The US is the only "democratic" system in the world where there is only the bare minimum of plurality of parties for a democracy to be said to exist (namely just two parties) to vote for. Can someone explain to me how this came about and why it still continues?

In the (non-parliamentary) congressional legislative system of the US, there is no party discipline - legislators can vote for whatever they want, without being expelled from the party as in parliamentary systems. That being the case, each of the two political parties are wide coalitions with members that in europe would represent many separate parties. Membership in one of the two major political powers therefore gives only a very rough indication of what a legislator supports - the record and character of individuals, as opposed to their party membership, is much more important in the US than in europe. All that being the case, opposition to the incumbent naturally coalesces, resulting in one party in power, and one out of power. There is nothing in the US Constitution or law prohibiting the existence of multiple parties. The coalition building that occurs in european parliaments happens here too - it just happens within the respective parties. Also, since a legislator does not operate under party discipline, he is much more likely to support what he views as the interests of his constituency, as opposed to the party line.

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Blade: "more educated and literate people than Justabubba"

Justabubba: "that would include everyone"

http://politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=27847

Thanks for the info. Very interesting.

Would you have any info pertaining to my question in the OP?

Thanks for the info, is that why both parties legislator's seem to attach pork barrel spending to bills going through your system that benifits his/her constituants, and it is allowed to get the bill through?

The electoral method of USA also leads to polarizing the political forces into 2 major fronts. In most European countries the electoral method is based on proportional representation - which leads to "dilute" political system with many parties.

Not here in the UK, it is still first past the post!

There are occasionally third parties that come along. Currently the Libertarians are on the rise, winning a couple Governor spots and other things.

The real difficulty for a third party is the presidency. I'm given to understand that some systems feature a voting system where you vote for who you want, and then later the candidates with fewer votes get dropped and you vote again or something of that nature. Something to allow third or more party candidates to run without being a spoiler.

Uh,.......I just explained it.

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Blade: "more educated and literate people than Justabubba"

Justabubba: "that would include everyone"

http://politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=27847

Look at my name and you'll understand.

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http://www.nosocialism.com
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America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton - Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over - Sounds Republican).

As I described above, the non-party discipline system gives the single member district legistlator not much reason to support the party line, and every reason to bring back goodies to his district paid for by the whole country. Since everyone thinks the same way, deals are made whereby one congressman says "I'll support funding for your new bridge, if you help keep my army base open." The result? Pork for all.

__________________
Blade: "more educated and literate people than Justabubba"

Justabubba: "that would include everyone"

http://politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=27847