Two parties is a design flaw of first past the post. There can be regional parties, and occasionally re-alignment elections, but the natural outcome of single member first past the post elections is two big-tent parties with roughly 50% of the seats each.
You need proportional representation or multi-member districts to have more than two stable parties.
Washington warned against political parities, period. The problems of first past the post creating a two party duopoly weren’t understood at the time.
It’s not a very practical approach to nationwide electoral strategy, IMO. Washington himself was allied with Hamilton’s Federalist party in practice, even if he never officially declared for it.
We’re never should have fallen to two parties like Washington and other founders warned against.
Two parties is a design flaw of first past the post. There can be regional parties, and occasionally re-alignment elections, but the natural outcome of single member first past the post elections is two big-tent parties with roughly 50% of the seats each.
You need proportional representation or multi-member districts to have more than two stable parties.
Washington warned against political parities, period. The problems of first past the post creating a two party duopoly weren’t understood at the time.
It’s not a very practical approach to nationwide electoral strategy, IMO. Washington himself was allied with Hamilton’s Federalist party in practice, even if he never officially declared for it.