One thing
that we must not ignore is the voting system that we have in the United States. Our use of the
"winner-take-all" system of elections that we use.
In many other
countries, a system called "proportional representation" is used. This means that
parties are represented in a parliament in proportion to the percent of votes they receive in an
election. In such a system, a party that won 25% of the vote, for example, would get about 25%
of the seats in the legislature.
In the US, a party that won 25% of the votes
in an election would likely get 0% of the representation (unless there were very odd
circumstances with a large number of candidates splitting the vote). In such a system, third
parties will have a tremendously difficult time breaking up the two-party system. Small parties
cannot win any seats until they are able to win a plurality in a given district. This makes it
hard for "third parties" to get going and helps to maintain the two-party system that
we have.
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