A system where only two political parties dominate the politics within the government is known as a two-party system. One of the parties typically holds the majority in the legislature and thus becomes the majority party while the other becomes the minority party. This kind of a system exists in the U.S. and has greatly affected the political interests of its citizens.

The status quo of asking any U.S. citizen which party they belong to has led to a lot of discontent. The U.S. citizens’ claim that their political preferences are not white or black but the voting patterns shows otherwise. The average American citizens’ vote for the individual candidate and not the political party (Hsieh, 2014).

The campaigning and elections systems remain the same though there is an upcoming change in the way, the U.S. citizens’ view politics. Any candidate willing to vie for office has to ally oneself with any of both parties. Within the party, there are politicians self-identifying themselves as moderates and others as liberators. When the two groups hold the same brand, a rift inside a political party is bound to occur (Hsieh, 2014). This rift prevents the political party from functioning properly as well as the entire government.

The major reason why the two party systems has regulated the emergence and successful contention of a major third party in presidential elections is because, two major factions came up in the early years and the need to dominate each other makes it hard for a third faction to develop and  survive (Abramson, Aldrich, Paolino & Rohde, 2000). The two-party system was based both factions trying to dominate each other. A third faction will take away votes from one of the existing parties thus destroying both of them. To avoid this, any emerging faction usually merge with any of the two existing factions.

References

Abramson, P. R., Aldrich, J. H., Paolino, P., & Rohde, D. W. (2000). Challenges to the American two-party system: Evidence from the 1968, 1980, 1992, and 1996 presidential elections. Political Research Quarterly, 53(3), 495-522.

Hsieh, C. (2014, April 3). The Impact of a Two Party System on American Politics. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://californiareview.net/2014/04/03/the-impact-of-a-two-party-system-on-american-politics/

 
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