Most Anericam voters, regardless of what position they’re voting for, tend to choose one of the two major parties, or no one at all. The exceptions happen when someone not in those parties makes duch a name for themselves that they can convince voters to deviate from that “comfortable” norm.
It’s also possible for people elected as a member of one of the parties to also support changing the very system that elected them for the better. It just takes a politician with more integrity than loyalty to a party.
When the party has tools to retaliate (censure, primarying the politician in their next election, removal of committees/assignments, etc.) it makes it even harder for those politicians to stick around long enough to sufficiently fill the political body they serve in to make change.
I don’t know the details of how your electoral system works. But if it’s possible to vote 3rd party for the legislative houses, you have a clear path you can exploit to make something change. (Independently of how people vote today.)
Nearly all of our elections are first-pqst-the-post. Also so much of the public discourse around political parties reinforces the two-party system, such that people tend to be very against or at least wary of third parties. It’s certainly possible for 3rd party candidates to make it to the federal/national legislature (“state” to us is one of the 50 primary divisions of the country, rather than the country itself as is used so many other places). But since so few do, there is not really enough political will at one time to overturn the homeostasis that the self-interest of the two major parties’ power almost inherently enforces.
Could it happen? Sure. The pathway exists. But the liklihood in having enough people in the legislature at once willing to do it is quite low. There would have to be a huge change in how the populace views our system, and while there have been opportunities in the past for that to build (we are in one now), they have always fizzled out in the past.
Cant you vote in more parties on the legislative elections?
Most Anericam voters, regardless of what position they’re voting for, tend to choose one of the two major parties, or no one at all. The exceptions happen when someone not in those parties makes duch a name for themselves that they can convince voters to deviate from that “comfortable” norm.
It’s also possible for people elected as a member of one of the parties to also support changing the very system that elected them for the better. It just takes a politician with more integrity than loyalty to a party.
When the party has tools to retaliate (censure, primarying the politician in their next election, removal of committees/assignments, etc.) it makes it even harder for those politicians to stick around long enough to sufficiently fill the political body they serve in to make change.
I don’t know the details of how your electoral system works. But if it’s possible to vote 3rd party for the legislative houses, you have a clear path you can exploit to make something change. (Independently of how people vote today.)
Nearly all of our elections are first-pqst-the-post. Also so much of the public discourse around political parties reinforces the two-party system, such that people tend to be very against or at least wary of third parties. It’s certainly possible for 3rd party candidates to make it to the federal/national legislature (“state” to us is one of the 50 primary divisions of the country, rather than the country itself as is used so many other places). But since so few do, there is not really enough political will at one time to overturn the homeostasis that the self-interest of the two major parties’ power almost inherently enforces.
Could it happen? Sure. The pathway exists. But the liklihood in having enough people in the legislature at once willing to do it is quite low. There would have to be a huge change in how the populace views our system, and while there have been opportunities in the past for that to build (we are in one now), they have always fizzled out in the past.