A number third party, independent, and write-in candidates have performed well in many
U.S. elections.
Greens, Libertarians and others have elected state Legislators and local officials.
The Socialists had 600 mayors at one time before
World War I, including
Milwaukee, Wisconsin;
New Haven, Connecticut;
Reading, Pennsylvania; and
Schenectady, New York. There have been
20th Century governors elected as independents, and from such parties as
Progressive,
Reform, Farmer-Labor, Populist, and
Prohibition. There were others in the century before. However, the
United States has had a two-party system for over a century.
The winner take all system for presidential elections and the single-seat plurality voting system for Congressional elections have over time created the two-party system (see
Duverger's law).
Third party candidates very rarely win any elections. For example, such a candidate only won a
U.S. Senate election twice (0.6%) since
1990. Therefore, it is very rare to have a national officeholder not affiliated with and endorsed by one of the two major parties.
Currently, there are only two
U.S. Senators (
Joe Lieberman and
Bernie Sanders), who are neither
Democrat nor
Republican, while no
U.S. Representative hails from outside the major parties. Although third party candidates rarely actually win elections, they can have an effect on them. If they do well, they are often accused of having a spoiler effect.
Sometimes they have won votes in the electoral college, as in the 1832
Presidential election. They can draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the majority parties. If such an issue finds acceptance with the voters, one or more of the major parties may adopt the issue into its own party platform. Also, a third party may be used by the voter to cast a protest vote as a form of referendum on an important issue.
Third parties may also help voter turnout by bringing more people to the polls. Third party candidates at the top of the ticket can help to draw attention to other party candidates down the ballot, helping them to win local or state office. In 2004 the
U.S. electorate consisted of an estimated 43% registered
Democrats and 33% registered
Republicans, with independents and those belonging to other parties constituting 25%.[2] The only three
U.S. Presidents without a major party affiliation were
George Washington,
John Tyler, and
Andrew Johnson, and only
Washington served his entire tenure as an independent. Neither of the other two were ever elected president in their own right, both being vice presidents who ascended to office upon the death of a president, and both became independents because they were unpopular with their parties. John Tyler was elected on the
Whig ticket in 1840 with
William Henry Harrison but was expelled by his own party. Andrew Johnson was elected with
Abraham Lincoln on the
National Union ticket in
1864, after serving as
Democratic Senator and
Governor in
Tennessee, but effectively governed as an independent as the new party floundered into oblivion. Currently Governor
Lincoln Chafee, an independent in
Rhode Island, is the only serving governor not from one of the two major parties.
In winner-take-all (or plurality-take-all), the candidate with the largest number of votes wins, even if the margin of victory is extremely narrow or the proportion of votes received is not a majority. Unlike in proportional representation, runners-up do not gain representation in a first-past-the-post system
. In the United States, systems of proportional representation are uncommon, especially above the local level, and are entirely absent at the national level. In
Presidential elections, the majority requirement of the
Electoral College, and the Constitutional provision for the
House of Representatives to decide the election if no candidate receives a majority, serves as a further disincentive to third party candidacies
.
In the United States, if an interest group is at odds with its traditional party, it has the option of running sympathetic candidates in primaries
. If the candidate fails in the primary and believes he has a chance to win in the general election he may form or join a third party. Because of the difficulties third parties face in gaining any representation, third parties tend to exist to promote a specific issue or personality.
Often, the intent is to force national public attention on a such an issue. Then one or both of the major parties may rise to commit for or against the matter at hand, or at least weigh in.
H. Ross Perot eventually founded a third party, the
Reform Party, to support his
1996 campaign. In 1912,
Theodore Roosevelt made a spirited run for the presidency on the
Progressive Party ticket, but he never made any efforts to help Progressive congressional candidates in
1914, and in the
1916 election, he supported the Republicans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_(United_States)
- published: 19 Mar 2014
- views: 3975