Two Party System, Representation of Public Opinion and Voting Behavior

Winner–takes–all system has led to a two-party system- a phenomenon described by Duverger’s law in USA -for three main reasons. First, the smaller parties are pressured to form an alliance with one of the two major parties to try to become big enough to challenge a large dominant party.[1] Second, voters adopt the strategic voting, and thus decide not to vote for candidates outside of one of the two large parties since they feel that their votes for third party candidates are usually ineffectual.¹ Third, many people do not vote if one of the two candidates appears to be dominating the race, because they feel that their vote will not make a difference in the outcome of the election¹. This trend has resulted in domination of two parties in the American Politics for a long time. One question, however, is whether this two party system is effectively representing the opinions of electorates or is it making the electorates to comprise and choose between unappealing narrow choices. Another question is how this two party system is affecting the voter turnout in election,

Critiques of two party system claim that restricting choices to two parties limits the free marketplace of ideas and reduces each voter's choice. Lisa Disch in the book “Tyranny of Majority” argues that two party system identifies popular sovereignty with choice, and then limits choice to one party or the other. If there is any truth to the analogy between elections and markets, America's faith in the two–party system begs the following question: Why do voters accept as the ultimate in political freedom a binary option they would surely protest as consumers?[2] This is the tyranny of the two–party system, the construct that persuades United States citizens to accept two–party contests as a condition of electoral democracy ².  Diverse citizens of the USA with diverse ideology are forced to choose between two choices, often very similar, which may or may not appeal to them. It is preposterous to think that the political rainbow can be summed up and represented properly by a bi-chromatic facsimile.[3] It is not only a political agenda that an electorate will be voting for a party, but all the political agenda that the party has put forward. This puts the electorate in trouble of deciding whom he is to vote, because his stance on one political agenda may be represented by one party while his stance on another political agenda may be represented by another party. Thus, a two party system forces people to make concessions on their beliefs, all in the name of simplicity³.

Two party system has been criticized for downplaying alternate views, and for not being able to include views from wide political spectrum.  Ariana Huffington in one of the Intelligence Square debate argued that two part system has made Americans prisoners of conventional wisdom. It has made us look every political problem through that obsolete binary prism of right versus wrong⁴.We will not be able to solve problems at same level of thinking that created it.[4]

With typically only two contestants for most offices in a general election, the candidates tend to converge to the middle of the political spectrum on the issues being discussed.  Voters do not feel that the parties give them even two distinct choices on Election Day. Voters also express their desire for a wider variety of candidates than those produced by the two parties. While some people censure the parties for their tendency to become more like one another over time to gather the centrist vote, few others criticize the parties for taking a black and white perspective with no gray area.³ No matter what reason a dislike for two party system may be, a majority of Americans (57%) agree that their views are not represented by either of the two parties and thus feel that there should be a third major political party in addition to the Democrats and Republicans.[5] According to Gallup polling data, in 2011 only 23 percent of Americans identified themselves as Republicans and 28 percent as Democrats, while 46 percent considered themselves independent[6]. If we are to apply those numbers to congressional representation, instead of the current representation, the Senate should be made up of 28 Democrats, 23 Republicans and 46 Independents, as well as three others, and the House of Representatives would contain 122 Democrats, 100 Republicans, 200 independents, and thirteen others. This gives a clear picture of representation of public opinion in American Politics.

The goal of effective democracy should be to achieve good government through high level of public participation. Therefore, voter turnout is very important in evaluating effectiveness of democracy and representation of public opinion.  Advocates of two party system argue that two party system encourage voter turnout by mobilizing the people to vote between two candidates.  They also emphasize that the two party system provides a stable balance by accommodating varied interests and opinions by considering the concerns of organized groups and individual voters. However, recent public polls on effectiveness of political parties have shown the opposite results. The report from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, puts 2012 voter turnout at 57.5% of all eligible voters, questioning the representation of public opinion in American democracy. When 43.5 percent of the population stays home on Election Day, there is no question whether public opinion is effectively addressed in the process or not.

