Third Parties
The founding fathers of the United States were initially opposed to the formation of political parties considering them as "quarreling factions" that would hinder the public from freely judging issues on merit. The complex structure of the U.S. government with its elaborate system of checks and balances and division of power among the state and federal governments, however, makes the formation of permanent political organizations necessary for effective functioning of the system. Over the years, a two-party system has evolved with two major political parties fielding their respective candidates in most state and federal elections. Third parties take part in the elections occasionally albeit with limited impact. It is a common observation that third parties in the U.S. go only as far as their candidate; if a candidate fades out of the spotlight so does the party. In this paper, we will discuss why third parties have traditionally been unsuccesful in the U.S. political system, look at some examples of third party participation in U.S. presidential elections and discuss why the third parties tend to fade away after the elections.
Why Third Parties Have Been Unsuccesful in the U.S. Elections?
The way elections are structured in the United States works against the success of third parties. It is also the major reason behind the evolution of a two-party rather than a multi-party political system. For example, representatives in the U.S. Congress and in state legislatures are elected in single-member districts where only one party's candidate with the most votes can win in each district. Hence there is a strong incentive for political competitors to organize themselves into two competing parties in order to maximize their chances of winning elections. Third parties usually thrive in a proportional representation electoral system or in countries having multi-member districts, where parties that win much smaller percentages of the vote can be elected. In a "winner takes all" system adopted in the U.S. where a vote for a third party is invariably a "lost vote," third parties can, at best, perform the role of a "spoiler." Other features of the American system of elections, such as campaign finance rules and the Electoral College further discourage the emergence of third parties. ("What is the History.." Paras 2 and 3; Greiner: 23)
Short-lived Popularity
Another feature of the American third parties is their lack of longevity. Third parties traditionally emerge with limited agendas and highlight specific issue(s) that they feel strongly about, e.g., the issue of "budget deficits" taken up by Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential election. More often than not, the issue or idea championed by third parties gets "high-jacked" by one of the major parties who incorporate it in their election platform with the result that support for the third party fades away. For example, President Clinton adopted up the issue of a balanced budget as one of his priorities and implemented the policy during his presidential term. As a result, support for Ross Perot declined sharply in the subsequent 1996 Presidential elections.
Examples of Third Party Challenges in U.S. Presidential Elections
Let us now look at the performance of some of the third parties and their candidates that took part in some of the Presidential elections in the U.S. history:
Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party
Three distinct "Progressive Parties" have been formed in the U.S. political history. The first of these, also known as the "Bull Moose Party," was founded after a bitter fight for the Republican nomination in the 1912 Presidential elections among the incumbent president William H. Taft, Robert M. La Follette and the former president Theodore Roosevelt. Although most La Follette supporters switched to Roosevelt in the Republican convention in June 1912, the nomination was won by Taft. An embittered Roosevelt left the Republican Party to form the "Progressive Party," whose main agenda was opposition to President Taft's conservative and overly pro-big business policies. The party also advocated prohibition of child labor, suffrage for women, and national social insurance. A number of liberal Republicans who did not see eye-to-eye with Tuft's policies broke ranks with the official Republican Party and joined the Progressive Party. Roosevelt then ran in the 1912 presidential race as a candidate of the new party promising to increase federal regulation and protect the welfare of ordinary people. ("Progressive Party (United States)"-Encarta)
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