The Two-Party System Pros And Cons

The two-party system has sustained for all of the American political history and has become a trademark recognized by all Americans. “Despite civil upheavals, wars, and the collapse of several parties, two parties have dominated nearly every national political contest since the early 19th century” (“Two-Party System”). But, in what way, historically, has this system, that has sustained damage and prevailed against all odds, been detrimental to the United States governmental system? This ancient system has caused voters to compromise their ideology, as there is a lesser diversity of policies to complement the diverse voter population, and has allowed for already dominating parties to sustain their dominance and give little to no voice to third

Therefore, those that support the party do not have a say in the government governing them. According to the 1968 electoral polls for the leader “of the strongest third-party campaigns in U.S. history,” George Wallace, as shared by a research article on a credible and highly academic database for American political studies, American Government ABC-Clio, “won ten million popular votes [which was] 13% of the total [voter turnout]”, according to an author many trusted American political history books, Steven G. O’Brien (“Third Party”; O’Brien). This means that at this time, ten million people's views were not represented in the government from just one party. Each election there have been many parties with views that are not equally represented in the Congress, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House despite there being so many people that support those views. Many have tried to rebel against this concept of two-parties dominating and taking away the ability to express one’s ideals. However, the only body that has had an effect are the third parties who want to restore their influence and give a voice to the people that support them. Specific to history, one thrid party was created to counter this lack of influence. The Naturalist Law Party “tried to capitalize on the growth of voter

Because of the fact that there is a lack of enough parties to sustain the growing diversity of needs, many people are having to compromise their ideology to vote. While the goal of the two-party system is to simplify the voting process for the voters, it can not accomplish this due to the very definitions that makes two-party system up. Because there is a limited number of parties, each combination of ideas and policies the voter has in mind will not be supported entirely by one of the party. For instance, “a voter who supports the view of one party on a topic but supports the view of the other party on another topic is forced to compromise one of his views” making it harder for the voter to pick a side, according to a trusted Indian MBA exam preparatory website, TestFunda (“A Comparison of Political Systems”). With more variety, the voter has a better chance at not compromising all their ideals. Moreover, voters are not happy with the two-party system meaning this system fails to serve who it is meant to. During 2012, 2008, 2004, and 1996 of the years The Pew Research Center’s research in this field, a trusted and independent research group free from political influence, “a majority of Americans (57%) agree that there should be a third major political party in addition to the Democrats and Republicans” (“GOP”). Since the majority have wanted change continuously,