Of the many other reasons, the dynamics of the two-party system also contributes to low voter turnout of the candidates. First because the major two parties may not have appealing choices, and second because they may have same choices.[7] For instance, Bob Dole and Bill Clinton both entered the 1996 presidential election in favor of balancing the budget, decreasing expenditures on welfare and Medicare, and cutting taxes. With the two parties in basic agreement on so many major issues, voters felt that there was no difference between the two candidates and no reason to vote, leading to the extremely low voter turnout.⁸

Similarly, the supporters of minority parties in two party system abstain from the voting process because they feel that smaller parties are not likely to get representation in government, since these parties cannot win in system in which top parties get to make the government. [8] This results and scholarly quotes explicitly prove that two party system has not been able to address the preferences of majority of citizens, but is making them choose between with an option of voting between narrow choices and another option of abandoning the election.  Theodore J. Lowi in his book “The Republic of Parties? Debating the two party system” makes a point that public participation can increase with the number of political parties. He writes: Because one of the function of the party is to mobilize the voters, a third party would mean more party worker and more activities and this might well increase the public participation. [9] Therefore, alternative political system in the form of multiparty system can be effective in representation of public opinion than the two party system.  

James Maddison writes in Federalist writes, “Republic refine and enlarge the public view by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice, will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.”¹⁰ Taking this as a base, some scholars argue that the number of the political parties should not matter much as long as Americans have wise representatives to represent the electorate given the representative nature of democracy in the USA.¹¹  They assert that the quality of the representative would be important than the position the representative holds on certain topic that are to be addressed by the representative.¹¹ However, two party system hinders the competition among the candidates to get the kind of candidates Madison defines.⁴

It can be assed that two party system has been inefficient in representing public opinion of people. Because two party system is based on binary solution of problems, it provides very narrow, often similar, options to choose from. The policy position that both the major parties hold do not appeal to majority of electorates as shown by recent poll data. The effect of which is also seen in voter turnout in each election.  Increase in competition, movement politics and removal of winner-takes-all system could be very effective ways to address wide spectrum of public opinion in American politics. 

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[1] Duverger, Maurice. 1972. Party Politics and Pressure Groups, translated by David Wagoner. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell

[2] Disch, Lisa Jane. 2002. Tyranny of the two Political System. Page 9 Columbia University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=2OSOnGvU_SQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Lisa+Jane+Disch%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NiB_UvbJFq3NsQTKgQI&ved=0CDIQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false.

[3] 2010. "Is two party system preferable to multiparty system?" Debate.org. http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-a-two-party-system-preferable-to-a-multi-party-system.

[4] Huffington, Arianna. 2011. "Two Party System is making America Ungovenable." Intelligence Square Debate, February 15. Accessed November 17, 2013. http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/560-the-two-party-system-is-making-america-ungovernable&tab=2.

[5] Andrew Kohut, Carroll Doherty Michael Dimock, and Scott Keeter. 2012. Voter Attitude. PEW RESEARCH CENTER, 13. http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/06-21-12%20Voter%20Attitudes.pdf.

[6] Gallup. 2013. Party Affiliation . Gallup . Accessed November 16, 2013. http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx.

[7] n.d. Two Party System: Winner takes it all. Duke University. Accessed November 16, 2013. https://web.duke.edu/poli/classes/proprep/withouttext.htm.

[8] Hill, David Lee. 2006. American Voter Turnout. Page 64.Westview Press.  http://books.google.com/books?id=YcgTUi1At_MC&pg=PA66&dq=two+party+system+and+voter+turnout&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xlSEUqKPOIfM2gWgq4DQDg&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false.

[9] Theodore J. Lowi, Joseph Romance. 1998. The Republic of Parties?: Debating the two party system.  Page 63. Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc. http://books.google.com/books?id=1bIVGPwmWgYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false11.

10 James Madison. Federalist. Number 10

11 Theodore J. Lowi, Joseph Romance. 1998. The Republic of Parties?: Debating the two party system.  Page 63. Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc. http://books.google.com/books?id=1bIVGPwmWgYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false11.