• Background: Electoral rules, such as plurality voting, creates 2 party systems
• Debate:
• Recent Developments:

Background

• A two party system refers to a government in which the same two political parties are continuously elected to dominate the political process. One party will hold the majority in the legislature. In contrast, a multi-party system consists of three or more dominate parties that compete for control of the legislature. Often two or more parties will form a coalition to gain the majority of seats necessary to control government. A single party state usually prohibits other parties from running in elections.
• Electoral rules often determine party systems. Two party systems are unlikely to form in countries with proportional representation, wherein the legislature is divided based on the percentage of votes each party receives during the general election. This process makes it easier for minor parties to enter the legislature.
• It has been theorized that two party systems are more likely to occur with plurality voting, or "winner takes all" electoral systems. The party that receives the majority of votes receives all of the seats at stake. Since minor parties tend to be smaller, there is little chance one will be elected if they must receive the majority of votes to get a seat. India is one the notable exceptions to this theory. It is the world's largest democracy and has many regional parties.
• Two party systems have been known to produce fairly homogenized parties since each must try to appeal to a plurality of the population to win elections. Parties in multi-party systems can afford to have distinctly different agendas and represents a spectrum of viewpoints. Compromise between agendas becomes important when forming coalitions.

Debate

Country Comparison

• Most other democratic nations have more than two parties, making domination by one extremely difficult. As a result, most governments that are formed rely on the support of several parties, and if one becomes dissatisfied, the government created by the coalition of those parties can be replaced. The result when having many parties is that governments are likely to be less stable, but more concerned with meeting the demands of a greater number of people.
• France has two parties of note: Union for a Popular Movement, and the Socialist Party. In the United Kingdom, there are 3 major parties: Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat.
• Germany has two major parties: Christian Democratic and Social Democratic, but also three substantial smaller parties, each of which received 8% or more of the vote in the last election and have 50+ seats in the German parliament.
• Italy has eight major political parties, the smallest of which got 4% of the vote.
• Portugal has two major political parties, but four more hold seats (between 2 and 12) in the Assembly of the Republic.

Recent Developments