Dems, GOP shuffle into irrelevance

[Sikboy]

We can't get more than two major parties until we change our Election laws:

Duverger's Law:[/i]
Duverger's Law is a principle which asserts that a first-past-the-post election system naturally leads to a two-party system.
This was originally asserted by Maurice Duverger, a French sociologist who observed this effect in several papers published in the 1950s and 1960s. It eventually became referred to as a "law" in works by other political scientists, who applied further research to the proposition, and devised alternative voting systems which do not appear to be subject to the same characteristics as first-past-the-post.

A frequent consequence of Duverger's law is the spoiler effect, where a third-party candidate takes votes away from one of the two leading candiates.

The skinny on "First Past the Post" systems can be found here:
http://www.fact-index.com/f/fi/first_past_the_post_electoral_system.html

I'll leave it up to Levi to come in and explain why coalition governments lead to sub-optimal outcomes. He's pretty good with that crap.

-Sik

[Westy]

Interesting info Sikboy, thanks!

"We can't get more than two major parties until ..."

 They'll never "voluntarily" change the  election system now. Neither party would IMO. Too much power and too many "careers" at stake.

[Sikboy]

I just noticed that the definition I posted from the fact-index gives the "what" but not the "how" on Durverge's law. Here's the basics on how it works.

Lets say that today, we start a brand new government on the Bigweek Board. We're going to elect a board of governerns who will dictate what threads can be started, and who can post blah blah blah. During this first election cycle, people with like minds will begin to get together. The "Cut-N-Paste" party will attract the Conservatives, with the "Death to Amerrikkka" party gaining strenght with our Overseas friends. There's a "Strong Military, low tax" party and the "Smoke Pot and Collect Welfare" will have a few members, while the "Air America" party will keep the Liberals happy.

In the first election, it's a close contest, but the Cut-N-Paste party wins. So, the next time we hold elections the following conversation occurs:
Air America leader: You should join us, we're way better than the cut-n-paste lunatics!
Death To Amerrikkka leader: **** that, you suck... death to amerikkka! Oh wait... you're right, I can't deal with another 4 years of Ripsnort in charge. Ok fine, we'll join you.

In the 2nd election, The "Air Amerrikkka" ticket beats the incumbant Cut-N-Paste administration. Which, leads to the following conversation:

C-N-P leader: We need to join together if we are to stand a chance against the Air Amerrikka ticket!
Strong and Low: No ****, I can feel my taxes getting higher, and the military getting weaker, this is ****ed up.

So, as the elections go by, the parties join one another until you end up with approx 1/2 of the population on one left sided party, and 1/2 on a right sided party. Then most of the time, each party fights it out over the moderates who could go either way.

-Sik