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drivers99 • last Wednesday at 4:07 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

> political systems with single-member districts and the plurality voting system, as in, for example, the United States, two main parties tend to emerge. In this case, votes for minor parties can potentially be regarded as splitting votes away from the most similar major party

If a third party grows it will either shrink again as voters realize they are splitting their vote against their biggest common opponent, or the third party replaces one of the two existing parties. Either way, you get two main parties.

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unethical_ban • last Wednesday at 4:50 PM

I don't normally "this" a comment, but "this"!

The most effective single thing to promote a multiparty system is to switch to ranked-choice or approval voting (if staying with single-member districts) or to switch to multi-member districts with some kind of proportional representation. That would be where, say, everyone in Texas votes for their preferred party, and the 34 seats get allocated proportionally to party results.

Honestly, implementing Ranked Choice is the best compromise.

  * Meaningfully improves the ability of minor parties to succeed
  * Removes the concept of "wasted vote" so that citizens can vote their conscience
  * Electoral results are more informative of the positions of the electorate
  * Candidates have to compete more on ideas and policies than attacking opponents
  * Conceptually easier to understand than other systems
  * Maintains single-member districts (I don't like this, but I think trying to change the House to multi-member districts is too radical for us)
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