Social Sciences and History / Unit 9 SSH 0819 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Why Plurality Rules Make Two Parties
Captions available
The idea
The two-party system had consolidated by eighteen sixty. Electoral rules, plurality or first-past-the-post voting, where the most votes win regardless of share, push the country toward two parties; minor parties mostly serve as spoilers dividing coalitions.
In practice
Proportional representation gives seats by vote share.
Where people slip
The anchor names no law; the witness credits the mechanism to Duverger.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it