Is two parties enough?

United States

Many people dislike the two party system. They feel like neither party represents their views. And this is generally true but does having more parties fix this?

I don’t think it does.

Shoeland

Bear with me as we travel down a somewhat silly analogy.

Let’s suppose in Shoeland there are only 2 political issues that anyone cares about:

1. Shoes vs Sandals
2. Socks vs No Socks

There are 4 sides so Shoeland has 4 parties:

1. The Socks 4 life Party
2. The Sock Burners Party
3. The Shoe Wearers Party
4. The Hippy Party (Pro Sandals)

Cindy cares the most about sandals, she loves to show off her painted toes that match her pretty dresses. So Cindy always votes for The Hippy Party. She loves that there is a party that represents her views.

The Election comes and 100 representatives are chosen:

1. Socks 4 life: 40 seats
2. Sock Burners: 10 Seats
3. The Shoe Wearers: 20 Seats
4. The Hippy Party: 30 Seats

Cindy is happy The Hippy Party did well! She feels confident that there will be more liberal sandal policies, she even goes out and buys a bunch of new sandals.

But there is a problem: 60 votes is needed for a new law to pass. The Hippy Party does not have enough votes to pass the Sandals 4 All bill. They have to make a deal with another party, form a coalition. The Hippy Party refuses to work with The Shoe Wearers, their mortal enemies.

So they begrudgingly form a coalition with Socks 4 life. Together they have 70 votes, more than enough to get something passed. They pass the Sandals 4 All bill but with one small addendum: sandals must be worn with socks.

Cindy is not happy :( She throws out all her sandals and doesn’t leave bed until the next election. If she had known this is how it was going to go she would have voted for the sock burners, but then would she have ended up with shoes and no socks? Why can’t there be less parties? The political system is stupid. It doesn’t represent her views.

Representation

It feels like more parties would lead to better representation but if new laws require 50% or more votes then parties have to form coalitions and these coalitions likely will not represent the interest of the voter. With more parties we have to trust that the representatives we elect will make the “right” back alley deals.

But wait;

Isn’t this the same thing that happens with a two party system? It is but… Really the two parties in the US are already coalitions.

Demarcates: Social services, Civil rights, Immigration, Worker’s rights, Diplomacy…

Republicans: Nationalist, Conservative Christians, Fiscal Spending, Farmers, Companies, Defense…

There is a big difference here, you might not like these coalitions but you know what they are up front. With more parties you don’t get to weigh if your christian ideals are worth supporting corporate interests. Sometimes the devil you know is better.

No parties?

Why can’t we just vote for people based on their individual policies? This requires even more trust in our representatives. There would be very little to hold these representatives accountable (other than elections). Meaning it would be even easier for politicians to say one thing and do another.

And this also more or less creates a party per representative. Which would explode the amount of deal making, so we better really trust these people.

Unfortunately we are not blessed with an abundance of trust in our representatives, so this would be moving in the wrong direction.

So What then?

If the goal is to have our views better represented, rather than add more parities we should make our democracy less representational.

There are a few ways to this:

1. We can vote directly on laws. CA and WA are increasing doing this. In WA all tax changes require a public vote.
2. We can let individuals have more say in how their taxes are used.

How the two party system is suppose to work

The two party system is suppose to be self balancing. Presidential candidates in order to win pick a platform that is supported by most of the country. And when a candidate wins their agenda sets the policies of their party. This is suppose to keep the parties up to date so that they always represent close to half of the population.

However we find ourselves at a strange place the Republican party instead of changing their platform to include more people are using tactics to increase their power without increasing their numbers. This is not how things are intended to work.

Voter suppression and large campaign spending shouldn’t be the way to win. And honestly I am not sure where the Republican party goes from here. They have increased the loyalty of their base at the expense of moderate voters. And Republicans have caused so much reputational damage I am unsure if changing their platform at this point will re-win them middle America without some rebranding.

And it is hard not to speculate that if Mitt Romney or John McCain had won would America be this divided?

Conclusion

As frustrating as American politics are, it is worth asking yourself would more parties make things better? Asking myself this question I am forced to admit, I don’t think it would.