 10 ( Federalist Number 10) is an Essay by James Madison and the tenth of the Federalist Papers, a series arguing James Madison Jr (March 16 1751 – June 28 1836 was an American Politician, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817 and one of the Founding Madison argues that because getting rid of factions is nearly impossible and leads to highly undesirable side-effects, ensuring that all factions are represented reduces the likelihood that any one faction will control all of the seats and institute any and all changes they desire, thus preventing majority tyranny. The phrase tyranny of the majority, used in discussing systems of Democracy and Majority rule, is a criticism of the Scenario in which decisions made ^[2] A two-party system often leads to one faction winning a majority of the seats and governing without compromise. ^[3] A multi-party system or proportional non-partisan system could be more consensus-based, allowing for laws to be passed less hastily and with more sincere debate on the issues.
• In the plurality system which encourages two-party system, most voters have perforce to engage in tactical voting, voting for candidates that may not be their first choice - either to help a perceived potential "winner" or to block a potential enemy. In Voting systems tactical voting (or strategic voting or sophisticated voting) occurs when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her
• Smaller parties suffer from under-representation: they will not receive a number of seats in the country's assembly that reflects the number of votes they receive (and therefore the amount of support they could or do receive). Some see this as undemocratic, arguing that citizens who vote for small parties should receive fair representation. Others see it as fair to discourage unpopular opinions.
• In a pluralized system, voters only get one more choice than they would under a totalitarian regime.

References

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