How democratic are the British and American party systems

Two-Party Systems

Genuine two-party systems are actually very rare. The classic examples have always been held to be the Anglo-American democracies, and the USA, at least at the federal level, is as near as exists to a genuine two-party system. Even US presidential elections usually have several more candidates, and in the 1980 election the third party candidate, John Anderson, though ultimately getting a very poor vote, was seen by some commentators as a serious threat earlier in the campaign. Ross Perot, who eventually won the highest 'third party' vote since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 presented an even greater threat in the elections of the 1990s. Moreover, in the 2000 election it was considered that Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, attracted sufficient votes from the Democrat, Al Gore, to deprive him of victory in least one additional state, and thereby of the presidency. Britain has never been a true two-party system since the early years of the 20th century (and even then, only if pre-independence Irish representation is discounted); there have always been members of parliament from several parties, and always, especially, some sort of parliamentary Liberal party. As the dealignment of voters from the traditional two-class, two-party model has developed, especially with a modest Liberal (now Liberal Democrat) revival from its post-war nadir and the rise of the Scottish and Welsh nationalists, the House of Commons cannot be described as bipartisan. Generally, as is the case with the one party in a single-party system , the 'two' parties in a two-party system tend to be so broadly based as to be almost portmanteaus for a set of ideologically conflictual elements. The point is that unless the social cleavage structure of a society is very simple indeed, there will always be more points of view, and more sectional interests, than can properly be represented by one or two united and homogeneous parties. The existence, or apparent existence, of two-party systems owes more to a combination of the greater salience of one cleavage than of the others and an election system that is, as in the Anglo-American polities, extremely unproportional in its representative effects.

Party System Dynamics

Democratic Party systems function as channels of representation and accountability. Different types of party systems give priority to different processes of representation. First, party systems differ with respect to how clear a policy choice they offer the electorate. Second, party systems differ with respect to whether one party regularly wins a legislative majority. Even multiparty systems can routinely give one party a legislative majority, as in Japan for most of the period since the mid-1950s. In contrast to systems of more than two parties, however, two-party systems feature a purely competitive situation, in which single-party majority governments can be expected. When the choice is clear and one party obtains a majority, electoral accountability is high. These conditions do not necessarily apply when more than two parties effectively contest elections. The more complex bargaining situations, lessened accountability, and frequent coalitions ...