PARTIES - third parties + two-party systems Flashcards
How successful are third party candidates in federal elections?
Not very successful at all
The House is ALL Republican or Democrat.
The Senate only has two independent Senators: Bernie Sanders from Vermont is one of them.
What are the types of third parties you can have?
National third party like the Green Party.
Regional third party like the State’s Rights Party (Dixiecrats)
Single issue third parties such as the US Marijuana Party
Who are the top three third parties?
Compare this with the two big parties
Libertarian Party are the largest with 370,000 registered voters (fiscal conservatives but social progressives)
Green Party have 250,000 registered voters
Constitution Party have 76,000 registered voters.
Republicans have 30 million registered voters
Democrats have 42.5 million registered voters
FPTP - how does this affect their chances of electoral success?
Their votes are not concentrated, they’re spread out so this makes it difficult for third candidates to win a plurality of the vote.
Regional parties do better because they concentrate their votes.
How is money a huge loop-hole that prevents third parties from breaking through?
*matching funds
Firstly, the media overlooks candidates so they don’t get support. But because they don’t have support, they can’t get any donations. Because they don’t have donations, they don’t get support ETC.
Matching funds = third parties must have won at least 5% of the vote at the previous election. Those who haven’t, don’t qualify for matching funds.
How do TV debates affect third party candidates’ chances of success?
1980 and 1992 were the only two elections where TV debates included third party candidates.
What are Ballot Access Laws?
Each state has laws for how candidates can qualify to appear on the ballot.
Most require a collection of signatures which can be costly across all 50 states.
How do big-tent parties steel the thunder of the third parties?
The big-tent parties steal the ideological space of rival third parties -
The Tea Party Movement; rather than create a new party, this movements has used primary elections to elect more conservative republicans.
Popular third parties/movements are adopted by the main parties.
Do Third parties still impact US politics?
2000 election
The 2000 Presidential Election between George Bush, Al Gore, and Ralph Nader.
3% of votes go to Nader (Green Party)
Bush wins with 47.8%
Gore lost with 48.38%
Had the Greens voted for Dems, then Al Gore would have won.
