Political Science in Western Europe Lipset and Rokkam's freezing hypothesis, published in the 1967, approached the political spectrum from their experiential paradigm. The party system in Europe, and indeed most of the western world, had evolved through a homogeneous process which had experiences little in the way of social upheaval. The economies of the West were based on societal evolutions form agriculture to industry which had smoothly transitioned, and formed the

The merits of the two-party system all stem from its perceived (and probably justifiably so) stability. That stability is offered by many as reason enough to avoid rocking the boat. But, as presented here, the arguments against the two-party system and, indeed, maybe against stability itself, are more persuasive. The U.S. can handle electoral dynamics associated with more than two parties, and it seems that the governing body can only

However, the system is much more representative. Thus, in the British Parliament there are representatives from the Scottish parliament as well as from the Northern Ireland Assembly. Even so, the proposals for the reform of the electoral law and program have tried to ease the access of the population to the voting system, to increase the public awareness in relation to the political representation. This would determine a better

Evolution of the Two-Party System in America Most of the founding fathers of the United States were opposed to the formation of political parties considering them as "quarreling factions" that would foster corruption and hinder the public from freely judging issues on merit. Hence no provision was made in the U.S. Constitution for political parties. Yet a two-party has come to dominate the country's politics, with the Democratic and the Republican

19th century, the federalist/anti-federalist schism dominated political discourse in the United States. The so-called "first party system" became less relevant as increasing numbers of citizens became politically active, leading to a greater plurality of voices and opinions. Even then, political parties had not yet become fully formed. Most elections had candidates running independently. However, the anti-federalists had become the Democratic-Republicans and they emerged as a dominant presence in the controversial

The same thing happens when considering public officials who are Republicans and are yet more open minded than most of their colleagues. Belonging to a certain political party does not necessarily mean that one has to change his or her principles. Even with the fact that the two major parties in the U.S. have different opinions in regard to a series of matters, they seem to agree in most situations.