Description
Virtually all academic books on American third parties in the last half-century assume that they have largely disappeared. This book challenges that orthodoxy by explaining the (temporary) decline of third parties, demonstrating through the latest evidence that they are enjoying a resurgence, and arguing that they are likely to once again play a significant role in American politics. The book is based on a wealth of data, including district-level results from US House of Representatives elections, state-level election laws after the Civil War, and recent district-level election results from Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Third-Party Revival?
Chapter 1 Unraveling the Conundrum of Third-Party Decline
Chapter 2 Duverger’s Law and the American Electoral System
Chapter 3 The Impact of Ballot Access Laws
Chapter 4 The Prohibition of Fusion
Chapter 5 Do Primaries Undermine Third Parties?
Chapter 6 Co-optation and Third-Party Waves
Chapter 7 The Decline and Rise of Political Polarization
Chapter 8 The Evolution of Party Resources
Conclusion: A Reemergence of Third Parties?
Bibliography