[AlphaQup]

Just curious how many people here understand why the United States' political system has a two party system and other Democracies throughout the World have a system consisting of multiple parties.

[constitution]

your curiosity is too open-ended -- way too many interpretations for such an observation. obviously you have your own single answer. why not share so everyone in here and swarm like sharks? =)

[constitution]

your curiosity is too open-ended -- way too many interpretations for such an observation. obviously you have your own single answer. why not share so everyone in here and swarm like sharks? =)

[constitution]

your curiosity is too open-ended -- way too many interpretations for such an observation. obviously you have your own single answer. why not share so everyone in here and swarm like sharks? =)

[constitution]

your curiosity is too open-ended -- way too many interpretations for such an observation. obviously you have your own single answer. why not share so everyone in here and swarm like sharks? =)

[ebe9]

Well there were a few other parties back in the day (Whigs, Federalists along with democrats and republicans) but they eventually died out or integrated with the two dominant ones. Other democracies around the world are relatively "new" democracies, and so in multiple parties exists in their immaturity.

[AlphaQup]

Originally Posted by ebe9

Well there were a few other parties back in the day (Whigs, Federalists along with democrats and republicans) but they eventually died out or integrated with the two dominant ones. Other democracies around the world are relatively "new" democracies, and so in multiple parties exists in their immaturity.

If this were true, then Democracies in other countries would eventually evolve into a two party system, but this is not going to be the case.

[ebe9]

Originally Posted by AlphaQup

If this were true, then Democracies in other countries would eventually evolve into a two party system, but this is not going to be the case.

Well hey, not everyone shares the same views as politicians in America. Who knows what direction these new democracies will head in. I doubt many of them will even last as long as the US anyway.

[ebe9]

I honestly predict a few socialists movements in these new democracies (third world). Capitalism and globalization are strong forces but it won't stop a mob of the exploited labor force from over-throwing your ass haha.

[AlphaQup]

Originally Posted by ebe9

Well hey, not everyone shares the same views as politicians in America. Who knows what direction these new democracies will head in. I doubt many of them will even last as long as the US anyway.

...this is my understanding...

Here in the United States you have two choices, Republican or Democrat. The problem with this is if your #1 political interest is small Government (Republican), than you are implicitly supporting the Christian-right (Republican), a strong military (Republican), a less environment friendly emphasis (Republican), pro-life (Republican) and isolationism (Republican) whether you like it or not. This is why it seems so backwards to non-Americans looking into the United States' two party system.

In non-US democracies each one of these political interests would represent their own independent political party. When elections are held for seats in Parliament (aka Congress), there is almost never a majority. What these Democracies do after the elections is they have to form a coalition; or in other words assemble alliances with other parties to make a majority [coalition].

For instance, lets say there are a 100 Parliament seats and the following political parties won (said) number of seats:

Small Government Party (26)
Socialist Government Party (16)
Pro-Choice Party (15)
Pro-Life Party (8)
Environment Friendly Party (10)
Big Business Party (6)
Athiest Party (9)
Pro-Christian Party (3)
Globalization Friendly Party (5)
Isolationism Party (2)

Basically the Small Government Party (Republican view in the United States), the Pro-Choice Party (Democratic view in the United States) and the Environment Friendly Party (Democratic view in the United States) could form a coalition with their 51 seats and hold a majority.

If we use the above numbers in the Unite States model, the Democrats would have won the election and the following political views would be (politically) embraced:

Socialist Government, Pro-Choice, Environment Friendly, Atheist (or non religous) and Globalization (strong foriegn policy) platforms.

I could go on and on and most likely be corrected even more, but conceptually I hope to have painted a good generalization of the differences.