Will the Two-Party System Crumble After the 2024 Election?

Summary: The two-party system is failing in America, and it will continue to fail no matter the results of the election. Countries which have a multi-party system may have their downfalls, but some believe that they are more progressive than America’s two-party system.

Americans are currently impatiently waiting for the 2024 Presidential Election to conclude and announce the next President of the United States. Either the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, will win this year’s election, or it will be the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump. The predictions have heavily favored Trump, but elections have been extremely close in the past, and we may not know for a few days after the November 5th polls are counted.

Third-party voters are crossing their fingers for their candidates to get enough votes to matter. The world watches, knowing that the United States elections affect international affairs and global conflicts.

The United States uses a two-party system that gives voters a black and white choice in elections, and many like the simplicity in that. Multi-party systems seem intimidating to some because of their paralysis with choice, and parties in a multi-party system can sometimes splinter and extremist groups can form—but that can also happen in two-party systems. American politics have leaned closer to fascism, right-wing extremism, in the last few decades. Some fear that with the 2024 election we will fall to fascism, but they fail to recognize that it has been creeping in.

The current system makes non-partisans, those who do not align with either the Republicans or Democrats, feel as though their votes or voices will never matter.

We often hear, “Third party will never win, it’s a wasted vote,” and it is true that third party candidates may never win because the system was designed to suppress them and try excluding them in the first place. However, if a third-party candidate gets between 5 and 25% of the popular vote in an election, their party will be on the ballot for the following election and will receive more funding for campaigning. And the good news is they just might succeed at getting at least 5% of the vote this election cycle.

The government system in America has remained the same for well over 200 years, which gives some voters this idea that it is stable, but it is a rarity for a country to go so long without a major change in the government system, a revolution, and/or a successful coup d’état.

In multi-party systems, voters have more representation because there are more candidates with varying ideologies who are competing for government offices. Coalitions, alliances between political parties, can form which leads to more inclusion, it can also lead to instability. In some cases, such as when communist coalitions were formed in the Eastern Bloc between World War II and the 1990s, those coalitions dominated and turned their government into a one-party system.

Instability and polarization can occur anywhere, multi-party systems are not above that. But, their system of checks and balances maintains a healthier dynamic with multiple parties because there is not the same concentration of power.

Trump and Netanyahu, US Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

Cons of the Two-Party System

1: No Representation

This system does not give constituents real representation in the political sphere. Many Americans do not really like either party because neither truly represents their values or beliefs. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly 35% of Americans registered as Independent, Green Party, or another non-partisan political party. Even people who are politically aligned with Republicans or Democrats do not always feel that their party represents their beliefs because American politics has had a major shift to the right in recent years.

2: No Diversity

When only two parties control the government there is little room for other parties or candidates to have their voices heard. Their voices can be silenced and pushed out and politicians who do not fall in line with the two major parties face barriers that keep them out of politics.

3: Polarization

The “it’s us against them” mindset has divided Americans for far too long. We should not be looking at each other as enemies, but instead try collaborating and compromising. It seems like every political ad is at least half slander on the opposing party or candidate. Politicians often run on a platform of “vote for me because you hate the other guy more.”

4: Gridlock

This happens when one political party controls the legislative branch and the other controls the executive branch. They will butt heads and refuse to compromise, and policies will come to a halt when they reach Congress. The gridlock prevents real change from happening.

Some people fear that the United States political system may collapse before it changes, but change is on the horizon.