With a 3rd party, cooperation becomes just as important (if not more so) than conflict.
The # of viable parties is a symptom of features of the electoral system that also have effects like that, not the cause.
And electoral systems that support multiple viable parties don't so much force cooperation in most cases (though they may make the need for multiparty coalitions) as promote positive competition (based on advocating policy ideas) over negative competition (based on tearing down the main opponent) because elections aren't zero sum and tearing down your main opponent can instead serve another opponent rather than yourself.
Right, the State laws have different rules for major/minor party, and laws are often (depends on State) designed so mathematically unlikely to be more then three major parties. And if there are three it typically drops back to two in a few years. 'Minor' parties have issues such as reduced donation limits in the law.
Local offices like a city council are often not done by party affiliation. Local voting can have some influence.
NZ switched from FPP to MMP for partially this reason. It also neutered the outsized voting power of marginal electorates - entire elections were decided at times by the votes of 5K - 10K people.
I guess our marginal seats were the equivalent of US "swing states"?
Comments
The country needs a viable 3rd party.
With a 3rd party, cooperation becomes just as important (if not more so) than conflict.
The # of viable parties is a symptom of features of the electoral system that also have effects like that, not the cause.
And electoral systems that support multiple viable parties don't so much force cooperation in most cases (though they may make the need for multiparty coalitions) as promote positive competition (based on advocating policy ideas) over negative competition (based on tearing down the main opponent) because elections aren't zero sum and tearing down your main opponent can instead serve another opponent rather than yourself.
Right, the State laws have different rules for major/minor party, and laws are often (depends on State) designed so mathematically unlikely to be more then three major parties. And if there are three it typically drops back to two in a few years. 'Minor' parties have issues such as reduced donation limits in the law.
Local offices like a city council are often not done by party affiliation. Local voting can have some influence.
NZ switched from FPP to MMP for partially this reason. It also neutered the outsized voting power of marginal electorates - entire elections were decided at times by the votes of 5K - 10K people.
I guess our marginal seats were the equivalent of US "swing states"?
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00P...
Except for Epsom, Tauranga, and Coromandel which have continued their outsized influence most elections since.