why do we mainly use a two party system?

Answer 1

America has a Two Party System mostly due to the issues that arose during the process of ratifing the Constitution. The country was split with one group, the Federalist, supporting the Constitution, and the other, the Antifederalist, fearing that the Constitution gave the National government too much power.

After the ratification of the Constitution, there were still two conflicting major views of where the power should lie. One side said that the National government should have most of the power, and the otherside said the Local governments. These divisions were more or less the same as the divisions between the Federalists and the Antifederalist.

However, two strong personalities began to gather followers. Alexander Hamilton of the Federalist; Thomas Jefferson of the Antifederalist. Thus the political theories of that time were called Hamiltonianism and Jeffersonianism.

There were other political theories floating around as well, but because of the power that Hamilton and Jefferson held, their groups became dominant. In fact, the two groups become so dominate that it was nearly impossible to get elected if a politician did not have the support of one of the groups.

Since then, the major parties have just held so much power and name recognition that it still remains nearly impossible to gain the money and support to win an election without them.

That's the major reason we have a Two-Party System. There are a few others. For example, the Electorial College. In order to become President, a candidate must win 270 electorate votes. With only two parties, someone will always recieve the 270 votes. However, if there was a powerful third party that could steal electorial votes from both parties, then it would be possible for no candidate to recieve the 270 votes needed.

At which point, the House of Representatives picks the President for us.

Answer 2

A two party system is definitely not something of which the founders of the US would have approved. The two party system emerged through time as the two main parties gained more power and money than any other party. Third parties simply do not have the recources, the name recgonition, the credibility, or the loyalty that the Democrats and Republicans have and, therefore, do not win large-scale elections.

Answer 3

The United States has a "first to a post" system. This means whoever gets the most votes wins and whoever gets second gains nothing. In a parliamentary system you get a certain amount of votes for your party and based on those votes you get a certain amount of representatives. Therefore you at least get something instead of nothing. That is why the UK has so many parties who have members of parliament.

Answer 4

The real reason: Money.

America has had SEVERAL political parties in it's past, and some Third Party candidates are very strong...but to get elected today means lots of publicity AND therefore Lots and LOTS of Money!

In theory, a third party candidate could be elected. But, in practice, the Democratic and Republican National Committees have made it harder in some states to even get third-party candidates on the ballot - write-in campaigns don't generate enough steam to get someone into office, with a few exceptions.

Answer 5

That's just the way people usually vote. It's not that we "use" a 2 party system, it's just throughout most of our history, there have only been 2 viable parties.

Answer 6

Because we have an ID 10 T problem in the USA.

Answer 7

Tradition. America and American Government is built on Tradition. Maybe we are lazy, maybe we just fear change, but history has shown that we rely on long standing tradition.

Answer 8

To give us the illusion of a choice.

Answer 9

Because there aren't many other goals to be pursued that are not either liberal or conservative.

Answer 10

We can't count to three?