The tyranny of the two-party system / Lisa Jane Disch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Disch, Lisa Jane.

Series:

Power, Conflict, and Democracy: American Politics Into the 21st Century

Power, conflict, and democracy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political parties--United States.

Political parties.

Political science--United States.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (215 p.)

Other Title:

Tyranny of the 2 party system

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The closely contested presidential election of 2000, which many analysts felt was decided by voters for the Green Party, cast a spotlight on a structural contradiction of American politics. Critics charged that Green Party voters inadvertently contributed to the election of a conservative Republican president because they chose to "vote their conscience" rather than "choose between two evils." But why this choice of two? Is the two-party system of Democrats and Republicans an immutable and indispensable aspect of our democracy? Lisa Disch maintains that it is not. There is no constitutional warrant for two parties, and winner-take-all elections need not set third parties up to fail. She argues that the two-party system as we know it dates only to the twentieth century and that it thwarts democracy by wasting the votes and silencing the voices of dissenters. The Tyranny of the Two-Party System reexamines a once popular nineteenth-century strategy called fusion, in which a dominant-party candidate ran on the ballots of both the established party and a third party. In the nineteenth century fusion made possible something that many citizens wish were possible today: to register a protest vote that counts and that will not throw the election to the establishment candidate they least prefer. The book concludes by analyzing the 2000 presidential election as an object lesson in the tyranny of the two-party system and with suggestions for voting experiments to stimulate participation and make American democracy responsive to a broader range of citizens.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Tyranny of the Two-Party System

1. The Politics of Electoral Fusion, 1994-1997

2. The Politics of the Two-Party System

3. The Two-Party System: Genealogy of a Catchphrase

4. The Two-Party System and the Ideology of Process

5. Oppositional Democracy and the Promise of Electoral Fusion

Conclusion: Against the Tyranny of the Two-Party System

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780231504676

0231504675

OCLC:

818858143