U.S. Versus: The Two Party System

Civics 101

In this episode of Civics 101, Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy explore the origins, implications, and global comparisons of the U.S. two-party

Key takeaways

• The U.S. two-party system is not mandated by the Constitution but is largely shaped by its electoral system, particularly single-member districts and winner-takes-all voting.
• Historically, parties were seen as too similar (post-WWII consensus), leading to voter alienation; today, they are perceived as too far apart, increasing polarization.

Main topics

• Origins of the U.S. two-party system
• Comparison with multi-party democracies in Europe

Notable quotes

"It's not that they are pathetic, but they certainly feel... alienated oftentimes." – Guillermo Rosas

Conclusion

The U.S. two-party system has both strengths and weaknesses, enabling stable governance in a diverse nation but often leaving voters feeling

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Do you remember the 21st night of September? Love that song. Love that song. But anyways, it is still September. Everybody's going back to school. So we at Civics 101 are hitting up the episodes that teachers in the U.S. use in classrooms more than any others. And today's a big one. One of the questions we get asked most often. Why do we have a two-party system in the United States? Why are we fated? To always have exactly two parties fighting like Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa until the end of time. Or Will Turner drops a bloody coin on a pile. Don't other democracies out there have more than two parties? How do they get away with it? And finally, and this is truly up to you to decide, are places that have more than two parties also more small-D democratic than we are? It's up to you. It's an us versus today. How does the U.S. fare against other democracies around the world? And it's specifically us versus the two party system. Stick around. Speaker 4 (1:10) Hey, everyone. It's Nick Capodice here. If you have found yourself asking, can the president really do that? Then you got to check out You Might Be Right. It is the chart-topping civics podcast produced by Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee. Named after Howard Baker's guiding principle to, quote, always remember the other fellow might be right, end quote. You Might Be Right aims to inspire the next generation of leaders in government, public policy, and public service by filling a critical gap in today's media environment and offering balanced perspectives without the shouting matches found on cable news. Each episode, former Tennessee governors from both sides of the aisle, Phil Bresden and Bill Haslam, tackle timely policy conversations with luminaries like Al Gore, Judy Woodruff, and more. Their new season just launched, and they are tackling such big questions as, is there too much money in political campaigns? And should a president be able to take control of a state's National Guard to restore order, even if a governor resists? Hear balanced perspectives without the shouting matches found on cable news. Follow You Might Be Right on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And make sure to tell them Civics 101 sent you. Speaker 4 (2:34) You watch enough political speeches, Hannah, and it gets to the point you don't even hear it anymore. Speaker 2 (2:41) But don't let anyone tell you that America isn't great. I think Speaker 4 (2:44) we Speaker 2 (2:45) have Speaker 4 (2:45) to Speaker 2 (2:45) get back to what this election has to be about, okay? This is the greatest country in the history of mankind. We live Speaker 1 (2:51) in the greatest nation Speaker 2 (2:52) on Earth. Thank you. Speaker 1 (2:54) Instead, I tell this story just to remind you of the magical, intoxicating power of America. America. Speaker 4 (3:04) You're listening to Civics 101. I'm Nick Capodice. I'm Speaker 6 (3:06) Hannah McCarthy. And Speaker 4 (3:07) today we're asking how we measure up against the rest of the world. It seems, Hannah, every few weeks we come up with another series on our show, but this is one I desperately want to revisit. It's called Us Versus, or U.S. Versus, where we compare other successful, or sometimes unsuccessful, governmental systems to our own. And today, something we get asked about constantly. The two-party system. Why do we have it? Can it change? And most importantly, how does our system compare to other democracies? And yeah, I'm doing like a whole Street Fighter 2 thing. This is the opening music to that, by the way. Speaker 6 (3:46) What is Street Fighter 2? Speaker 4 (3:48) It's a violent lesson in democracy, Hannah. Players pick a fighter who lives in a country somewhere in the world and they fly around the world visiting other countries and do battle with other fighters there. So Speaker 6 (3:59) it's an arcade game. Speaker 4 (3:59) It's an arcade game. Speaker 6 (4:01) And Speaker 4 (4:01) right off the bat, I have to say, that is ridiculous. There is no M. Bison to defeat at the end of this episode. But I do want to say one thing, Hannah. It's a fast, personal anecdote. Did I ever tell you about the play that I was in in New York that was really bad? Speaker 6 (4:19) From what I understand, you were in a lot of really bad plays. That's fair. Speaker 4 (4:22) This one was one of the worst, and I'm not going to name the director, but I was having a tough time in rehearsal one night because I didn't like any of the choices they were making, and I was upset, and a friend of mine said, Nick, no matter how bad you think a director is, they've got a better seat than you. And I'm never going to forget that. Speaker 6 (4:42) Meaning you can't accurately critique your own performance because you're you. Yeah. So to take that lesson to heart for civics, it's hard to study American governmental systems when you're in them. You're basically on stage. Right. Speaker 4 (4:55) So first I'm going to explain why we have a two-party system, but then we'll talk about the pros, cons, and how other democracies do it. Hold Speaker 6 (5:04) on a second, Nick. I can hear the gathering of pitchforks. There are other parties in the United States. There Speaker 4 (5:12) are. There are many other parties. Keep the pitchforks in the barn. But I will say, as of this recording, December 2021, every member of the House of Representatives is a Republican or a Democrat. And in the Senate, there are two independents, but they always caucus with the Democratic Party. Of the 7,383 seats in state legislatures, only 25 of them are held by members of other parties. Speaker 6 (5:37) So. While there are other parties, we are known internationally as a country that has a two-party system. Speaker 4 (5:44) Yeah, and to continue on that thread, to put us in the us-versus frame of mind, I talked to a specialist in that, in comparative politics, Guillermo Rosas. He teaches at Washington University at St. Louis. Speaker 3 (5:57) Comparative politics basically uses the comparative method to say meaningful things about politics in general. And here the emphasis is in using the domestic politics of different countries as data points, as observations that we can leverage to make general claims about political phenomena in general. Speaker 4 (6:20) Guillermo told me that his students get very animated when he teaches the two-party system because they are frustrated. Speaker 3 (6:28) It's not that they are pathetic, but they certainly feel... alienated oftentimes, right? They see two options nowadays. It used to be that because I'm old enough to have had a student at TAR now in their 30s or 40s, there was a